Disappointment no fan deserves

IT’S not the despair that kills us – it’s the hope we can’t bear.

A quotation perhaps fittingly borrowed from John Cleese, a famous anti-Scot.

Tartan Army hangovers will kick in this morning along with the realisation that we have failed to make it to yet another World Cup finals.

The heartbreaking draw with Slovenia in Ljubljana came after four wins out of five as Gordon Strachan’s men made the nation proud of their never-say-die attitude.

After an abject start to the qualifying campaign, we truly believed we were on our way to Russia.

But last night we got another dose of gut-wrenching disappointment no Scottish football fan deserves.

You would think by now Scotland would be mentally prepared, as a nation, when our football team crash out just as glory starts to look like a reality. But it’s impossible to salve the disappointment that is always coming, inevitably, down the road.

Last night we hoped to rid ourselves of a tag that Scots have become sick of the sound of – “Glorious Failures”.

Sadly, we once more made it our own. But let’s not forget the times we had as the team clawed their way back from a poor start in the campaign to rattle up a sequence of results that restored our reputation.

Gordon Strachan and his men gave us – that word again – hope. We might find it unbearable but we’ll all be on board for the next tilt at glory.