If you register for free, you will be able to post threads, vote on polls and lots more. If you have problems with the registration or logging in, please contact the administrator.
It’s easy to make a story out of failure, there was obvious conflict in England’s dismal failure to qualify for Euro 2008. But Scotland, well everyone was pretty damned happy with how they got on. Beating France twice, beating the Ukraine, playing Italy off the park in the second half at Hampden and only being denied a draw by a dirty, cheating Spanish ref. Considering where we’ve come from after the dark days of Berti Vogts, that’s success in pretty much everyone’s eyes.
But bøllocks to convention, PM7’s already doing the England story, so I thought I’d give it a go with Scotland. Show the traitorous old man how it should be done. Trouble is, I’m just setting myself up for failure (not that I’m not used to that). Let’s face it, if I beat France, I’ll think the game’s pretty unrealistic. But we’ll worry about that when the time comes. Let’s see if it could have gone any better for Scotland, could I do as well as Walter Smith and Alex McLeish?
Goalkeepers: Craig Gordon (Sunderland, 23 yrs); David Marshall (Norwich, 21 yrs); Allan McGregor (Rangers, 24 yrs)
Defenders: Mark Wilson (Celtic, 22 yrs); Christian Dailly (West Ham, 32 yrs); Stephen McManus (Celtic, 23 yrs, vice captain); Russell Anderson (Sunderland, 27 yrs); Andy Webster (Rangers, 24 yrs); Alan Hutton (Rangers, 21 yrs); Gary Naysmith (Sheffield United, 27 yrs)
Midfielders: Ross Wallace (Sunderland, 21 yrs); Darren Fletcher (Manchester United, 22 yrs); Barry Ferguson (Rangers, 28 yrs, captain); Nigel Quashie (West Ham, 28 yrs); Scott Severin (Aberdeen, 27 yrs); Chris Burke (Rangers, 22 yrs); Gary Teale (Derby, 28 yrs); Shaun Maloney (Aston Villa, 23 yrs)
Strikers: Steven Naismith (Rangers, 19 yrs); James McFadden (Everton, 23 yrs); Alan Gow (Rangers, 23 yrs); Kris Boyd (Rangers, 23 yrs); Steven Fletcher (Hibernian, 19 yrs); Kenny Miller (Derby, 26 yrs); Garry O’Connor (Birmingham, 23 yrs)
Unavailable: Scott Brown (Celtic)
---
We had been set a high standard to match first off with Walter Smith’s six goal thumping of the Faroe Islands at Celtic Park. I decided on a 4-4-2 for my first game in charge, and the team that took to the field for kick-off was: Gordon; Hutton, Anderson, McManus, Wilson; Teale, Fletcher, Ferguson, Wallace; Boyd, McFadden. Darren Fletcher had come into the squad with a bruised thigh, but my desperation not to play Nigel Squashie was greater than any concerns about Darren’s fitness, and so the Man Utd player made the team.
Barely anything happened in the first ten minutes, Ferguson shooting well over from distance the only moment of note. I was beginning to get a little concerned about our apparent inability to break down one of the worst sides in Europe when Kris Boyd was hit on the head by Ross Wallace’s cross and Janus Mortensen could do nothing to keep it out. I would have liked to think Boyd made a wonderful effort to get on the end of the cross, leaving his marker for dead and rising majestically to head home, but we all know he moves less than a snail would during the course of ninety minutes.
To say I was mildly concerned come half time that Boyd’s goal was the only one we had managed would be quite an understatement, and the players got the full force of my mild-mannered wrath during the interval. It seemed to have little effect on them as the second half played out exactly as the first, though with Wallace grabbing the goal when he dribbled past two Faroese defenders and shot home off the inside of the post from ten yards.
A less than convincing start then, and already four goals down on the target set. I knew this was a bad idea.
Four days later we arrived in Vilnius to play Hearts (sorry, Lithuania), who had been beated 7-0 in Italy on Matchday 1 of Group B. In the reality we all know about, Scotland had triumphed 2-1 in the corresponding fixture, the goals coming from Christian Dailly and Kenny Miller to keep up the 100% start to the group.
There was just one change from the team that had struggled past the Faroes, with Darren Fletcher unable to suffer through two games in four days my hand was forced to play Squashie as it’ll be a cold day in Hell before I actually stick Severin in a starting line-up.
Ross Wallace had been the one player to come out of the Faroes game with his reputation enhanced, and the Sunderland winger was determined to start in Vilnius where he left off in Glasgow, this time his goal coming from a back-post header after Teale had made a good run and cross down the right flank. Four minutes later and things were looking mighty good, Kris Boyd again scoring with the minimum of effort, tapping in from four yards after McFadden’s shot was saved.
Boyd had obviously been ingesting some form of illegal substance, as the two goals that saw him to a first half hat-trick not only saw him outside the penalty area for the first time in his professional career, but he dribbled with the ball and beat defenders too. It was a tactic that stunned Lithuania into submission, and goals from McFadden and Teale after the break sealed an impressive romp. Unfortunately there was one blemish, an eighty-ninth minute header from Tynecastle reject Edgaras Jankauskas which Gordon was unable to keep out.
With Italy winning in France and the Ukraine gunning down Georgia, we sat second in the group and had moved up four places in the world rankings to the heady heights of 36th. So far it was all seeming a little too similar.
Bøllocks to Big Eck 
Linear Mode
