Scotland go in search of win to keep hopes alive
It would be a dispiriting irony for Gordon Strachan’s Scotland squad if time should be called on their World Cup qualifying campaign on the same day that the clocks go forward. Yet the brutal truth is that unless they beat Slovenia at Hampden Park tomorrow night the Scots’ fragile hope of reaching the finals in Russia next year will have evaporated by the halfway stage of their Group F campaign.
Scotland’s current attempt to end a 19-year exile from the finals of a major tournament stalled after the first game, a misleadingly encouraging 5-1 thrashing of Malta on Sept 4. Since then, their sole reward has been a 1-1 home draw with Lithuania, which was followed by consecutive 3-0 defeats away to Slovakia and England.
The statistics which allow hope to flicker are that only six points cover five teams in the group table and that Scotland have never lost to Slovenia, having won one and drawn two of their three meetings. It is also true that Strachan’s teams have scored in each of their 11 most recent home games, but they face a team whose defensive record is sound, with only a single goal conceded in their past six matches.
Since their outing in Malta, Scotland have scored only once but have conceded seven goals in the qualifiers and the 1-1 friendly draw with Canada at Easter Road on Wednesday yielded little evidence that the trend is about to be reversed against a Slovenia side who have outperformed their status as 58th in the world ratings.
Strachan will at least be able to call upon a Celtic contingent in the form of Craig Gordon, Scott Brown, Stuart Armstrong and James Forrest and it would not be a surprise if he started with all four, the latter two probably lining up alongside Matt Ritchie as a midfield trio.
“We are working hard. Everyone still believes in what the manager wants to do,” said the Norwich City defender Russell Martin. “The most important thing is, regardless of what’s gone on in the last three or four games, if we win on Sunday, we are right back in the mix and have a right chance of moving on up the group and qualifying.”
As for the inevitable speculation about Strachan’s future as Scotland manager – or otherwise, in the event of a defeat – Martin said: “Everyone enjoys working with him, everyone likes him, and we need to make sure we show that and put in a performance to make sure there are no question marks after Sunday about where we are going and where we are heading in the campaign.”