Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 v 🇵🇹 Portugal - 15th October

[nate]

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: Contrary to recent speculation that Scotland are third rate losers with bomb scares and jobbers throughout the squad, coached by a grumpy over-cautious past-it xenophobe, we can now reveal our national team is, in fact, a joy to behold, full of dynamic talent and pluck and feared throughout the continent, coached by a tactical genius who deserves a 10-year extension to his contract. Thankyou.

[GordonS]

1 minute ago, nate said:

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: Contrary to recent speculation that Scotland are third rate losers with bomb scares and jobbers throughout the squad, coached by a grumpy over-cautious past-it xenophobe, we can now reveal our national team is, in fact, a joy to behold, full of dynamic talent and pluck and feared throughout the continent, coached by a tactical genius who deserves a 10-year extension to his contract. Thankyou.

Was that really worth the effort?

[Scary Bear]

29 minutes ago, Jaggy McJagface said:

The Hampden atmosphere has been shite for ages. We have the John McGinn and McTominay songs and that’s it.

 

I really think the SFA should consider introducing a singing section.

For me, it’s down to the current poor form; the mainly midweek kick offs; the random seats via the ticket purchasing process, which makes it difficult to sit with chosen friends; lack of booze; and not much concerted periods of pressure on the pitch to excite the crowd.

The last good atmosphere I experienced was the Spain game. The atmosphere that night was pretty good just because the team were excellent.

[deadasdillinger]

Had this mad dream last night that Scotland managed a fantastic draw against Ronaldo's Portugal. They had Fernandes, Jota, Cancelo etc, while we had a 41 year old goalkeeper, Tony Ralston at right back, Grant bloody Hanley at CB, and an 18 year old winger who went to my primary school, with Kenny McLean casually sauntering out of defence with the ball time and time again. 

 

Wild how unrealistic dreams can be. 

 

Anyway, looking forward to the game tonight!

[No_Problemo]

27 minutes ago, Fletchers Saucy Manbun said:

Also my read 100%. Wish we produced more bad losers rather than guys raised on the glorious defeat mantra.

This is nonsense - acting like a petulant child isn’t the same as being a bad loser. That’s just what people say to try and placate him and his embarrassing behaviour. 

[Scary Bear]

3 minutes ago, No_Problemo said:

This is nonsense - acting like a petulant child isn’t the same as being a bad loser. That’s just what people say to try and placate him and his embarrassing behaviour. 

Yep, he’s the kind of c**t who throws the Monopoly board up in the air and storms out the room. Nobody thinks ‘what a winner’ everyone thinks ‘what a sad c**t’.

[Aufc]

The only frustrating thing is that none of our players looked willing to take the ball on the half turn and look forward. Every time someone received the ball they were looking to go back. This is fine sometimes but it was happening every time and put us in trouble a few times

[The Moonster]

54 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:

 

@Quentin Taranbino and I don't really see eye to eye on a lot of selection issues here but he's not far wrong there to be fair. McLean's been excellent these two games but he's not in our best midfield when everyone's available. That's obvious. If McGinn and Ferguson were in camp he wouldn't start.

John Souttar was also excellent in both games but I'd still have him behind Hanley, Hendry and McKenna (and Tierney if we're in a five). He's got himself ahead of Porteous now though.

I agree with this, though given his propensity to score goals, I understand why he remained on the pitch. A bit like McGinn when he was going through a poor spell in the games before and during the Euros. He wasn't as effective as he usually is and the header 4 mins in last night was bordering on 'sitter' territory. He should be scoring that.

Hanley is a diddy and isn't even playing for Norwich. There's no way he should be top of the pecking order. Happy to concede there are arguments to be made for all the others. 

[Ceiling Granny]

52 minutes ago, Jaggy McJagface said:

The Hampden atmosphere has been shite for ages. We have the John McGinn and McTominay songs and that’s it.

 

I really think the SFA should consider introducing a singing section.

To be honest I don’t think the atmosphere is helped by midweek games.  There will be loads of people take a half day/leave early from work to travel, and know they’ve the same journey the other side of the game; no opportunity for a couple of pints, catch up with pals etc.  There’s just sometimes a bit of “there because you should be” rather than “there because you want to be” vibe. 

[Billy Jean King]

1 minute ago, Ceiling Granny said:

To be honest I don’t think the atmosphere is helped by midweek games.  There will be loads of people take a half day/leave early from work to travel, and know they’ve the same journey the other side of the game; no opportunity for a couple of pints, catch up with pals etc.  There’s just sometimes a bit of “there because you should be” rather than “there because you want to be” vibe. 

Last night's atmosphere was affected big time by the number of families which is understandable given the opposition aligning with the school holidays. Should be much better v Croatia next month given it's a Friday.  

[German Jag]

5 minutes ago, Billy Jean King said:

Last night's atmosphere was affected big time by the number of families which is understandable given the opposition aligning with the school holidays. Should be much better v Croatia next month given it's a Friday.  

