craigkillie

I don't think that's exclusive to Scotland though, it still applies in England, Spain (as we very obviously saw recently), Ireland etc, but they have seen clearer evidence of growth than we have.

There has clearly been a growth in interest and in attendances at Scotland matches over the last few years, but it is a lot slower in comparison to several other countries - for example had 35,000 at their game against Northern Ireland at the weekend. That's obviously a big ticket fixture for them, but I'd be surprised if we got close to that for the England game. I'd say there are a number of factors for that. Number one, in my opinion, is that the team have absolutely blown three massive chances to grow their interest. There was a huge buzz heading in to the World Cup in 2019, but then they completely fucked it against Argentina. That was then followed up by a miserable capitulation in the Euros qualifying, when getting to a tournament being held in England would clearly have attracted massive interest, and indeed a lot of supporters heading to games, even more than the decent number who were in France. That was all rounded off by the Ireland debacle last year, which was an utterly insipid performance against a side clearly miles worse than us. In amongst that there have been some utterly embarrassing results like taking an 8-0 hounding from Spain. The timing of the games doesn't help either. I have been keen to take my daughter along, but every single match is on a weekday evening, I don't think we have played a game on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon in years. Obviously that is partly down to scheduling, and it does also tend to avoid clashes with the men's domestic fixtures, but it means that you are losing an opportunity to attract people in.

The luck of the draw is going to be incredibly important here, because there is the definite possibility of winnable groups (eg Croatia, Hungary, Poland) but also groups where we'd be heavy favourites to finish bottom (eg Spain, Portugal, France).

I'm not saying the decision to play the game is wrong, but it's not some situation entirely outside of the SFA's control, the way it would be if it was a qualifier and there was some issue with the tickets (for example like what could have happened in Cyprus with the change of ground, had they not negotiated a bigger allocation).

They arranged the friendly, it could have been part of their negotiations.

They still aren't supposed to be the mouthpiece for the government or the police. Any presenter on there should be able to express their views on any subject freely, including stuff like pyro at football.

The media don't exist to do what clubs want or tell them to.

Mind the meltdown when he was dropped by a youth coach in favour of a current Premier League striker?

This is hardly the first or only time that pyro has been used in a ground in Scotland. If it's a criminal offence, then let the police deal with it, rather than bringing in third party cowboys who harass and intimidate ordinary fans. On top of that, at least one of these images is from the Scottish Cup, as clearly shown by the advertising hoarding, which means it; a) wasn't a cup final and b) was nothing to do with the SPFL or Neil Doncaster.

Even pre-VAR you'd occasionally get a decision where the assistant put his flag up and the referee waved him to put it down - usually when the defender had actually got the final touch. There have been goals scored in that situation before, including this one at the World Cup. The referee who gave the decision was praised for it and ultimately ended up refereeing the final. I had sympathy for the assistant on Saturday, because on first viewing I thought he was absolutely miles offside, but it turned out to be much, much closer than I could have imagined. Ultimately, this is why, despite fans getting frustrated at them not stopping it for supposedly obvious decisions, the current situation with not flagging for offside has to be the way it goes if we insist on continuing with VAR.

I think this is a perfect summation of him. I heard him interviewed by Colin Murray a wee while back and he was asked about the time at Chelsea where he stood up for his teammate who was being racially abused by his own fans, and Murray pointed out that there were all of these big characters and so-called hardmen in the squad who were too afraid to confront them, and it was instead left to the quiet guy to do it. Nevin basically said he'd have packed in football if he'd had any repercussions for doing it too.

This is surely a wee Easter egg rather than a gotcha.

Your post was about how we saw on Tuesday that this approach isn't effective. I don't know how that can possibly be gleaned from a single kick-off in a single game.

I don't think the reason we lost on Tuesday was because of how we took the kick-off, so I don't know how you can claim anything about the effectiveness of it from that single data point.

We played a back four in the final three Nations League games. It would surely be a bit weird if Norway and Georgia, our two biggest rivals for qualifying, didn't bother trying to study us tactically or set up for us, and yet we beat them both.

But they wouldn't get a penalty?

McKenna will definitely be in if he's fit, Gordon likewise if he's playing regularly enough and to a decent standard. I'd put Armstrong in the same group as Cooper and McLean these days, I think all of them are reaching the end of the line for us but are still important to the squad . I wouldn't be surprised if Tuesday night was a wee farewell appearance for Jack, especially if he continues to be in and out of the team at Rangers.

In that circumstance they're likely to have a substantially better goal difference than us anyway, they have scudded everyone else in the group and have a game in hand to make up more. Even if we'd beaten Cyprus 6-0 I doubt it would have mattered.

Even good teams do this a lot though, you're basically trying to get them into their own half and then press them hard. That seems like a better way to create an early chance rather than trying to pass it through 10 outfield players.

Worth noting that our goal difference is currently miles better than Norway's too - we're +11 and they're -1. That means there's also the possibility that if we lose in Spain, and draw in Georgia, then even a one-goal defeat at home to Norway could be enough for us to squeeze through. That would rely on the combined winning margins of Spain v us, Norway v Spain and Norway v Cyprus being 9 goals or fewer, which seems more likely than not - though not guaranteed.

You were posting about it "looking in", and I can understand why you'd think that from what has been said, so I was just giving my perspective as someone who was at the game. It wasn't intended to say you were wrong, just to add more information.

The atmosphere wasn't poisonous at all, it was standard football pantomime stuff aside from the aforementioned Kane songs from a small number, and an even smaller number of England fans shouting down the minute's silence for Craig Brown. There was nothing violent in the air, and fans were walking to and from the stadium together and so on.

There have been plenty of big games at Hampden where we haven't "shat the bed" in the same period. Sometimes teams lose football matches, it doesn't make them shite or bottlers unless they do it all the time.

Paatelainen also managed Killie and Dundee United.

Those results would also leave Spain on a maximum of 16, and we'd win the group on the head-to-head.