tartanpar

Great info. As a matter of interest how many Germans were at the game and what was the total crowd?

It is really difficult to predict the score. Both Ireland and Poland beat them very comfortably but Germany only scored 4 at home. Would be great to get a few goals for a change and fantastic for a player to score 3 but I just want the 3 points with an early goal to help the nerves.

Heard that too. Chuck Young used to be very good with Scotland fixture exclusives. Unfortunately his source must have left the sfa years ago. I doubt very much the game will be at Hampden.

Although he is in the squad here - http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/scottish_fa_news.cfm?page=2986&newsCategoryID=6&newsID=14414it looks like he took no part in the first two games so perhaps he never travelled? Strange.

It is a really difficult one. From a WC 2018 point of view a Ireland win would be good for us as keeps Poland down the World Rankings ahead of the draw in 4 months time.

I got a ticket for the Brazil game because I went to the Sweden away game and the replay in Monaco. I had to get the other tickets via other sources. I think it would just go to the normal points system.

Some players in the squad will go 6 weeks without a game before the Ireland game. Having a week gap makes sense as it means if anyone picks up a wee knock they still have a week to recover.

I imagine the reason for that is because people had ticket/tickets in their basket and they have timed out or found out they never had enough points so they went back on sale. The ticketing site is very good now a days and much better than it used to be.

I bought 15 tickets today and only 2 had 4 points. We waited so we could be all together and knew everyone on 4 would get one if they wanted them.

Yes. Would be good if BiH were not bottom as we have 3 points against them.

Yeah you would like to think so. It is the points v 1st and 3rd in the group that counts for best 2nd place. The Netherlands are in the only group to finish so far and they are on 5 points (4 against 1st and 3rd place teams).

This time the number of teams have increased from 8 to 16 so the 8 group winners and 7 best runners up qualify.

Other game ended 1-0 Czech so it will go down to the final game,

I don't believe he has resigned. He will miss these two games and they it will depend on if he gets the Rangers job full time in the summer. Either way no reason why he could not be involved in the Ireland game as Rangers season will be finished by then. If he gets the job then I am sure Strachan will look to appoint someone else.

Has now been taken off the FIFA website - I am sure at the request of the SFA. They also put the NI fixture up early for it to be taken down then up again after confirmation.

If every single person who was eligible on 4 points and above bought a ticket 26 people on 4 points would miss out.There will be 100s of people on 4 points and above not buying tickets. Just make sure you are ready to buy your ticket the minute the 3 pointers go on sale.

Really? I would say you actually have a very good chance of a ticket.

When you hear Rhodes being interviewed about being selected for Scotland he sounds like the model professional and says all the right things. However a couple of years back he was selected for Scotland many times but pulled out of loads of squads injured then played for Blackburn the following game every time. Perhaps there is more to it than we think (perhaps not though).

I believe that when the USSR broke up all were given the chance to stay in UEFA. Many chose to stay but others decided to join the Asian Confederation.

I would have Rhodes in the squad if it was me selecting it. However, Strachan does not seem to fancy him for the system he plays. Blackburn dont select him when they play 1 up front too. I think he is a great player to have on the bench if we need someone to come on to get us a goal with 20 mins to go. The Gibraltar game would surely be perfect for Rhodes to start and get a couple of goals.

There are no ballots anymore. Not been one for a good few years now. It is first come first serve on the points system.

Yeah Kazakhstan is the furthest away in UEFA (presuming Russia don't play in the east). I belive New York is closer to Scotland than Kazakhstan.

Yeah sorry 5 in a row is what i meant. The last time we played 5 home games in a row was between 1989 - 1990 when we played Norway, Argentina, East Germany & Poland.

That is the longest in recent years. Looking back other longish gaps have been 8th of Feb - 6th of September 89 between Cyprus and Yugoslavia, 1st of April - 11th of November between Belgium and Bulgaria in 87, 1st of June 84 to 27th of Feb 85 between France and Spain, 13th December 83 to 1st of June 84 between Northern Ireland and France. I couldnt see anything longer than the 9 months posted above going back to 1980. Presuming we have a home friendly before Ireland it will be the first time in a long time we have played 4 home games in a row.

I dont think Watt will be anywhere near the squad. Did he not have a bit of a bust up with the SFA? He got left out of U21 sqauds and had a few strong words to say on Twitter about Mark Wotte. He has only scored 4 goals for Charlton and 3 for Standard Liège this season.