These pages have seen Gordon Strachan written off many times since those four days in August 2005 when Celtic conceded nine goals to Artmedia and Motherwell. Last night, as Scotland manager, he got the breaks. First, at the most ridiculous dive for a penalty ever perpetrated by a player on a yellow card (and I have seen Steven Naismith), then, when tired defensive limbs contrived to concede a late winner for Scotland.
If he gets a result away to Slovenia on Sunday, he will have earned whatever grudging appreciation goes his way. A generation of adults have never seen Scotland at an international tournament. They don’t know the joys of losing 3-0 to Morocco, watching a defensive wall shirk at a free kick, or celebrating as an Iranian scored an own goal to deliver a point. It’s time they learned.
Little about Scotland’s success is good news for Celtic. Should we win the league, our first qualification round will start two weeks after the tournament kicks off. Although that round is unlikely to provide a particularly stiff challenge, consider what happened to Newco when they arrived unprepared against Luxembourg semi-professionals.
Even if Scotland don’t reach the finals in Russia, a second place finish in the group for Scotland would see the players face two play-off games in the middle of our Champions League group games, and the possibility of a League Cup final.
Brendan Rodgers will wish his players every success, but he would surely not be too distressed to share hard luck stories with them when they return to training next week. The club-v-country debate has kicked around for decades, but I doubt if any club/country combo has seen it as acute as it is for Celtic and Scotland right now.
Catch up with this CQN Podcast from last month when we interviewed Celtic star from the Centenary season, full back Chris Morris. It’s a great listen…
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Should add, ‘Mon the Repulbic tomorrow – beat them original sheep-shaggers; no offence Welsh Tims. ;))
BURGHBHOY on 8TH OCTOBER 2017 8:36 PM
That’s my experience too.
When I was growing up, the Scotland team was an international extension of Wee Arra Peepul; look at the number of caps the likes of Bobby Murdoch, Jinky, Cesar got, to name but three, so I switched off.
I was born in Glasgow of Irish parents and I wanted to support Scotland, but they didn’t represent me; they represented apartheid.
We were to be kept in our place, which was at the back of the bus.
I think the same horrible thought-process is at play now, in 2017. Why did WGS play no Celtic players in the first part of the WC Qualifiers?
The SFA needs to be exposed for what it is – a self-serving, corrupt, bigoted enclave that’s destroying football in Scotland.
Sorry for the rant!
Anyone got Regan’s email address, just wanted to say ‘hard lines and better luck next time’.
GIFUY.com
https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2017/1008/910725-the-wonders-of-the-wales-team-photo-what-is-going-on/
https://twitter.com/StewartMRegan/status/917065581001572352
I endorse many of the replies.
As Celtic fans no matter whether you wanted Scotland to win or not we will all feel for the bhoys in that team tonight (and the ones on the bench)
Justice served on a plate for the cheating SFA blazers tonight. Someone said earlier that if it were Ireland and the same sort of comments were being made on here there would be uproar. Suttle difference, the FAI have never cheated Celtic out of anything, whereas the SFA…….where do we start
THETIMREAPER
He’ll be on FF as usual
TTR! I endorse your endorsement.
In a normal country a national press would be all over our desperately failing football authorities.
Failure to qualify to a major tournament in 20 years is a disgrace, calls for p45’s would be everywhere, anger directed to towards Regan, Petrie etc would be intense.
However this is Scotland and our media are conflicted.
Dare not rock the boat when our SFA are trying to sweep over a decade of institutionalised cheating under the carpet.
The SFA having the same PR company as the Huns was never going to be positive for football in this country.
Therefore given the choice of a successful Scotland team or a successful Huns, our media and SFA will choose the Huns every time.
So FTSFA.
Well, so disappointed but not surprised by this evenings result.
Gordon Strachan was depending on English Championship level players at the beginning of this WCQ campaign.
He used his old tactics and formations – some of the performances were embarrassing and the results were poor.
I like Gordon Strachan, I like him a lot but I slammed him for his choice of players and tactics here on CQN.
Before the Campaign was half way over we looked down and out.
However – We changed tactics, formation and players for the home match against Slovenia.
It was a resurgence, a renewal, the best performance of an embarrassing campaign so far.
Using what he learned he continued the second half of the campaign in the same vein. It worked.
Although on the day we were probably, narrowly second best to England, in the end we were unlucky not to get a win, yet won every match comfortably after that.
Now we are into the final couple of games and to be fair it’s a big ask and let’s remember, it was only a big ask due to the dire performances at the beginning of the campaign.
Also we loose two of our best performers in Broonie and Armstrong.
Still Nil Desperandum – we have replacements, for Scott we have McGinn or Darren Fletcher.
