What would be acceptable?

[Squirrelhumper]

Beat Faroes and Moldova and we are on 20pts going into the Denmark game is more than acceptable. 

[Texas Pete]

Just now, Scot1 said:

4 points out of 6 against Austria and 4 points out of 6 against Israel. Gotta be happy with that return.

Absolutely but it’s always a wee bit annoying when taking 4 points off a rival team involves drawing at home and winning away. Better than not beating them away obviously. We could easily have lost to Austria at Hampden as well so I’m just being picky. 

[Texas Pete]

2 minutes ago, Squirrelhumper said:

Beat Faroes and Moldova and we are on 20pts going into the Denmark game is more than acceptable. 

Easier said than done. We’ve never won in Moldova (we’ve only played there once in fairness) and we all know what our record is like in the Faroes. 

Austria won fairly comfortably in Torshavn last night though so that’s a good sign. 

If we put in 2 good performances in our next 2 games then we should do enough for 6 points but I’m calling it right now - it’s not going to be plain sailing. 

[Guest Scot1]

2 minutes ago, Texas Pete said:

Absolutely but it’s always a wee bit annoying when taking 4 points off a rival team involves drawing at home and winning away. Better than not beating them away obviously. We could easily have lost to Austria at Hampden as well so I’m just being picky. 

Hopefully we can start to turn Hampden back into a fortress again in the coming years with this squad and the return of supporters.  A place where opposition teams dislike playing. I think it’s very possible that we can build up a really good home record with this squad. 
Im sure we’ve already got a decent home record at Hampden for World Cup qualifiers as it is, just need to turn a few of the draws into wins, as you said.

[Orraloon]

11 minutes ago, Scot1 said:

4 points out of 6 against Austria and 4 points out of 6 against Israel. Gotta be happy with that return.

Aye that's pretty decent but 4 out of 6 against Faroes or Moldova could spoil it all. 😂

[romanticscot]

I am grateful this is only a double header. I stand by my earlier prediction that we would end with 5 wins out if pur final 6 and so far so good with three wins. We picked up a few yellow cards which has some close to a suspension but dont think we've lost anyone yet other than Hankey who is back

[Guest Scot1]

7 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

Aye that's pretty decent but 4 out of 6 against Faroes or Moldova could spoil it all. 😂

It’ll be interesting to see how the Israelis handle this, they’ve got to beat Moldova on Tuesday to stay in contention, they could feel sorry for themselves after yesterday, 🤞

[Texas Pete]

8 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

Aye that's pretty decent but 4 out of 6 against Faroes or Moldova could spoil it all. 😂

3 points on Tuesday and a draw in Moldova next month will probably be enough to get second place. I wouldn’t want to rely on other results going our way though so let’s hope we win both games. 

As long as we beat the Faroes I’m confident we’ll also win in Moldova but if we don’t win on Tuesday we will have put ourselves under so much pressure I can see us making an arse of our games next month as well. 

[Texas Pete]

1 minute ago, Scot1 said:

It’ll be interesting to see how the Israelis handle this, they’ve got to beat Moldova on Tuesday to stay in contention, they could feel sorry for themselves after yesterday, 🤞

That’s a good point But I really can’t see them slipping up against Moldova or the Faroes. Maybe if they were away from home but they should win both games comfortably.

As long as they don’t take 3 points in Austria we should be OK. 

[Orraloon]

4 minutes ago, Texas Pete said:

3 points on Tuesday and a draw in Moldova next month will probably be enough to get second place. I wouldn’t want to rely on other results going our way though so let’s hope we win both games. 

As long as we beat the Faroes I’m confident we’ll also win in Moldova but if we don’t win on Tuesday we will have put ourselves under so much pressure I can see us making an arse of our games next month as well. 

I think there is a very good chance that Israel will win their last three games. We need 6 points.

[scotlad]

38 minutes ago, Scot1 said:

4 points out of 6 against Austria and 4 points out of 6 against Israel. Gotta be happy with that return.

Absolutely, it's what I'd hoped for, (albeit you'd expect the Austria results to be the other way around!).

A victory on Tuesday and another next month should also be doable; but then again, this is Scotland we're talking about!  😩

[Texas Pete]

10 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

I think there is a very good chance that Israel will win their last three games. We need 6 points.

I don’t think they’ll win in Austria but it is possible so 6 points is obviously far more preferable. If we can’t win in the Faroes and  Moldova then we’d really have to question whether we’d deserve a playoff anyway. 

