At last. Quality into the box reaps its rewards. Players on the bench - Maloney Hartley O'Connor Naismith Alexander isn't offering a lot of defensive cover for the back four and his passing is horrendous at times. Hartley or Maloney would be a damn sight better.
I'd punt Alexander and call-up James McArthur, Lee Wallace and Scott Arfield. Fletcher is only called-up because of the club he plays for. Ross Wallace from PNE wouldn't be a bad shout for left-midfield either.
Hutton loses the ball and Macedonia break. One of the CB's has to go wide to cover for Hutton which leaves us short in the middle. And as the Macedonia player blooters it sky high when he should have tucked it into the corner where is our defensive shield from midfield...? About 10yds behind him.
Not perfect, not even great but we won the game and that's all that really matters right now. Positives to take... - Craig Gordon is worth his weight in gold to us. To have him in goals over the course of a campaign must be worth so many points to us. I feel much easier when he's playing. - For once we were the team who punish another side with clinical finishing or superior technique. Both gols were lovely. It's just a petty McFadden will miss the Holland game.
^I think it was time wasting?? I don't know. I'm American and I haven't followed Scotland until this game, one question - will Holland play their A game or just field reserves on the Wednesday game? That was a great save by your keeper by the way when Macedonia had two approaching goal and he just stuffed the selfish shot.
I'd imagine Holland will play some players on the edge of the first team that are fighting for starting places. It'll need an almighty effort by us and a bit of luck to win the game.
I'd imagine a few fringe players will get a run out but I've no doubt they'll come to win the game and preserve their 100% record in the group. Even if it is a weakened team, we'll still be facing one of the best teams in Europe and we'll have to be at the top of our game to win. Pandev should have just cooly rounded the keeper, leaving him on his arse, and slotted the ball calmly into the empty net. It's what a player of superior technical ability would have done.
Peat apologies over Iwelumo jibe How many times is this buffoon going to make a tit of himself and this country before he gets binned...? (I'm talking about Peat...)
He could have squared it to the man free to his right for a certain goal. It was a good result for you today, but even a reserve Dutch first eleven will be a stronger proposition than Macedonia. I hope you can do it, but it will take your best performance for some time and a bit of luck to boot. I thought Hutton's distribution today was awful although his forward runs were well timed, but Whittaker impressed in the second half despite playing out of position.
YUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!! doesnt tonight just prove we are going to win the world cup! roll on july 11th final!
Aye, I know. I'm, just trying to make a point about our commentators continual quest to claim every nation on Earth is technically better than us. Absolutely.
Would love to see the cloggies rest Van Persie, Huntelaar etc and go with their second squad. If they play Loovens we'll win comfortably
Me too but I think it will be a mixture of established players and fringe players. I hope Glenn plays and wins his second full cap and I also hope he has a nightmare along with the rest of the Dutch team.
I don't think it's that big a long shot for us to win on wednesday. The Netherlands already having qualified is most certainly a factor - in the Euro 2008 qualifying they played their final game against Belarus and lost when they had already qualified and you quite often see results like this happen when bigger teams are playing a game that has no meaning for them.
according to wikipedia 3 things need to happen for scotland to make the playoffs: 1. scotland has to beat holland AND 2. Slovakia has to not lose to Northern Ireland AND 3. slovenia vs poland has to end in a draw so scotland fans will also be slovakia fans on wednesday along with hoping for a draw in the poland slovenia game LETS DO THIS!!
Isn't that just focusing on one group though? I think other groups could, depending on results, come into play. For instance, Group 5 is still interesting. Bosnia have still to play both Turkey and Spain. Two games they could lose. If that were to happen they couldn't finish with 13pts, after we take out their matches against the last place team in the group. And if Turkey beat Bosnia but fail to win away in Belgium, again, possible. Then they wouldn't reach the 13pt target either. With that scenario both of those teams would finish with 12pts, after we remove the points from beating the last place team in the group, which is likely to be Armenia. A lot still to be digested, but it's all for nowt if we don't pick up three points against the Dutch.
Congrats on the vital win over Macedonia and good luck for another vital home match against the qualified Dutch (another 3 points needed here).
So now the Macedonian's, of all people, are whinging on about fair play and using Eduardo-gate as an example. All this from the fact that Skoosh didn't play the ball back to them. And he was quite right not to. Fair play has to start from the first incident and a guy rolling around on the deck because a ball hit him in the face is an utter joke. But I wish that eedjit Smith hadn't rumbled on about Eduardo in the first place. It was always going to come back to bite us on the arse one way or another. On a seperate note, Graham Dorrans and Gavin Rae have been called up to the squad for the Holland game in place of the suspended McFadden and the injured Davidson. Gary Caldwell is also available for this game.
The McFadden item isn't as complicated as is being made out. Plug in Maloney and move on. Given the "indifferent" performance from Fletcher on Saturday this would be my squad for Wednesday: ----------------O'Connor------------- --Maloney------Brown-------Naismith-- ---------Fletcher------Hartley-------- --Whittaker--Weir--Caldwell--Hutton-- ---------------Gordon---------------- There are a number of "brave" decisions there that absolutley need to be made: 1) A 4-5-1 simply must be employed to clog the midfield. Even with a "B" squad, the Dutch will likely have players more valuable then the entire Scottish XI on the pitch. The gulf in class will close, but not disappear. 2) If a 4-5-1 is utilized, O'Connor is the better pick then Miller. He's been regularly featuring in this formation for Birmingham this season and understands the workrate necessary and has the ability to hold up the ball. Bring Miller in for him around the 70th minute to stretch the defense with speed once O'Connor has bruised them. If Miller must feature from the start, put him at Naismith's position. 3) There is absolutley NO rationale why a 37 year old Alexander would be trotted against the Dutch midfield. Plug Hartley into the position. 4) McManus can't be trusted in a game of this importence given his lack of match practice these days. It's actually probably a curse rather then a benefit that the Dutch will be throwing their second string team out. That squad is INCREDIBLY competitive and there will be no shortage of players looking to prove themselves.
We won't be putting a second string team out as our manager (unfortunately) doesn't believe in doing that, not even in a friendly against the Elephant & Castle pub team. I know I shouldn't say this but I hope you win!
I see there's a possibility that Daniel Fox might be joining the Scotland squad shortly, not bad after only few games at Celtic. Here's hoping Lee Wallace follows suit.