Scottish Daily Mail

Nation dared to dream, now it’s time to rise from slumber

- John Greechan

ARE we witnessing an end of days? Several games into Scotland’s final death- or-glory tour of Euro 2016 qualifiers, with each must-win fixture inevitably followed by another that really matters, it’ s hard to escape the feeling of something finally definitive — or definitive­ly final — approachin­g.

When Poland come calling at Hampden on Thursday night, they will find a nation convulsed in hope and desperatio­n, clinging to the belief that this ti me will be different. Yet haunted by the suspicion that, having exhausted so many lives in a campaign that once looked so straightfo­rward, a coup de grace cannot be very far away.

Many of us had been living in a sort of bubble for much of this Euro run. Self-satisfied in our warm and happy place, we whistled in the dark of each passing shadow and brushed aside all genuine concerns as either irrelevant — look at those results! — or downright defeatist.

Convinced that progress was being made, assured that Gordon Strachan had unearthed some players of genuine quality, smitten by the manager’s ability to coax remarkable performanc­es from the most plodding of journeymen, we dared to dream. A schoolboy error.

Staring eliminatio­n in the face, hoping against hope that results elsewhere will help us achieve a play-off spot without our own boys having to do very much, we’ve come a long way from those days when straight qualificat­ion — not the losers’ lottery of a side-door entry — seemed within reach.

It does not take much effort to figure out where it has all gone wrong. Three wins from eight. Not a single away victory. At home, we’ve knocked over Georgia, Gibraltar and, in probably the best and certainly the most bombastic performanc­e of the campaign, the Republic of Ireland.

That glory night at Celtic Park may well come into the final reckoning, of course, by the time the final whistle sounds on our own efforts in Faro this Sunday. Here’s hoping.

But this is not the brave new dawn we imagined way back at the outset, when Ikechi Anya was dinking the ball past Manuel Neuer and Shaun Maloney was tormenting any defender bold enough to come within spinning distance, Scotland’s impish little men embarrassi­ng giants as a matter of course.

As our performanc­es have dipped, so has Strachan’s rhetoric. That bravura he found a couple of games into his reign, expressing honest surprise at just how good these players were, admitting that he’d now be able to do more than just defend, defend and defend until the opposition are bored to death... all gone.

This is partly because he has a natural and deep-seated aversion to telling people what they want to hear; throughout his career, he has eschewed what we in the newspaper game call the ‘rah-rah line’, making bold statements intended to stiffen sinews and gird loins.

But his realism is also firmly rooted in fact. We’re not that good. Certainly not world class. Our defence may well be brutally exposed by Robert Lewandowsk­i, if he’s in the mood on Thursday. And then? Brace yourselves.

There is already speculatio­n that Strachan, yet to even discuss a new contract with the SFA, wouldn’t fancy hanging around for a World Cup qualifying campaign where the odds are heavily stacked against anyone outside of the absolute elite.

As was pointed out here, amid the euphoria that saw Scotland pitched into an ‘ easy’ qualifying group alongside Slovenia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Malta and, just for fun, England, only 13 European teams will be at the 2018 finals in Russia.

If we’re struggling to be among the 24 heading to Euro 2016? Well, you do the maths. Gordon probably has. And he can’t have liked the bottom line,

Should Scotland fall short of even reaching the Euro play- offs, of course, there will be another question to ask. As inconceiva­ble as it once seemed, not everyone remains as besotted as SFA chief executive Stewart Regan so obviously is by Strachan.

Maybe he is the best man for this seemingly impossible job. Maybe there’s someone better out there. Maybe. Hold that thought.

Right now, Strachan and his players face one game upon which the entire campaign will be judged. If they cannot get the necessary result against Poland, a team now three places behind them in the world rankings, they will have failed. And failed pretty miserably, at that.

To Hampden, then. Hoping for a resurrecti­on but fearing damnation by our own shortcomin­gs. So what else is new?

 ??  ?? Time to deliver: Strachan must find a way to get a result against Poland to keep alive Scotland’s Euro hopes
Time to deliver: Strachan must find a way to get a result against Poland to keep alive Scotland’s Euro hopes
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