[Guest Scot1]

Just now, Texas Pete said:

I don’t think they’ll win in Austria but it is possible so 6 points is obviously far more preferable. If we can’t win in the Faroes and  Moldova then we’d really have to question whether we’d deserve a playoff anyway. 

Serbia away, Austria away and yesterday’s result should give the squad belief and confidence that we are a good football team. I think the players / squad are maturing nicely and a nice professional winning performance against the Faroes on Tuesday would show this.

[thplinth]

Turned out pretty acceptable. 

[thplinth]

As great a performance as last night was it was grinding out the five consecutives wins before that in pretty much must-win games every time that was the huge achievement and very different to any Scotland team I have ever seen before. 

Even in McLeish's first spell that winning run included a friendly and ultimately we did fuck it all up against Georgia.

It is really refreshing to see a Scotland team deliver. 23 points out of 30 and only 4 behind Denmark in the end and 7 clear of third place. Not many saw that coming after the first few games.

The Denmark game was a dead tie to them and having won the previous 5 and playing to a packed Hampden there was a feeling we could get something from the game.

Manager and team deserve massive credit. As a team they really showed massive grit and in that sense it feels like they are starting to write us a new history, long may it continue. Even if we don't qualify this is the best Scotland 'team' I have seen. Cant ask for more than what they doing.

Edited November 16, 2021 by thplinth

[ThistleWhistle]

On 9/2/2021 at 10:18 AM, ThistleWhistle said:

If we finish behind Israel serious questions would need to be asked as essentially our last 27 encounters have proved that currently we seem relatively equally matched, which is an issue in itself given their ranking.  We’ve got the benefit of just coming off the back of a glorified month long summer training camp though so you’d hope this would give us some sort of edge over a side that gets together sporadically and spends the majority of the time travelling/recovering like we usually did.  Given the lack of a coherent plan in the first half yesterday and the absolute abomination defending/attacking set-pieces I’m not convinced the time is going to bear much fruit though.

 

The absolute minimum from this campaign is finishing 3^rd as we really should be looking for back-to-back Euro qualification for any sign of progress.  Finishing fourth, dropping a pot and getting a shite of a group for Euro 24 would be an abysmal waste of the gift we had not just in qualifying for this summer but having the top 2 seeds in our WC group being Denmark and Austria.   

Chill out knob head - it'll be orate

 

Genuinely couldn't see this after 4 games and thought we spunked the Euro 2020 free hit up the wall.  Finishing second following that is amazing and even if we don't make the WC we're hopefully in great shape to qualify through the front door for the next Euros which would in turn hopefully give us a real chance of getting to a knockout stage.  

We had five first team players out last night and in previous years we'd be absolutely fucked by that but we seem to have real depth to a number of positions.  

[Texas Pete]

4 hours ago, ThistleWhistle said:

Chill out knob head - it'll be orate

 

Genuinely couldn't see this after 4 games and thought we spunked the Euro 2020 free hit up the wall.  Finishing second following that is amazing and even if we don't make the WC we're hopefully in great shape to qualify through the front door for the next Euros which would in turn hopefully give us a real chance of getting to a knockout stage.  

We had five first team players out last night and in previous years we'd be absolutely fucked by that but we seem to have real depth to a number of positions.  

😂😂😂

You better hope you don’t get a ban for calling someone a knob head. Even if it is yourself. 😂

Seriously though, Israel are probably the worst (and by that I mean best) pot 4 team we could get. 

They play like a team that is far higher than their ranking especially at home. They’re ranking is so poor because they don’t travel very well and win few away games but we find it almost possible to beat them over there. 

Please god don’t let us get them in the nations league next year or the Euro 2024 qualifiers. 

[McTeeko]

A lot of humble pie needs eaten from plenty people on this thread! I myself thought we had blown it after the first two games. What a turnaround though - absolutely tremendous stuff! 

[TDYER63]

5 hours ago, ThistleWhistle said:

Chill out knob head - it'll be orate

 

Genuinely couldn't see this after 4 games and thought we spunked the Euro 2020 free hit up the wall.  Finishing second following that is amazing and even if we don't make the WC we're hopefully in great shape to qualify through the front door for the next Euros which would in turn hopefully give us a real chance of getting to a knockout stage.  

We had five first team players out last night and in previous years we'd be absolutely fucked by that but we seem to have real depth to a number of positions.  

😂 

If having serious doubts about the team back in February renders one a knob head then we would be as well renaming this board The Tartan Knob Head Army. Me being the biggest one , and I dont even have a knob.