Fratelli

Every time I watch Wales at home i edge a bit closer towards the view of flattening Hampden. Pure flat pack ground but It’s night and day in terms of atmosphere.

I was on cloud nine (and pished) after that game so probably joined in with the hysteria and likely said we were going to win the World Cup, Euros and Wimbledon, but aye - i've found some of the hubris a bit weird at times. I don't mean the obviously tongue in cheek stuff, more the amount of folk dismissing Wales as if we'd obviously be too good for them and forgetting the fact that we were left on our arses at the Euros less than a year ago when we came up against decent sides.

Gordon’s decision making in terms of when/when not to charge out has always been a weird point to his game. Was a massive issue in Europe when he played for Celtic - where half decent strikers would just leave him in no man’s land.

Throughout most of my time as a Scotland fan i've routinely watched us play against other countries and wondered why they were just on a different level technically to us, why we just didn't have players who could control and pass a ball the way they could. Recently that's faded away, with us having players like Gilmour, Tierney, McGregor, McTominay etc who looked technically good and comfortable on the ball - we've played some decent stuff recently, we played Denmark off the park at times and knocked it about against a team that went on to reach the final of the Euros. Tonight felt like a throwback to the times where we just looked miles off the level, where we were back wondering why other countries can just produce better technical players than us, and are just seemingly on a different level to us. I know that we still have the players, but tonight was a right boot in the baws. Naively thought this Scotland squad had broken the shackles a bit and we'd moved beyond *that* type of performance. Although, as scunnered as i am - we were beaten by a team who were quite clearly better than us, who we just didn't deserve to beat.

Bale vs that keeper will be some laugh. Will be unbearable watching Wales qualify.

Watched McGinn's chance again. Absolutely terrible. Much like the Euros, you quite simply won't get anywhere against half decent sides when you miss fucking stupid sitters like that.

Rightly or wrongly Robertson's #bevvygate will stick for a while now. He's always had criticism from an element of our support for seemingly dropping his levels when he plays for Scotland, and this won't help at all. I actually recall him being consistently brilliant for us when he was at Hull. Probably a combination of him trying too hard to be a talisman and him facing more scrutiny has led to him being seen differently now. Some bafflingly poor bits of play from him in the second half.

As i said earlier - folk who have actually watched Hickey at RB have all been fairly consistent in saying he isn't that great there. The only folk saying otherwise were essentially fanboys who just didn't want that to be true.

I've been his biggest fan, but some genuinely fucking abysmal play from Robertson in that second half. A player who is incredibly effective in Liverpool's system, but watching some of these Ukraine players you realise we're still miles off it technically. Absolutely schooled.

Zinchenko is miles better than anyone we have technically.

Ach i don't think this is happening.

That was the moment. We missed a fucking stupid amount of chances at the Euros and were punished. You just can't miss those.

How in the name of f**k has me missed that.

I mean, their best players have been playing as much football as ours.

We're absolutely miles off it here. For all the hubris re: Wales, Bale would absolutely shag this defence to bits, even on one leg.

Folk who have actually watched Hickey at RB have been fairly consistent in the fact that he's really not great there. The only folk saying otherwise are folk who have decided they like him just didn't want that to be true.

Abysmal defending. Fucking terrible.

Dykes hooked

Have been a few occasions where we've had the chance to play and then just passed it back for it to be launched, so our lack of football almost seems intentional. Midfield is our strongest position, so bypassing it doesn't do us many favours.

Dykes has been effective, but you're never that confident of his general control when it's played to his feet. I wouldn't have him hooked, but as in pretty much every one of his performances - he does something daft and is now another one of those from getting himself sent off. Asking him to stop chucking himself about nullifies half of his game too so it's a tricky one.

Also Hickey is visibly uncomfortable on that side (which isn’t his fault) and no Twitter fanboy will tell me otherwise.

We’re lumping it far too much. Our best performances have been with Gilmour and McGregor dictating play. Marked tightly mind.

Deserved, we’ve been utter shite and don’t look like we’re even playing the same sport as the Ukrainians.

We haven’t turned up here

Was wondering what the lull in atmosphere was about.