Then we have CalMac, almost a direct interchange for Stuart, a quality midfielder, Great technically that can get you goals.
It looks pretty good as Gordon calls McGinn and CalMac into the squad as replacements.
But then he reverts to type for the Slovakia game – he plumps for Darren, ok I’m fine with that, an ex Captain with huge experience whose played at the highest level but the team and tactics have a bit of deja vu about them.
Still we manfully stride on to a late winner and we are still in with a shout.
But what transpires after that has me in shock.
This afternoon in Facebook the Scotland team pops up… unbelievable, seriously, we are playing 4-4-2 again with the players who failed at the beginning of the campaign.
I was seriously in a state of shock! WTF!
The logic of this is totally beyond me. The only thing I can think is driving this is WGS believes we are home and dry and by using these players and this system he can avoid criticism for the way he stated the Campaign.
What earth is he thinking, Slovenia away has proven to be the tuffest venue outside England.
Now it was as dire as I predicted but Griff showed his class and took his goal well, no surprise there, we see it week in week out.
He might just have got away with it BUT no, the Second half transports us right back to the nightmarish tactics of the beginning of the Campaign.
The gap between defence and midfield and midfield and attack (Griff was isolated) gave us no cohesion and Slovenia huge amounts of space.
Why he started with Chris Martin, who has become a type of super-sub, was beyond me.
But taking him off and the following substitutions? It was worse, it was just crazy.
Anya, Snodgrass and Steven Fletcher were all Scotland regulars who were dropped because the performances of the team were Very Very Poor.
We ended the final half of campaign with a team very similar to the team that got a late equaliser to Lithuania in Scotland and shipped 3 to Nil against both Slovakia and England almost ending our WCQ campaign and was radically over hauled for the Hampden Slovenia game.
Total nonsense…
What on Earth was Gordon thinking?
I’ve got a point to prove?
Well he certainly proved it!!
Hail Hail
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving Day
I expected the typical Scottish close but no cigar result, and an Irish upset in Wales tomorrow. So, Called the game today correctly. Hopefully, I will be right tomorrow as well, and Ireland will make it through.
Funny enough, in spite of my dislike for the SFA, I did find myself disappointed to see Scotland fail again. Still trying to work out why that is.
SID
“Therefore given the choice of a successful Scotland team or a successful Huns, our media and SFA will choose the Huns every time”
Hmmm,not working out too well so far!
Off to Liam in Toronto’s place for my turkey dinner. Enjoy your evening.
Hopefully, Ireland will do the business tomorrow.
MIT 9.47pm
Enjoy your Canadian thanksgiving day :-)
Like your post the other night am sure Jobo/CRC posted they like us making fun of each other about the competitions as the more we slag each other the more others take notice
Definitely great fun for brilliant cause
Kieran Tierney is the best the best left back Scotland has……..
Play your best players in their best positions
How can you surrender possession for 100% of the game? Against Germany or Spain aye but Slovenia who had fk all to play for
CHAIRBHOY on 8TH OCTOBER 2017 9:45 PM
That’s a fair analysis. WGS got it horribly wrong.
GERRYFAETHEBRIG on 8TH OCTOBER 2017 10:03 PM
KT is Scotland’s best defender. He’s Scotland’s only defender who is international class. The rest are journeymen, Robertson’s a winger. Scotland should play KT where he is most effective for the team, that, IMO, is left side of a back three. Still gives him scope to come forward but is more defensive than as a full back.
The lad Phillips was so anonymous no one noticed him, including WGS…that’s why he wasn’t replaced…
Just listened to Gordon Strachans press conference…….
“We are the second smallest team apart from Spain” we are genetically inferior ???
Gordon your times up “wee” man
Yet again……. So glad we have Brendan Rodgers………..imagine moaning about height and picking Barry Bannnan who is wee and shoite
Iwerddon am byth.
Ye will have to put An Tearmann & Jamesgang out to stud and ye might qualify for 2042 World Cup.
Gary67 10.17pm
Kieran has been rampaging down the left hand side if champions league games,, Andrew Robertson couldn’t lace his boots, Gordon has showed himself up as loyalty means more than reason …. There is not one team in the play offs that has a better left back than Kieran, I think it’s poor management giving the wee mhan just first cap last year and within 12momths playing him out of position
Strachan (who I loved) is turning into a wee nasty guy
Unfortunately for Regan the 3 points failed to ” crystallise” in the second half.
P45 time!
Corkcelt 10.24
Who is Eire putting our to stud :-)
Not sure if any on here are young enough :-)
THETIMREAPER @ 10:09 PM,
Yes, it gives me no joy to sat it.
