While the popular Scotland fans’ chant of “We’ll be Coming, We’ll be Coming Down the Road” was again in evidence, you wouldn’t have known that last Wednesday herladed a new era for the Scotland team, judging by the stereotypical Scottish weather and rather flat atmosphere inside the National Stadium. After the heroic performance in being a win away from qualification for Euro 2008 out of one of the hardest qualifying groups imaginable, the International with Croatia ushered in another manager of the team.
The good work started by Walter Smith had been carried on by Alex McLeish, but soon after the defeat to Italy in the final group game he was off to take charge at English side Birmingham City, paving the way for George Burley to take on the responsibility of carrying the hopes of a nation.
Former Ipswich Town, Hearts and Southampton boss Burley was considered by many a surprise choice, but his philosophy of passing, attacking football has won admirers and many of the 28,821 crowd would’ve been impressed at the way Scotland went about their business.
Missing the injured Rangers quartet of Barry Ferguson, Lee McCulloch, Christian Dailly and Allan McGregor, plus Celtic’s Barry Robson and Tartan Army talisman James McFadden of Birmingham, the Scots had an unusual look to their line-up, with Celtic’s Stephen McManus given the captain’s armband in Ferguson’s absence.
There was an early setback as Portsmouth’s Niko Krancjear fired the European Championship hopefuls ahead after only 10 minutes, but Scotland dug deep to produce a display of resilience, bravery on the ball and showed some good attacking play. This was epitomised in the equalising goal, with debutant Steven Fletcher sliding a terrific ball through for Kenny Miller, who cut inside and rifled home via a deflection.
While the classy Croats controlled possession, in the second half especially, Scotland enjoyed positive forward play, with the best chance created by the outstanding Alan Hutton for Kris Boyd with six minutes to go.
We also had to rely on Sunderland keeper Craig Gordon to keep us level with some fine saves, but overall it was a good test and a good indication of where Scotland are, and could go, under General George.
As has been noted, in Gordon we have an outstanding goalkeeper, while Hutton grows with stature in each passing game. Stephen McManus again looked comfortable at the back and while we missed Ferguson and McCulloch, the likes of Scott Brown, Paul Hartley, Darren Fletcher and his namesake Steven showed that there is depth in terms of quality to Burley’s squad.
Miller as usual ran himself into the ground and with predatory scorer Kris Boyd, Shaun Maloney and Faddy to return, Scotland have a host of potent attacking options.
Next up for the Scots is a trip to Prague to take on the Czech Republic before a home game with Northern Ireland in August, before the road to South Africa and the World Cup starts in Macedonia in September. Although in a tough group, containing Holland, Norway and Iceland along with Macedonia, the early signs of Burley’s reign is that his Scotland team are capable of carrying on the good work of the Euro 2008 campaign, and taking it further to reach our first major tournament since the France ‘98 World Cup.
Scotland’s group rivals take note- We’ll be Coming.
hartypar