Orraloon

Oh aye, forgot about that one. Another 2 points dropped at home. And Serbia forgot about them as well.

We knocked out Czechoslovakia twice, we beat them at Hampden in another qualifier, but then got knocked out by them in a playoff. We beat Sweden and drew with Portugal on the way to Spain 82 (can't remember which of those two were top seeds), we beat Spain on the way to WC86, France for 1990. OK we had an easier draw for 1998. We also beat Italy at Hampden and still didn't manage to qualify. We can't even give the pot two teams a decent game at home nowadays. Teams used to come to Hampden more in hope than expectation. Now even the weakest teams in the group see Hampden as one of their best chances of getting an away point.

We got humped by Belgium and Russia. Those are the sort of home games we were winning when we used to qualify on a regular basis. Now it's hard to imagine how we can win a game against that level of opposition.

I think they lasted about 5 days. Can't remember who they had the bet with?

Aye lost a bet, which he/she reneged on. No odds involved in that one though.

Aye, I thought I was responding to him to be honest. Mistaken identity. We haven't qualified for 20 years. Back in the days when we qualified for 6 WCs out of 7, our away record wasn't much better than it is now. It's our home record that has changed. Back then we had a very good home record. Not now though and that is why we have stopped qualifying.

Just came back with the same one last time.

Try telling that to Dundee Utd fans.

Over the last 2 months we have a 100% home record. 10 years seems a bit arbitrary.

Most of our players are Scottish. They'll bottle it. Not sure my nerves could take a penalty shoot out. But if we are 0-1 with 5 minutes to go, I'd settle for penalties.

When it comes to home games the important stat isn't "not losing". If you want to qualify you need to "win" your home games. On top of your list we have failed to beat Lithuania, England, Czech Rep, Poland, Slovenia, Norway (twice), Belarus, Italy, and Netherlands. And that's just off the top of my head. There are probably others. We needed 8 minutes of injury time to beat Liechtenstein. We won't win a play off by "not losing". I don't fancy our chances in a penalty shot out. Wales only dropped 2 points at home, and that was to the top seeds. That's why they have qualified.

The existing captain is Naismith.

Norway only lost one game in the whole campaign and that was a narrow defeat away to Spain. Sweden are ranked about 15 and Romania about 25. They had a far better campaign than we did.

He/she is one of them.

I've still got an open mind on Clarke. I'm not sure if he's going to be a good manager for us or not. If he gives the captaincy back to Robertson it will be weak management IMO. He needs to be strong and stick by that group of players who are starting to look like they really want to play for Scotland.

I don't think they would destroy us by I'm pretty sure they are a better team than us right now. If we get home advantage we might be in with a shout. They are an improving side and their recent results are showing that. We might be on the verge of improving as well, but we need a few more good results before anybody will be convinced of that. Clarke needs to show some strong management by sticking by the players who have got these last two good results if he can.

Agreed.

O'Donnell would have Ronaldo in his back pocket for the whole game. Easy 3 points.

I take no interest in what that troll says. I suggest you should do the same. His only reason for being on here is to wind folk up and it would seem that he is doing a good job of it. Your post implied that because Norway failed to beat Romania twice, that should mean it's more likely that we could beat them. If you look at it properly Norway avoided defeat twice against a Romania team that are ranked 25 places above them. For me, that is something we should be concerned about and not something to provide optimism.

That's why it's better to look at the rankings instead of judging based on one match.

I want Croatia and Austria.

He is, but just not for us. He can get tae fuk as far as I'm concerned.

We have just won tp games on the bounce and you want to drop more than half the team? Have you been reading the Craig Levein book of football management?

If we are going with weekevie's draw there's no need to bother thinking aboot the final..

Plenty folk picked two wins for Scotland. I wasn't one of them and I am pleasantly surprised by the results. Especially the away win in Cyprus. Subject to availability he should pick the same starting 11 for the play off. If the EPL premaradonas can be bothered to turn up next time, some of them can get a seat on the bench.