🦄 Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 v 🇬🇪 Georgia 🐺

[Self-raising Lazarus]

1 hour ago, forameus said:

Looking back at the game away from lol Georgia stuff (but aye, fucking lol Georgia) it's hard to think of a more dominant performance in one of our traditional "tricky" games.  That opening goal ended up being so important, as I think at 0-0 all the shenanigans around the rain and Georgia not wanting to play don't play out the same.  When they did eventually come out, it was clear they just weren't at it, and we just flew back at them.  However, that does bring me to one very slight negative - and probably the only one - in that we had pretty much all of the play, got into a lot of good positions, but didn't always translate that into good chances.  Definitely had some, but there were a lot of good crosses that no-one ended up getting near.  All fine in a game like last night when Georgia's only plan seemed to be "give it to the wee hairy guy that's quite good" but if we get into good positions against the likes of Spain, or we're up against it in Cyprus, we maybe need to get a bit more clinical.  But end of the day, if we go to Cyprus and have 400 chances and win 1-0, I couldn't give a shit.

I felt shankland or Nisbet might have been of use up top, if we want to finish 1st we need to be taking 5 or 6 off these diddies

[Jacksgranda]

11 hours ago, Monkey Tennis said:

That was a really solid performance.  

It should be pretty difficult to not qualify from here.

You should really be a Dons fan...

[PSJ.84]

35 minutes ago, TheScarf said:

Just got a text off my mate.  He got home to his house in Inverness at 4.23.  Didn't get out of Glasgow until 00.45 and had a 20 minute stop in Perth.  Fucking brutal.

Fair fucking fucks. 

[Frankie S]

Still drying out after last night’s deluge, but it’s a great to be a Scotland fan these days.

I know there have been false dawns and glimmers of hope in the past, but this emerging Scotland team really are different. Robertson, Hickey, Tierney, McGregor, Gilmour, McTominay and McGinn et al are just so technically accomplished, and are now playing with a swagger and confidence I’ve not seen from a Scotland team since the 1970s.

That midfield quartet of McGregor, Gilmour, McGinn and McTominay really clicked last night, and utterly dominated a decent (and clearly rattled) Georgian side, playing great football despite the adverse conditions. Georgia have caused us problems in the past, but this Scotland team disposed of them as if they were makeweights - that was 2-0 going on five or six last night, albeit the tempo dropped after a flurry of late substitutions.

The common denominator after recent games is just how unceremoniously rattled the opposition have been by Scotland (Rodri after the Spain game, Ødegaard after the Norway match, the entire Georgian team last night). Fair to say, it’s taking the rest of the world some time to catch up with how good this Scotland team now are.

That’s 10 straight victories for Scotland in qualifiers now (excluding play offs), including great wins against Denmark, Spain and away in Norway, an almost unimaginable state of affairs, and a real testament to Steve Clarke (who, thankfully, has now realised that McTominay is an exceptional box to box midfielder rather than a defender) and the squad.

Qualification for Germany 2024 seems inevitable now, but there’s no reason why we can’t win the group and secure a good seeding for the finals. This group of players are all at a good age, and are only going to get better.

We screwed up our last appearance at a major finals (and many before that tbh), but we were a work in progress then, often setting up (and playing) over cautiously, showing the opposition far too much respect. I hesitate to say it, but this Scotland team can compete at the top level for years to come. Watching Scotland play football these days is an absolute pleasure.

 

Edited June 21, 2023 by Frankie S

[Elgin Macca]

soaked to the bone walking to Hampden/remained soaked and freezing the whole night/ 4 hour bus journey/2 hours sleep before work...

 

Was it worth it seeing this squad of absolute shaggers take us a step closer.. ABSOLUTELY!

[19QOS19]

38 minutes ago, Self-raising Lazarus said:

I felt shankland or Nisbet might have been of use up top, if we want to finish 1st we need to be taking 5 or 6 off these diddies

Or we could just win the rest of our games 1-0...

[thistledo]

Walking up to the ground last night in the warm air, but pissing down rain was quite unusual, no where near as unusual as that match. I don't think I've ever experienced anything like it or will again. Absolutely solid performance from the the ground staff, the players and SSC, couldn't fault any one of them. 

Kind of almost can't believe it, don't know what to say about the position we're in, it's completely uncharted territory for a fan of my age and probably even older generations. Not even cancelled trains, running / walking half way home in the pissing rain (no way I was leaving early) trying to get another train could dampen the mood. Just sheer joy, happiness, relief, pride all mixed together at how well we're doing right now

Time to start planning Germany surely. 

[Central Belt Caley]

What’s pleasing for me is we have a group of really good players and not just one or two superstars (i.e Wales with Bale and Ramsey to a lesser extent). Good young players coming through too in Hickey, Gilmour, Patterson etc. 

I’ve said it before but what a turnaround from Porteous, always felt he was a bit of a thug with some of the challenges he used to fly into but he’s proven me wrong big time and that RCB spot is his to lose now. 

[Gus2]

4 minutes ago, 19QOS19 said:

Or we could just win the rest of our games 1-0...

Fine by me .We only need 4 points to guarantee qualification so win against Cyprus and draw in any other game should do it

[Scary Bear]

That rain last night was mental. There’s my view of the first goal standing outside waiting on people whose paper ticket QR codes had turned to mush. I did get a good view of the second goal and most importantly we got the win. 

Germany looks not only possible but probable.

[Aufc]

I’m going to sound like an old b*****d but I’m not that old. The younger scotland fans won’t appreciate how lucky they are seeing this team and their winning streak. From the age of 16 until about 27, I went to almost every home and away game. Genuinely think I saw Scotland win away about 3 times. Home was slightly better but not much. 
 

