Floreat Ultonia

Afternoon all, NI fan in peace. @Scotlad- thanks for the compliment, we (NI) certainly 'clicked' in the current qualifiers. Not just as a one off but in nine games out of 10. Four of the teams in our quali group this time (Hungary, Romania and Finland) did better in the 2014 series than everyone in your group bar the Germans. So while you can make a case that having the World Champs and an in-form Lewandowski rather than an entire Greece squad on crack made yours the most difficult, it's hardly self-evident. It was Chris Baird that was correctly sent off against Hungary.. @Bossman- speculating how Scotland would have done in a different group/ parallel universe is pointless. Our guys stepped up a level in game after game, yours couldn't You're right, our record in the decades since 1986 is poor, and between 2009 and 2014 pathetic- three wins in 42 matches. So while we'll probably lose five or six retiring this summer, those guys were all around in the two previous dismal campaigns. We don't expect to win the group in 2018 qualifying. I was one of those suggesting Mike O'Neil should walk after we were thrashed in Luxembourg, although not for that alone- couldn't beat them at home either where a particularly rubbish Laugherty got called offside 13 times .