BraveheartGordon

The ''genuine Scots'' bit at the end actually infuriates me!! You seem to think its irrelevant whether a fan has been to every game home or away that we're not a genuine Scot or fan if we don't rate Ireland? Listen to yourself, you were just on here for one last sly dig.

I do remember it! You were the worst team in the tournament!

The post I was replying to was embarrassing! I never knew the Irish were such terrible winners, you've been all over this board like a rash since Thursday night.

Yet another ''friendly'' patronizing post from one of our irish ''friends'' which is actually just set up to have a go at us. Don't come back anytime soon.

With all due respect...when its been this long, we don't give a monkeys arse about that. But its also worth remembering that in most of the groups 3 teams will qualify at this years tournament and not just 2.

You must have seen us at plenty of tournaments though? Im 21 with a car and full time job and I've never even seen us qualify (I was a todler in 97) Nothing but disappointment since I've followed Scotland.

Surely after your Thierry Henry moral crusade Jon Walters should have admitted he handballed it and was offside for his goal against us? Or even called for the match even to be replayed?

Its a bit catch 22 for Strachan, its hard to say the team isn't better now than under levein (2 points from 4 bleeding games from him btw) but we've failed, I just don't think that the players we have are actually good enough. Strachan or no Strachan.

Strachan's team: -----------------Marshall-------------------- Hutton----Martin----Hanley------Robertson -----------Brown----McCarthur--------------- Forrest---------Naismith---------Maloney-- ------------------Fletcher---------------------- My team: --------------Gordon-------------------------- Hutton---Martin--Hanley------Whittaker ---------D Fletcher--Brown----------------- Griffiths-----Naismith--------Forrest----- --------------Rhodes------------------------

This! Dont want to see McCarthy or McGeady anywhere near the Euros.

I don't want to see great mathematical calculations about what we need to qualify, I want to see real FIGHT, heart, spirit, character and showcase our football ability too. I want to go into the Poland game and put the shitters right up them, I want to give them a real fright and fire at them from the off. Nobody in a Scotland jersey should ever give up, and I want the poles and Irish to be reminded what sort of nation they are up against to qualify again.

Huh?

Eh no....it was one of your fans in the November match against Scotland holding that banner. You'll not find many on here up for a joke about the referendum. And talking of getting wound up, you posted a topic on this forum immediately after our Georgia defeat asking us how we thought the group would go, if thats not an attempt to wind us up or rub salt in the wounds then I don't know what is. Jonathan Walters ''Thierry Henry''d us at the Aviva in the 1-1 draw by scoring a goal which was both offside and a handball..and yet i'm sure you probably still want the play-off v France replayed but will overlook your own. I wish all the Henry's in the world against you.

That truck was pathetic, and was just an earlier rehash of a banner at Parkhead ''McCarthy voted for freedom'' Desperately hope you miss out in really unfortunate fashion (a missed handball maybe?) just to piss you off. You suddenly became very vocal on here as soon as we stopped getting results.

Not Mystic Meg so don't know how any game is going to go, but in ROI's 2 matches v us they resembled a 1980's English first division long-ball side. They scored one goal in 2 matches against us and it was offside. It actually embarrasses me to see the Irish support gloating and patting their own back because of our own disaster v Georgia. The paddy power Roy Keane truck also doesn't make me want to see Ireland do at all well.

I get what your saying but there's winning and losing in football and we've lost twice in 4 days. All the circumstances garbage can go, If we don't qualify he's failed and needs to admit so. Im sick (more than anything) of supposed bad luck or improved performances papering over the cracks of failures.

Under Levein only a shocking penalty decision denied us a play-off in a group with only one automatic spot. Before Strachan when was the last time we finished outside the top 3 in a group?

I strongly disagree with a lot of this post, Georgia beat us through penetration not being technically ''comfortable'' on the ball, we kept possession no problem but hit a brick wall in the final 3rd and were scared to shoot.In the youth argument the ''long ball''mentality is being bred out of the game, I work in youth football and of course there are isolated exceptions, but overall theres a willingness to develop players technically. Im also sick of people blaming coaches for our technical regression, coaching has improved dramatically over the last 30 years, kids are just playing less football, instead of playing street football they are sitting in the house playing the xbox. Our coaches need to re-create the past environment by giving the kids the touches of a football they are missing out on before even beginning to develop game awareness. Every developed nation has had this problem, we just took longer to deal with it.

I'm very far from caring tonight, players and management chucked it now, will probably put in some heroic effort now to finish 3rd after drawing with or beating Germany and lose the play-offs on away goals with everyone saying what a ''brave'' effort it was. In which case in my mind they'll still be failures because they didn't achieve the aim we set out at the start of the campaign, we failed tonight.

As I said earlier on this thread, we've lost the 1st goal in the first half of every single away qualifier in the group and only picked up 2 points from 4 matches, we just managed to get ourselves out of jail v Poland and ROI, serious questions need to be asked of Strachan's set-up away from home.

If you read my post again I mentioned most of the factors you did. And playing counter-attack isn't playing for a draw, its starting from a solid base and keeping ourselves in a game.

Its a Georgia team with a different mentality now though, went from Conceding 3 goals in 3 games under their old manager to 8 in 2 under their new manager, much more attacking, but also more open.

Lots of posters on this topic saying things like ''we need to be on the front foot'' and ''have a go'' etc, but these are exactly McLeish's thoughts before the 2-0 defeat, he spoke at length in an interview afterwards about how much he regrets playing 4-4-2 in the last match and that it cost us. Don't get me wrong there were other issues as well, such as injuries,suspensions and fatigue and he mentions that also. But If he had played the 4-1-4-1 and not allowed Georgia anything easy, we may well have kept the game tight and nicked it 1-0 from a set-piece or something. These types of games are notoriously difficult, I think we're best served by playing a bit deeper, inviting Georgia onto us and then counter-attacking the space in behind them with the pace of Anya,Naismith etc. But first thoughts need to be on giving Nothing away early, we've went 1-0 down in the first half of every away qualifier so far and a repeat in Georgia is going to leave us in a difficult situation to contend with. I'm not saying we play ''defensively'' but an open approach will leave us exposed, despite what some think of their quality.....few non-top seeds ever win comfortably in Georgia.

More than 2 goals? have looked through Euro and WC qualifiers back to 1954 and can't find any instance of it. Have seen 2-0,3-1 (to Belgium) and 4-2 (England) but not 3 goal defeats.

Would swap: Chris Martin for Tony Watt (who has looked fantastic for Charlton). Lee Wallace for Craig Forsyth (some on here might have a go at me for it but Wallace has been excellent recently and have never been convinced by Forsyth tbh). and perhaps controversially James McCarthur for Charlie Adam, nothing to do with comparing quality of player....but we already have 3 excellent solid sitting midfielders in the squad in the shape of Fletcher,Mulgrew and Brown, and Adam could provide us an option if we're 1-0 down in a game and need his long-passing quality to offer something a bit different (Would rather have a different option for an emergency than more of the same).