Surprise results can inspire Scotland at the Euro 2017 finals
Scotland are sure to be massive underdogs at Euro 2017 but recent history has reinforced the idea that been outsiders can give you an advantage.
In the past week we have seen Morton beat Dundee United, a much bigger club, to win a place in the Betfred Cup semi-final.
Even though Alloa ultimately lost 2-0 to Celtic in another of the quarter-finals, the part-time team pushed their opposition all the way, and the deadlock wasn’t broken until the 83rd minute.
There have been plenty of examples of underdogs having their day in 2016. No one could ever have expected a team like Leicester to win the Premier League, given that it has been dominated by a cartel of megarich clubs for as long as most people can remember.
But win it they did, shocking everyone with their consistency all season and causing one of the biggest upsets in football history.
Take a look at their manager, the exceptionally mild-mannered and polite Claudio Ranieri.
In his calm, methodical and highly-successful approach, he reminds me very much of the Scotland coach Anna Signeul.
When Anna came in 11 years go, she completely changed the mentality of the team. Prior to that we were intimidated by the higher-profile bigger players that we came up against on a regular basis.
But she made us all believe that we deserved to be playing at the same level as our opponents. She made a massive difference and we became more competitive.
She turned a lot of us from girls into ladies in a sporting sense and her ultimate legacy will be taking Scotland to our first international finals next year. A lot of that was down to instilling self-belief in her squad.
Trackside demeanour is also an underrated quality in coaches and Anna has always had a calming influence on the players.
During a match if things aren’t going so well, she might feel very frustrated but she would never let it show as that could have a negative effect.
The last thing a player wants after she has made a mistake is someone screaming at her from the sidelines. The confidence is knocked further and the chance of more mistakes is increased.
Anna is nothing like that. You need help from your coach when things aren’t going well – not a public dressing down. She is always very composed and that helps to keep the players relaxed, especially less-experienced ones.
Most international teams are a mixture of promising young players and older heads, so if a few of the new faces have their confidence knocked, you could have a problem. That’s never been an issue under Anna.
Back to the Euros next summer Scotland can use their underdog status to their advantage on the big stage.
They will be the lowest-ranked team at the tournament and can really play on that as the bigger nations will already have written them off.
Look at the men’s Euro 2016 where you saw teams like Wales, Iceland and Albania pull off some incredible results at the expense of the more-established nations.
We can do that too. Not just because we’re underdogs but we have one or two special players like Jane Ross, who scored 10 goals in qualifying and Kim Little who creates and scores.
All we need is the odd wee moment of magic over there and we can shock the Continent. Anna helped us get rid of that defeatist ‘Scottish’ mentality and the team can, hopefully, now take things to a new level.