They think it’s all sober
Scots did dram fine without industrial bevvying
So the one about there being a Scotsman, an Irishman and an English man wasn’t the beginning of a joke looking for a punchline after all.
Steve Clarke, Steven Reid and John Carver actually took us to the end of the rainbow and instigated a healing process at the same time.
I’ve never bought into the theory that football can cure the sick and heal the lame.
But, late on Thursday night in Belgrade, the game proved that it can move the spirit, stir the senses and fortify the disposition.
The hea l ing process might not l a st – thi s is Scotland after all.
But for one night at least our dysfunctional family was r eu n i t e d in something as close to harmony a s we a re ever likely to get under these Covid-19 driven circumstances.
The domestic game was torn apart last March when lockdown curtailed the league season and decisions were taken on titles and relegation, which drove a wedge between clubs and supporters from all divisions.
We have witnessed the game going to court and the aggrieved swearing revenge when their various cases were eventually thrown out.
Subsequent meetings at SPFL level have shown no- one really trusts or appears even to like each other.
But the defeat of Serbia meant a national team best known for going from bad to worse for two decades decided to go from strength to strength and lighten the country’s mood. Go figure.
Not a pub opened. Not one social gathering allowed. No industrial strength bevvying in any outdoor setting but it happened anyway.
We might even have to come to terms with an inconvenient truth – namely that sobriety might actually suit us and empty grounds are better for our collective nerve.
Would Scotland have withstood the loss of a last-minute equaliser for Serbia, extra-time and a penalty shoot- out in front of a partisan Belgrade crowd breathing down their necks?
As blasphemous as it may sound, we are led by the managerial equivalent of the Reverend IM Jolly and keeping a lid on our emotions has turned
We mig ht have to come to terms with an inconve truth .. nient might sobriet y actuall y suit us
out to be good for us. It would be piece in the match programme about ironic to think the Tartan Army have captaining a team who had a tendency actually been an impediment to to crumble in the face of intimidation. qual i f ication for the major Celtic have struggled with people tournaments all these years. deprivation on a domestic and Rangers are stronger in front European basis this season. of empty seats than they were Neil Lennon has even spoken about last season when James the possibility of bringing in sports Tavernier wrote psychologists to see if they can help the ill-conceived solve the problem. Either way, Clarke Scotland gaffer deserves high praise deserves better than to be damned by faint praise of the sort former Scotland boss Gordon Strachan has handed out.
On the eve of the game against Serbia, he said that the manager might actually be luckier than those who preceded him in the wilderness years.
Nine wins in a row, whether scraped or sailed through, has to be more than a matter of luck.
But success has many fathers and failure is an orphan.
Clarke will, I am sure, be unmoved by what anyone says and will merely move on in his one-game-at-a-time kind of way.
He has given the country something to look forward to next year, hopefully in happier times for our everyday welfare.
That’s some going given where he started from.
That’s some going with a team containing two players, Declan Gallagher and Lyndon Dykes, who were playing for Livingston not so long ago.
Everyone looks for some kind of profound statement that proves football teams change lives, but they don’t. They do, however, have other uses.
Like I said last week, what happened on Thursday night was about the sheer, unadulterated joy of it all.