Agree with this. Last night was exacerbated by the number of Ronaldo fan-boys. Lots of tourists / Chinese students, plus seen a good few youngsters with Scotland tops & Portugal trackie bottoms.
 

The half & half scarf sellers made a killing last night.  

[accies1874]

51 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:

I think this is probably true to be honest. The consistencies since Clarke was appointed are largely that Hanley plays when fit and we'll play a five if both Tierney and Robertson are available to get them both on the pitch. The latter is probably still true but we'll not know till Tierney returns. The former is also currently true probably but Hanley's getting older and he's not starting regularly for Norwich so this isn't helping. He was left out of the Germany game by choice (though he was less fit then than he is now) but Porteous' red card let him back in and apart from the stupid tackle against Poland that cost us a draw, he's not done anything else wrong in the last 7 games. I think he's pretty nailed on still for now.

Elsewhere Hendry, Porteous, McKenna and now Souttar have at times been the favoured other starter. I still think it's probably Hendry if we're in a five with Tierney involved as he's a better ball player than the others. Hanley will likely sweep between the other two. If we stick with a four moving forward (which will then bring about the Tierney v Robertson question again) then Souttar and McKenna have a better chance of starting alongside Hanley than they do in a three imo but a lot of it will come down to who is available and who is playing at club level and who isn't.

I'd still be inclined to play them both, but if we stick with a four then it would be nice to rotate them to try to prolong each of their international careers. 

30 minutes ago, GordonS said:

I know it's not his position but I really want to see what Lewis Ferguson can do in there. If he doesn't fit then he doesn't fit, but there's unlikely to be anywhere else for him in the starting line-up.

Clarke's played him there a few times before so I'm sure we'll see it again, but I do really like him off a striker. It's just a shame that as he was shaping up to be a great backup for McGinn, McTominay decided to become our biggest goal threat. 

[Aufc]

1 minute ago, German Jag said:

Agree with this. Last night was exacerbated by the number of Ronaldo fan-boys. Lots of tourists / Chinese students, plus seen a good few youngsters with Scotland tops & Portugal trackie bottoms.
 

The half & half scarf sellers made a killing last night.  

I have seen a few comments like th is as if this is a bad thing. If it got a few younger people into a Scotland for the first time then may encourage them to come back.

Took my 8 year old for the first time last night (I used to go to every home and and away game before they changed the schedule and before I had kids). The big selling point for him was to see Ronaldo plus the other Portuguese players (plus a couple of Scotland players). As we have been taking him to Portugal for years, he has an affinity for the country and started off saying he wasn’t bothered if Scotland lost. By the first 15 minutes, he was all about Scotland and their players, decided ronaldo is a big whinging idiot (very perceptive young man) and now wants to go to all the future home games. It’s great to see

[Blootoon87]

Was a privilege to be there last night as I'll never see a bigger tit in my entire life.

[Smokerson]

34 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

Hanley is a diddy and isn't even playing for Norwich. There's no way he should be top of the pecking order. Happy to concede there are arguments to be made for all the others. 

A diddy? really? I am sure he now has over 50 caps.  You could argue the way he has played the last two games is a credit to him due to not playing at Norwich, not sure what his situation there is but you would imagine if mckenna or hendry are fit in 2025 he will struggle to keep his place if he is not playing. Not a diddy for me. far from it

[Fletchers Saucy Manbun]

46 minutes ago, No_Problemo said:

This is nonsense - acting like a petulant child isn’t the same as being a bad loser. That’s just what people say to try and placate him and his embarrassing behaviour. 

It's an expression of being a bad loser. I'd take 11 of his character and victories over glorious failures every day of the week.

Wasn't trying to placate him as I doubt he reads this forum.

[No_Problemo]

Just now, Fletchers Saucy Manbun said:

It's an expression of being a bad loser. I'd take 11 of his character and victories over glorious failures every day of the week.

Wasn't trying to placate him as I doubt he reads this forum.

No it isn’t - it’s an expression of being a narcissistic man child. 

[Gaz]

1 hour ago, nate said:

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: Contrary to recent speculation that Scotland are third rate losers with bomb scares and jobbers throughout the squad, coached by a grumpy over-cautious past-it xenophobe, we can now reveal our national team is, in fact, a joy to behold, full of dynamic talent and pluck and feared throughout the continent, coached by a tactical genius who deserves a 10-year extension to his contract. Thankyou.

*inhales sharply through teeth*

[Fletchers Saucy Manbun]

Just now, No_Problemo said:

No it isn’t - it’s an expression of being a narcissistic man child. 

Due to being a bad loser.

He'd have played out a career as an overweight plodder at Rochdale or some shite without it.

[No_Problemo]

10 minutes ago, Fletchers Saucy Manbun said:

Due to being a bad loser.

He'd have played out a career as an overweight plodder at Rochdale or some shite without it.

Yes, as every single player that is a bad loser behaves like that on a consistent basis. 

That behaviour also isn’t reserved for losing either, he has done it when a teammate has scored for example.