Part of me wishes I had stuck with it but had kids and moved up north so wasn’t as easy to get to games. Plus kinda got fed up spending a fortune to see us getting pumped. Also felt there were more arseholes beginning to follow the team away.

It’s a great feeling being able to watch Scotland look so comfortable on the ball and actually play decent football (alongside actually winning). 

[lau03143]

It's amazing turning up now to the games with the positivity and more than hope that we're a decent team. 

[Skyline Drifter]

3 hours ago, Central Belt Caley said:

Shout out to all the groundstaff who got the game back on, I fully expected the game to be abandoned.

To be clear, I don't want to in any way be critical of the guys who put in the efforts to get the pitch playable, both professional groundsmen and willing volunteers. Thank you all for everything you did.

But........... I have to say I thought the clearing of the pitch was an absolute disorganised shambles. Clearly it's a once in a blue moon episode but they didn't have nearly enough squeegee devices to think about clearing a football pitch. There was one guy, presumably an actual groundsman with groundstaff gear on, who single handedly appeared to take more water off the pitch than everyone else added together. They had I think 7 people with squeegees, one of whom was irritating me intensely by leaning on it watching others work for a fair bit of it and then occupied herself squeegeeing the bit BEHIND the net where I'm pretty sure not a lot of football was likely to be played!

The brushes were largely a waste of time on grass. The inventive ones who turned them upside down and tried to sweep off with the back of it were achieving a little more. I'm no expert but having seen a few cricket grounds and golf greens cleared over the years, surely the done thing is for everyone to concentrate on one area at a time and line up in a row, moving forward together to sweep excess water away. Instead we had people working on about 4 different areas of the park at once, randomly deciding for themselves what part to sweep, some going diagonally across the line that others were sweeping off the pitch. Not only were they not lining up, they weren't even all sweeping in the same direction. There was absolutely no structure to it. Nor did anyone appear with a fork at any point that I saw, though my mate behind the goal in the East Stand said some people appeared with forks at half time at that end.

The game should clearly never have started. It was pretty obvious as the players were going off from the pre-match warm up that the pitch was gubbed. I actually have a bit of sympathy for Georgia here (not an awful lot granted). Those first 6 minutes were a farce and we grabbed a lead in that period from a goal that was partly affected by a bounce in a puddle. It corrupted the whole game. Pretty sure we'd have beaten them anyway and I now appreciate the rules would have let it stand even if we'd come back tonight but they have every right to feel aggrieved about it.

Edited June 21, 2023 by Skyline Drifter

[Self-raising Lazarus]

29 minutes ago, 19QOS19 said:

Or we could just win the rest of our games 1-0...

I'd rather see opposition tears after each game 

[Clangers]

3 hours ago, Raithie said:

The Mrs knows heehaw about football. It's our 10 year wedding anniversary next year. Asked her if she's ever fancied a trip to Germany...

I managed to get away with that twice watching The Tour, first time in Annecy, “the French Alps would make a great holiday, watched 3 stages! Then the next year in the South.

Funny enough this morning I sent her a villa about 45min from Lille as a suggestion for our October holiday, she knows the cycling won’t be on so I suspect I will get away with it!

[TheScarf]

The forks appeared about 10 minutes before the match restarted. There was clearly none in the stadium, only squeegees, and they obviously had to either go and buy some, or go to another sporting venue to borrow them. Fucking amateur imo.

[Willie adie]

I remember the days when our squad was featuring 

Leighton, malpas, McLeish Miller Gough. Mcstay, Aitken, Johnston, McCoist,  that era when if they didn't play we had

Goram, Nicol,  Narey, Gillespie, Narey,  Bett, McCall,   the only area we were short of cover for was up front.

Sharp, Gray, McClair, McInally, were poor for Scotland 

[Broken Algorithms]

I said to my mate last night at the game that it was almost a continuation of "playing to the whistle". At every opportunity we made sure we did the best we could with the circumstances and didn't f**k about. Georgia can come up with all the excuses they want but there weren't any remonstrations when the ball went into a sketchy area near Angus Gunn's goal in the first few minutes.

What's great about this team is that you can watch about five or six tactical breakdowns of how we operate but nobody has really managed to crack playing against us.

A few years ago, there were their questions over how we'd manage for a goalkeeper and right back with no obvious heir apparents for either spots but now we've got options. 

We're pretty much there, especially given that someone has to drop points in that Norway Vs Spain match. Just win in Cyprus and we're pretty much certain. 

[KirkieRR]

17 minutes ago, Broken Algorithms said:

Just win in Cyprus and we're pretty much certain. 

Seriously, even if it's true, don't say things like that...

 

Since we're sharing journeys home - I left at half time, got a bus fairly quickly, got a train from Queen Street, taxi from the station.... home by quarter past midnight.

I live ten miles north-east of Glasgow

 

On the bright side, I avoided getting wet, being high enough in the South Stand

[forameus]

I echo the comments on the ground-staff.  Viaplay were repeatedly giving them praise, which I guess is OK as they got the game on, but the whole process seemed totally amateurish.  Gathering together what seemed like one actual groundsman and seven volunteers when the pitch looked like the North Sea wasn't a great start, but there didn't seem to be much of a plan as to what they were going to do to clear it all.  I'm no groundsman (and looking at the grass I'm responsible for, good fucking riddance) but surely if you're clearing water, you start in the middle and work your way out?  Instead it seemed like they concentrated on the goalmouths several times, presumably as they had just gathered more water from other efforts.  And as others have said, a few people just sort of standing around useless as one guy did most of the work.  Then getting ballboys on, giving them brushes bigger than they were, and having them do largely nothing.  Then only just getting forks out with minutes to go.  

For all that our on-pitch stuff has been fantastic for a while now, the SFA keeps trying to remind us that they're absolutely fucking hopeless at pretty much everything else.