Just when I thought I might be coming out of the footballing trough of depression that I seem to have been in since turning 40, the dice fall badly again.
Craig Levein gave far too much respect to the Czech's in Glasgow yesterday and Scotland paid the price. In the away game, Levein opted for the tactically inept 4-6-0 formation against a side we had beaten 3-0 in a friendly only months previously. The days of Nedved, Poborsky and Co are long gone and today's generation are well short of the mark. Nonetheless, in a game Scotland had to win, we fielded a defensively minded 4-5-1 and set out to nick a victory.
If you didn't watch the game, we took a late lead on the stroke of half-time which should have set us up for the win. We let the Czech's reply after the break and it took a Herculean effort to grab a 2-1 lead with only ten minutes to hang on. I thought we were there. The Dutch official knew otherwise and awarded a penalty against Scotland with only two minutes left on the clock. It was a cynical dive and one that warranted a five match ban. We tried one of own in the dying minute but our player was rightly booked.
Please Charlton, do it for me tomorrow.
To slightly misquote a certain B. Fawlty: 'The only thing worse than no hope is hope!'
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