Looking at the campaign now I really think maybe the Scottish Manager and Coaches resented the fact they had to rely so heavily on Brendan Rodgers men and tactics.
It was just such a bizarre game for me today. I’m honestly astonished considering some of Scotland’s recent performances he could change so much. Everything he changed harked back to what was wrong in the beginning. Why would you do that? Madness!
The chap Philips, he’s local to me and played for Wycombe Wanderers. I’d love to see the lad do well but the fact is he’s not good enough. We’ve been through the Scottish Granny Stuff before…
Do we say to these players, pick Scotland and we’ll guarantee you a game? I can’t think why he’d get a game in front of half a dozen Scots lads.
The problem is we need GS to continue, we know fine well the SFA will pick someone worse.
Still, BR can now organise 2018 with a bit more clarity.
Hail Hail
Fresdorfer thanks for the reminder that the game is on the Tuesday. I will be in the Holiday Inn Norwich that evening. Anyone know of a club/pub nearby to see the game?e
Wee fearty reverted to type.
Hi preference for overrated English based players doomed Scotland from the beginning of campaign.
Did he realise that to many Celtic players would have the mssm sharpening the knives?
Did a blazer wearing failure give him the nudge not to have to many Tims?
He is an outdated coach and despite his bluster and rhetoric does not have the smarts for the modern game.
Against Slovakia’s ten men he still erred on the cautious side despite knowing a draw was the end of our campaign.
He had two guys on the bench who both scored twice in there last game which was the top game in SPL.
He never even made an attempt to play them.
Today their coach did as his job title implied.He altered his personal and tactics which changed the game while wee fearty stood and did nothing.
Once they went 2-1 up he reacted by bringing on two guys who have hardly featured for their clubs this season.
A central midfield who never got to grips with the game were left intact till it was to late.
Wee fearties time should have been up after the Euro flop and this campaign showed how outdated.negative and hopeless his ideas are.
Listening to “off the ball” after the Scotland game some “texter” has just asked Stuart Cosgrove given the choice who would be your Scotland manager …… Stuart answers “Brendan Rodgers”
On that note fellow Celtic fans good night and God bless…. Weebawbabbity hope all is good and my (rubbish) posts haven’t annoyed you too much…. life is far too short :-)
Since WGS returned to Scotland to manage Celtic the MSM have hated him with a vengeance.
They will now rip the wee man apart…they will get no help from me with that.
Hail Hail…and G’night.
Just a quick laugh before bed – I noticed the parish I live in had a church door collection for a worthy cause last week. They raised the same amount as the Sevco armed forces bash! Now, it’s a large parish, in a working class town, but there aren’t 50k people turning up to mass on a Sunday. Not even a 10th of that. Not even close. But they regularly drop more cash in the collection than 50k ‘loyal’ sevconians managed to raise for their favourite cause!!!
I know it’s just cheap point-scoring but it made me giggle.
Strachan got one point right in his post match waffle.
We were at a genetic disadvantage having a wee fearty as the coach.
Wgs was generally good for Celtic. But the game changed very quickly around the time he was leaving us and I don’t think he has adapted. Punditry awaits.
Connaire
Our match in Munich is on Wednesday 18th October next week. Hope you are not in transit from Norwich to Durham that evening.
Just had a quick look on the BBC website, Steven EBT Thomson has done match ratings for tonight. He has Matt Phillips on 5 and Kieran Tierney on the same score. And they wonder where it all went wrong. Dear dear.
Unlucky Scotland, have to admit I have little interest in international football and I am glad most of our players will get a rest during the world cup :-)
Scotland genetically inferior, aye so the players aren’t all 2 meters tall, I thought this was football – you know the game where the likes of Maradona, Messi, Pele, Iniesta, Paddy Roberts – ;-) were / are the some of the best players the game has seen, where average height players – Henke for instance can be world class. What WGS meant is that when your a crap player and you have a team of mainly lower level bang average players physicality / genetics comes into it. Solution – find better players Gordon – here’s on Callum McG.
Burghbhoy
Posted and drove thru to Mississauga for my thanksgiving dinner (#2 of 3) over the weekend – have to get back in training.
Getting on no bad bud considering the circumstances.
Loved WGS and the way he gave the MSM no quarter when he was defending Celtics corner.
This is a SFA problem that can only be sorted with a clear out of corruption followed swiftly with an injection of honesty.
Hate to see guys turn on the wee man when they should be focusing on the real issues in our game.
God bless WGS and thanks for giving your all with the tools you had supplied by by the National hierarchy.
I’ll never forget the job you did at Parkhead under a different set of constraints and delivered 3 titles.
HH