Scotland Vs Northern Ireland

[Claudia Gentile]

The road to Germany continues with a home game against more modest opposition.

Steve Clarke's press conference starts with an interesting statement that he now plans to make once less change than he anticipated making, prior to the Netherlands match. 

 

He is obviously disappointed with Friday's result but not the performance. He states the players have kept his spirits up rather than the other way around.

I wonder what change he planned but has chosen to scrap? Could it have been something to do with the goalkeepers or a more tactical change, as he certainly sees this as a game we will be looking to win.

Northern Ireland had a creditable 1-1 draw in Romania under possible new Aberdeen manager, Michael O'Neill.

I can see 2 or 3 changes, I'm just not quite sure where. Maybe he has decided to give Shankland another start?

Scott McTominay was the player representative at the press conference.

 

[PSJ.84]

It’ll be nice to watch Ali McCann at Hampden, again. Hope he gets beat this time though. 

[Billy Jean King]

I see this game has fair caught the imagination  Will be there but I can't say I'm over excited myself 

[TheScarf]

Ive managed to secure a #brief for this one. 

I have a bad feeling about this. 2-0 North Ireland. 

[2426255]

I think Michael O'Neill confirmed what most will expect from Northern Ireland. They'll play over our press if they're finding it hard to play out and they'll counter attack. Sort of a role reversal to how we played away against Spain. Maybe even a little like the Republic of Ireland game at Hampden. 

Quote

Scotland will give us a different challenge. It will probably be a very British game. They have a team littered with Premier League players so it will give our boys a chance to step up and show they can handle the game at that level. It’s a real challenge for our players but they’ll gain confidence from the game and look forward to Tuesday. 

More of the same (As against Romania). We’ll watch the game back and there’ll be certain aspects where we’ll maybe want to be a little bit better with the ball. At times our build-up was disjointed. Romania are a team that will put you under pressure. We knew they would do, we had to play not too many passes in our defensive third and play beyond it which we did quite well. 

The key is to be able to break as we did. We did it on two or three occasions in the first half, we did it on two or three occasions in the second half as well. With a little bit more making the right decision at the right time, a little bit more quality, we probably would have created another chance as well.

Michael O'Neill

https://news.stv.tv/sport/northern-ireland-boss-michael-oneill-expects-very-british-game-with-scotland

[Barry Ferguson's Hat]

If we lose this John Carver must go.

[MarkoP]

51 minutes ago, Barry Ferguson's Hat said:

If we lose this John Carver must go.

If we lose this there’s a flat in Dusseldorf for a fortnight in June going cheap

[Burattino Di Calzini]

It's only a friendly, and while it feels like the ideal opportunity to try something different, given our recent form we really need to win I think.

[BB_Bino]

Heading along, like I always do, but can't say I'm overly excited about it.

Will be interesting to see what Clarke does with the starting 11. I suspect he'll only make 1 or 2 changes. Can't help but feel he'll start Gordon for this one, to have a look at where he is at, and I also have a hunch that Ferguson or Armstrong will come in for Christie. I might be totally wrong but I doubt there will be massive changes, can't think of any double header under Clarke where he has done that.

I'm going 3-0 Scotland tonight, Shankland to score at any time. I don't see anything that we should be worried about, and there more recognisable players seem to be injured Are they really better than Georgia or Cyprus...I don't think they are.

[Richey Edwards]

Three points tonight will do our Euro qualification chances the world of good IMO.

[Wee-Bey]

No need to overthink this one, the Failed Statelet are barely above minnow level, we should be winning this relatively comfortably.

 

 

[monthefife]

I can't explain why but I have a very bad feeling about this one. 

[Hauzen]

Yep there's actually a wee bit of pressure on this one now to get back to winning ways. We have been playing against some big-name opposition so perhaps not a surprise that we've not had massively positive results, but with only Gibraltar & Finland in June before the Germany game we could do with a convincing win & performance tonight to get some positivity for the next couple of months.

[MarkoRaj]

Feel like it all comes together in this game and we put 3 or 4 by them

[TPAFKA Jersey 2]

I seriously hope there are few (or preferably no) changes to Friday's starting IX.

We will learn absolutely nothing from fielding half a team of second stringers against NI. Full strength team. Gubbed the arse of them. Job done. No nonsense.

If Clarke makes a bunch of changes, there's a real possibility I'll watch Wales v Poland instead.

[stressball]

Spare a thought for all the weirdo Scottish born **** supporting Northern Ireland.

Hope their night is shite.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

Just now, stressball said:

Spare a thought for all the weirdo Scottish born **** supporting Northern Ireland.

Hope their night is shite.

It will be regardless. They’re Scottish born ****.

[craigkillie]

9 minutes ago, TPAFKA Jersey 2 said:

I seriously hope there are few (or preferably no) changes to Friday's starting IX.

We will learn absolutely nothing from fielding half a team of second stringers against NI. Full strength team. Gubbed the arse of them. Job done. No nonsense.

If Clarke makes a bunch of changes, there's a real possibility I'll watch Wales v Poland instead.

There are several players who were on the bench on Friday night who are very far from "second stringers". You could bring in Dykes/Adams, Armstrong, Ferguson or probably even McLean without a noticeable drop-off in quality. All of these guys played a part in our qualifying campaign and some are in with a shout of starting games in Germany - especially the two strikers who are currently surely still ahead of Shankland in the pecking order.

[stressball]

1 minute ago, craigkillie said:

There are several players who were on the bench on Friday night who are very far from "second stringers". You could bring in Dykes/Adams, Armstrong, Ferguson or probably even McLean without a noticeable drop-off in quality. All of these guys played a part in our qualifying campaign and some are in with a shout of starting games in Germany - especially the two strikers who are currently surely still ahead of Shankland in the pecking order.

I’d like to see Shankland and Ferguson start If I’m being honest.

Theres plenty of time between now and Germany so it would be nice for some new faces to get proper run outs.

Edited March 26 by stressball

[TPAFKA Jersey 2]

11 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

There are several players who were on the bench on Friday night who are very far from "second stringers". You could bring in Dykes/Adams, Armstrong, Ferguson or probably even McLean without a noticeable drop-off in quality. All of these guys played a part in our qualifying campaign and some are in with a shout of starting games in Germany - especially the two strikers who are currently surely still ahead of Shankland in the pecking order.

Well there was most definitely a notable drop off in quality when they came off the bench in numbers on Friday.

I’m not saying Armstrong couldn’t replace Christie or Adams couldn’t replace Shankland for example. 

I’m saying that with the current injuries I believe the starting XI on Friday was our strongest and if we replace say 5 of them, we will undoubtedly have a weaker team. 

If we do that and say win 2-0, what will we learn from that? I’d rather the lads from Friday went out and put right what they did wrong on that night.