Same old story for sorry Scots

The wait goes on.

I’m starting to wonder if I’ll ever see us play at a major tournament.

I may have been in France in 1998 but as a three-year-old I was more interested in crawling about in the grass than watching people play football on it.

My dad headed off to the games with his mate whilst the friends and family headed off to fanzones.

At the time, they were probably already planning a trip to Holland or Belgium for Euro 2000.

Thinking it would always be this way.

But in the 19 years since we trudged off the park after being thumped 3-0 by Morocco we’ve went further back than an elastic band being pulled from the Stade de France to Hampden.

Sunday should have been different.

Time after time we hear about glorious failure. ‘Same old Scotland’. Well it is the same old Scotland.

But I don’t mean it in the way of how unlucky we are – it’s purely down to us not being able to handle the big game situations.

Slovenia was a golden opportunity to erase some of the pain we’ve endured through two trips to Georgia, defeat away to Macedonia, on the road to Wales to name but a few.

But we all know how it ends.

After drawing at home to Lithuania I wrote in these very column inches that the campaign was effectively over.

The fact Gordon Strachan’s side had me believing at 5.45pm on Sunday makes it even more heartbreaking.

Some might view the turnaround as justification for giving Strachan another year in the Hampden hotseat.

Others might view the fact the fourth seeds finishing third is a success.

If you truly believe that then Strachan can stay on and we can continue to not qualify for tournaments.

We’re in dire need of change and I believe the time for a new manager was after our failed France 2016 effort.

It was harder not to qualify in that group yet somehow we managed it.

Six teams and three places up for grabs with Gibraltar always destined to finish bottom with zero points.

So when we were presented with only two places in a tough group then it was already going to be a difficult task.

Strachan’s selections

After drawing against Lithuania, it was over

for squads throughout the campaign have been baffling at times.

Every man and their dog knew Leigh Griffiths was our best striker at the start of this campaign and even towards the tail end of the failed France bid.

He only really started to pick Griffiths when he wasn’t playing week in week out at Celtic but still it was great to see him score against Slovenia.

The squad should have the nucleus of Celtic talent available yet we opted for players like Matt Phillips and Darren Fletcher who just don’t cut it at international level any more.

Forget all the talk of genetics and let’s focus on the tall order of changing the direction of our nation’s football hopes.