GRRROUND DOG DAY
Scotland’s crunch with Israel looms like angry Doberman at the end of a narrow tunnel. Question is, will we see light?
Two-and-a-half months. Ten-and-a-half weeks. Seventy-four days.
You can slice and dice the timeline any way you want but the only way to look at it is through splayed fingers from behind the sofa.
Scotland’s play-off game with Israel is looming like an angry Doberman at the end of a narrow tunnel.
Tickets are disappearing fast. The SFA have already shipped 30,000 with punters snapping up the cut-price briefs that were demanded by a Sunday Mail campaign. North and south stands pretty much sold out. By the looks of it, we’re all in.
Under Thursday night lights the old lady of the south side will be rocking like it used to.
All we have to worry about now is what the hell Stevie Clarke’s team is going to look like – and how the hell it’s going to get past the big dog.
If there was any optimism coming out of the wins over Cyprus and Kazakhstan in November – and that’s debatable – then reality has surely beaten it into a state of unconsciousness since.
No matter how many times you try to piece together a starting line-up in your head, the paracetamol is never close enough.
These aren’t can’t-lose games. They’re must-win. And to do that, the goals have to come from somewhere.
But where?
Since the last international break the most prolific
Scottish frontman – with three goals – has been Oli McBurnie.
A player who has only started four of the past 11 games for Sheffield United.
Which, to be fair, is one more than Oliver Burke has started for Alaves, with zero goals to his name. And two more than Leigh Griffiths has had for Celtic.
Our former talisman got the Europa League bucket time away to Cluj amidst a sea of nine sub appearances in the past two months that add up to 132 minutes of football.
The blindingly-obvious first choice if fit, Stevie Naismith, meanwhile has managed a whole 45 minutes in the past month and just six starts out of 28 for Hearts all season.
With Johnny Russell in MLS cold storage, Lawrence Shankland is the only striker who’s playing and scoring – a hat-trick yesterday making it nine in 11 since his first
Scotland goal back in October.
But can we put the weight of the nation on the shoulders of a guy whose last top-tier game of football was five years ago?
Even the option of a desperate begging bowl to Steven Fletcher, the man whose presence effectively got us into the play-offs, and who has seven in seven for Sheffield Wednesday, looks forlorn.
The knee injury that saw him stretchered off in their FA Cup upset over Brighton last weekend is expected to keep him sidelined for a minimum two months.
No worries, though, we can score from midfield, eh?
Er… John McGinn, seven in six games over 11 weeks for Scotland, our salvation, our hope, our everyman. A goner.
He’ll tell anyone who’ll listen he’s bursting a gut to get back from a fractured ankle in time.
That’s the kind of uber-committed character he is but neither Clarke nor his medical team are daring to even put him in the “maybe” column.
Toss in Scott McTominay’s battle for fitness, Kieran
Tierney’s dislocated shoulder ruling him out, David Marshall missing a month for Wigan, Liam Cooper suddenly in a battle for his shirt at Leeds.
All of this without even taking into account the fact that Callum McGregor, James Forrest, Ryan Christie and Ryan Jack will have to play at least 17 games over those 10 weeks – maybe even 19 if Celtic and Rangers can get into the last 16 of the Europa League.
Or the fact that the SPFL can’t – or won’t – give the league a break the week before to give Clarke’s homebased players a breather.
Their hands are tied by an early end to the season because of the Euros and the winter break causing a pile-up to get the fixtures done in time for the split.
Now all of this might seem a bit glass-half-empty.
Maybe we should be talking it up, maybe 20 years of failure has blackened hearts and minds to the point where we can’t allow ourselves even a sliver of optimism.
After all, Stuart
Armstrong is back in the Southampton team and flying, scoring yesterday against Leicester, a relief for Clarke who loves the player and sees him as his best option at breaking lines.
John Fleck is ablaze, playing 18 of 21 for a Sheffield United side confounding everyone in the top eight of the EPL.
John Souttar is on his way back to fitness. Andy Robertson is being Andy Robertson, every week in life, a permanent Zen-like state of brilliance.
These are our life rafts so cling to them we must as the days disappear and the dog edges closer. We just need to hope someone throws us a bone before we get there.