Texas Pete

How on earth do you remember that?

It’s all done by computer now. In the old days the FAs used to get together to negotiate the fixtures but it’s just all random now. I normally think if you start and finish with a home game (as we did in the Nations League), or at least start with a home game, and avoid the pot one team in these games then you’ve had a good draw. We started away against Germany in our last Euro qualifiers and it felt like we were at a disadvantage early in the campaign.

Not if we’re in a group of 5.........

Not when McLeish agreed to release him. Gordon would have played. I suppose he took a calculated risk based on the chances of both Gordon and McGregor getting injured (which one of them did).

Maybe he’s just not comfortable with speaking to the media? He’s always had quite a strange way of talking.

Son of the Father must be the most redundant surname in history. Congratulations on having it. 😂 In all seriousness though, I have been told that both names have a different origin (although I’m sure you’re correct in that some Pattersons used to be Paterson). Patterson is from southern Scotland/northern England and is a derivation of Pattinson which means son of Pate (sometimes spelled Patt). In fairness I am only going on what I have been told by a mate whose surname is Patterson so he could be talking absolute bollocks.

If you went through this board correcting all the ’McLiesh’, ‘McTonimay’, ‘Forest’ and ‘Teirney’ spelling mistakes you’d be a pretty busy (and sad) man. Incidentally, Patterson is also a Scottish name. It just isn’t Callum’s.

We can talk systems and formations until we’re blue in the face but John McGinn will be a big player for us over the next 10 years. As will McGregor.

You can certainly make things happen by attacking. The penalty in the Albania game is a good example. Ok it was soft but we wouldn’t have got it if we weren’t attacking and getting free kicks outside the box. The more attacking you are the more likely it is for something to happen like a deflected goal or an OG or something. Playing for a draw with no strikers got us exactly what we deserved that night in Prague - sod all.

I have a feeling that being dropped by McLeish when he was playing with wing backs has spurned Forrest on. Maybe it was worth the humiliation in Haifa to have Forrest find his form for us at last.

I just find it funny that when we get a good result or have a good performance some people say McLeish got lucky but when we lose it’s because he’s a ‘dinosaur’ or an ‘alky’. I’m not suggesting you do this and thanks for clarifying but plenty of folk do. Levein wasn’t unlucky though. He was just an arrogant arse. And still is.

Surely the solution is to play McGinn? McGinn gives the ball away far too easily but he will improve. Particularly if Villa get promoted (unlikely this year although they are not that far away from the playoff positions) or if he moves to a club in the EPL. McGinn and McGregor can both play, and be effective, in the same team in my opinion.

March isn’t that far away really. I’m actually really looking forward to the qualifiers for the first time in a while. I’m not getting carried away based on winning a group we should have won but there are signs of improvement and we have a young group of players that can create chances and score goals.

Souttar, Tierney and McGinn are all early (earlyish in McGinn’s case. I think he’s 23 or 24) 20s as well and will play their part for us over the next few years. Some people will still complain about McLeish picking older players and bringing younger guys through though.

I agree. The thing about it is the agent of any football manager who was interested in the Scotland job would not have been slow in letting the SFA know. Strachan getting sacked was headline news in the UK and would have been heard about all over the world. Some people seem to think that the SFA should have advertised on S1 jobs to get applications. That’s not how it works in football.

Cairney will be in the next squad if he’s fit. Although I wouldn’t rule out a call off. Ritchie and Snodgrass don’t want to play for Scotland anymore anyway so last night’s game had no effect on those guys.

I think even Paterson would agree with that.

Tuesday is a normal day for midweek football but I agree that the ‘week of football’ in general is pish. As are some of the bizarre kick off times.

Agreed. So is Rob McLean to be fair. They are Scottish diddies though and understand the Scottish game a lot better than that patronising arse piece Crocker.

I agree with most of this but what does concern me is a shortage of goals from our strikers. We scored 10 goals in the Nations League and only two were scored by our centre forwards and one of those was a penalty. 5 of them were scored by one person. I thought Fletcher played very well in Albania and last night but it would have been good to see him score from open play. We can’t rely on Forest to score in every game. Or can we........? 😂

I’m not really fussed as I am confident we’ll win the first playoff as it’s at Hampden. I am more worried about the possibility of traveling to Serbia or Norway if we do beat Finland (or whoever we play). Hopefully we win the coin toss and play both playoffs at Hampden. Or better yet, hopefully we qualify directly and UEFA can stick their playoffs right up their back fanny.

I see the spelling police are in attendance. 😂😂😂

Yeah get Archie back. WOOOOOOOF! Seriously though, Sky could get someone like Rob McLean or Paul Mitchell easily enough if they really wanted. They are obviously happy with Crocker though. Michael Stewart is a bellend.

No, not at all. I completely understand why people would be put off going to Scotland games at the moment. Most people who post on here are or were regular attendees of home games (I know some only go to away games as they live abroad or whatever and some people don’t go to any games at all) and I was just interested to see how many of us were there. I have noticed a lot of people commenting recently about how they won’t go back to Hampden until McLeish is sacked or until we start qualifying again or whatever. It’s just a sad reflection of where we are at the moment I suppose that so many of our core support have stopped going. Plenty of us still go of course, including myself. I certainly don’t think I’m a better supporter or person than anyone who wasn’t there last night or who doesn’t go at all anymore. Hopefully we will be competitive in our qualifying group next year and we qualify for Euro 2020. If we do that then our attendance will get back to where they should be.

In what way was he lucky last night? Or in any of our NL games? You could argue that we were lucky against Albania with the penalty but that’s about it. McLeish was unlucky with getting Souttar sent off in Haifa and with all the injury call offs (if that’s what they are). Maybe he’s just a decent manager? Just a thought.