The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

A year ago today a crowd of 49,359 trooped out of Hampden; the majority of us disappointed, sullen, heartbroken with the bitter taste of defeat (even though it was 2-2 it felt like it) which was made all the more unbearable by the noisy jubilant sound of the Polish fans who had outsung us throughout the match. Having had victory snatched from us with very last kick of the ball; we also had a kick in the balls with the news from Dublin that the Germans had failed in their patriotic duty to beat the Irish and so we were out. Had we won and Irish lost, a Polish victory the following week would have saw us through to the play offs but really the damage was done in Tblisi in a that dreadful 1-0 defeat to Georgia.
However, it was not be but in a positive note we saw two wonderful moments in the game; Matt Ritchie’s unstoppable shot from the edge of the area and Fletcher wonderfully sublime left foot curler from the just inside the box.
Scotland’s team that night were;
Marshall, Hutton, Whittaker, Martin, Hanley, Forrest, Darren Fletcher, Brown, Steven Fletcher, Naismith, Ritchie with Maloney, McArthur and Dorrans among the used subs.

FIVE YEARS AGO

Five years ago today we were deeply entrenched in the mire that was Craig Levein’s reign as Manager. On this occasion we were to play Lichtenstein in Vaduz. We already had the farce that was his 4-6-0 plan, we also had the embarrassment that was the 2-1 win against Lichtenstein at Hampden. Of course what we didn’t know that night, that it would be James McFadden’s last game for his country, which given he was subbed at half time by Levein seems such a sad end to a fine career for Scotland. In fairness to Levein we did have victory snatched from us in the game against the Czech Republic in the 90th minute as that fud Kevin Blom gave a penalty against us.
The game in Vaduz wasn’t much better although Scotland would come away with a 1-0 victory thanks to Craig Mackail-Smith’s only goal for Scotland. However, once more it was not enough.
The team against Lichtenstein was McGregor, Hutton, Bardsley, Berra, Caldwell, Adam, D. Fletcher, Bannan, Mackail-Smith, Morrison and Naismith.
Subs used – Forrest and Cowie.