PAIN REMAINS HARD TO TAKE
Time is no healer for Strachan as England equaliser cuts deep
SOME 73 days since one swipe of Harry Kane’s boot left a nation winded and wounded, the fool who once proclaimed that time is the great healer is presumably still in hiding.
Clutching a list of the 27 names he believes can yet resurrect our hopes of qualifying for the World Cup, Gordon Strachan yesterday strived manfully to talk up what he feels will be a bright future. Escaping from the dark place he and so many others were spirited to on June 10 was easier said than done, though.
‘Even English people I know felt desperate for us, which I found hard to believe,’ said Strachan. ‘They must have been patronising us. But they knew it was hard for us to take.’
Many present that day will simply never get over it. Since a line was drawn under the Home Internationals and the Rous Cup, matches between Scotland have England have become generational affairs. Chances to get one over on the Auld Enemy, are as rare as hen’s teeth.
When Leigh Griffiths arced two free-kicks beyond Joe Hart in the space of three minutes, a victory for the ages was within touching distance. We should have known better.
Even in a sport which dishes out blows to the solar plexus as a matter of course, what happened next was almost beyond cruel.
Asked for his reflections on what transpired after his battle-weary side failed to clear their lines in the 94th minute, Strachan opts to laugh rather than cry.
‘I think the overall thing about that game was the excitement of the last 15 minutes,’ he added.
‘I keep thinking about the excitement of that 15 minutes rather than a point won or two points lost.
‘But it kind of got through to the point where I thought: “Hmm, it was definitely two points lost”.
‘It was an emotional game and it took us a wee while to get over it. Luckily, I lapsed into my 40th anniversary celebrations and getting that organised for a few people. The logistics of that took my mind away from it. It was brilliant. It went well. I actually won the golf.
‘But for the next month it was non-stop, people telling me how it felt at the time.’
Aside from an unlikely point being gained, there were no shortage of comforts.
Prior to the England match, had it not been for bad luck in a Scotland jersey, Griffiths would have had no luck at all.
Still awaiting his first international goal, he suffered a fractured back against Slovenia in March and must have wondered if such misfortune while wearing Dark Blue was payback for some misdemeanour in a previous life.
Irrespective of what followed, those two strikes against England changed the narrative in the nick of time.
‘You’ll need to ask him (what difference scoring makes) but people would say his game’s been improving over the last two or three years,’ said Strachan.
‘He’s always scored goals, but his all-round game and his understanding has got a lot better. It’s definitely helped him because he’s playing well at Celtic.’
Goals are now only part of the Griffiths equation. The provider of two assists against Astana last week, his link-up play has now been augmented by a willingness to work back like a dog.
‘He did that a lot in the England game when he chased after people,’ noted Strachan. ‘It is amazing what the crowd appreciates.
‘People running 30 or 40 yards to make a block — every time you get a block that’s one less attack the other teams gets. It happened straight from kick-off in the England game — watch the kick-off.
‘He chased after someone in the England game and blocked it and the crowd were like: “Yaaay”. In the second half it was the same thing — he chased after someone about ten yards outside their box and the crowd is with him. The crowd think: “I can do that! Because I want to do that”.’
For so long clearly not a signedup member of the Leigh Griffiths Fan Club, Strachan no longer needs to be grilled on his views of the Celtic man. He’ll start in Vilnius as sure as day follows night.
What’s also certain is that the side will be loaded with players of attacking intent. That Scotland need to win this game makes a compelling enough case for such an approach. The fact the defence remains our Achilles heel copper bottoms it.
‘We’ve got to try and win both games. That’s how we’ll set out,’ said the manager. ‘We always do. We said that before Germany away a few years back and put in a magnificent performance.
‘At Wembley, even though we got beat 3-0, we set out to win the game.
‘I don’t think we’ve got the physical capabilities to sit back and take long periods of pressure.
‘Physically, we are not the biggest. In the last European competition we had the second smallest squad. So we have our problems soaking up a lot of pressure against teams with a big physical presence.
‘You look at teams like Chelsea v Spurs on Sunday and the physical presence of both teams. It’s ridiculous.’
Steven Whittaker returns to the fold to provide a welcome option at right-back. Yet with Kieran Tierney and Andrew Robertson in the form of their young lives, the argument in favour of going three-at-the-back is compelling.
‘It is an option because we’ve players who can play either side of the main centre-half and go and search for people who can play between the lines,’ said Strachan.
‘You’ve got to get that balance and make sure you still have very good players out there — players who are in form at that moment.’
No one needs to tell Strachan that this is classic banana-skin territory. For all the heroics of Hampden in June, Scotland’s problems have a nasty habit of coming into sharp focus when faced with so-called no-hopers.
With four games to play, Lithuania’s hopes of somehow finishing in second place are mighty slim but not yet over. As they demonstrated in the damaging score draw at Hampden at the outset of the campaign, they are due no little respect.
‘They set a good standard,’ said Strachan. ‘They’ve got this kind of club mentality as they don’t have a big squad to choose from.
‘They play a system which is very similar to what we used a couple of years ago.
‘We know that. They take great pride in playing for their country.’
People told me how they felt, it was non-stop for a month