So close, but so far

PLAYERRATINGS Late leveller piles on more agony for Scots’ chances

HISTORY will remember Saturday as the day Leigh Griffiths almost toppled England but, for the Tartan Army, it was the day their team summed up exactly what it means to support Scotland.

Not often do Scotland fans get moments of glory but, when Griffiths fired in his second free-kick of the day, that was one of them. What a pity it lasted all of 90 seconds. It was a match history will remember for the utter drama and complete chaos on show at Hampden.

And with the Tartan Army’s acceptance of glorious failure as standard when following Scotland, only they could accept what happened in stoppage time — even if nobody could quite believe what they’d seen.

For the final six minutes of action at Hampden were the most incredible, dramatic and stomach-churning flip-flop of emotions for both sets of fans as Griffiths first levelled Alex OxladeChamberlain’s opener with a super free-kick and then surpassed it with another superb effort from almost the same spot.

Then came the sucker punch as Scotland failed to clear in the 92nd minute and Harry Kane volleyed in to make it 2-2.

The first half was a fairly cagey affair with manager Gordon Strachan’s surprise set-up making things difficult for England.

After saying all week Kieran Tierney would be at right-back, the Celtic left-back lined up as a centre-half alongside Charlie Mulgrew and Christophe Berra.

It’s not often you see a team with two left-backs line up with them both on the left but as a defensive formation it worked well.

Going forward, however, Scotland struggled to get up the park. Closing the England defence down high up the pitch worked well and gave them problems but there was no possession from the Scots.

The second period started in much the same vein, Scotland pressing well but slowly England took control and started creating chances.

On 50 minutes, Jake Livermore’s deflected effort hit the post before a mad scramble in the Scotland box was eventually cleared.

The home side did have a couple of decent openings albeit from outside the area as Andy Robertson and then former Tannadice team-mate Stuart Armstrong fired off target.

England’s opener, though, was coming and they eventually got it as sub OxladeChamberlain fired through a crowd to beat Craig Gordon. The Celtic keeper should have done much better with the shot almost straight at him.

From there it looked like job done for Gareth Southgate until Gary Cahill almost took debutant Ryan Fraser’s head off.

From 30 yards, Griffiths curled in a beauty to beat Joe Hart. And more remarkably he did it again, this time to the other side of the England keeper as Hampden erupted in joy and pure noise.

England fans have criticised Hart for the goals but you can’t take anything away from Griffiths’ execution in the most high-pressure situation.

It was one of the greatest moments at Hampden since we last qualified for a tournament only to be tarnished by poor defending moments later.

Halfway through the four minutes of stoppage time, Scotland broke after clearing a free-kick but Armstrong gave it away with a tired pass which proved costly.

Raheem Sterling put in a cross of the highest quality and Kane peeled off the back of Mulgrew to volley in and break tartan hearts. Another day in the life of a Scotland fan, eh?

Top showing from the former Dee even apart from his two wonderful free-kicks. Excellent. (5-4-1) The manager fooled everyone with his formation — starting Kieran Tierney as a third centre-back rather than on the right. In midfield was Scott Brown and...