Scotland are different but still the same as mistakes prove costly
New management team but little change
Football teaches you not to secondguess things. Never do it. after the opening half the temptation was to think that Scotland had escaped the worst of the evening and were looking good for victory thanks to a goal from an improbable source. We thought this way in cardiff, too. We were wrong then as well.
the irony of the opening half was that the man who spent much of it looking as jittery as a kitten ended it with the cheers of Hampden ringing in his ears. Grant Hanley has spent his season toiling in the madhouse that is Blackburn Rovers and carried on the routine here, beginning hesitantly and getting ever more vulnerable in his positioning and his passing as the half wore on. His moment of glory would come, a headed miracle from a charlie Mulgrew corner in the dying seconds of the period. lucky, lucky Scotland. But better to be lucky than good. the vibe at the break was optimistic. Scotland had been wretched for much of it, but they were ahead. did anything else matter?
actually, yes. Wales were the better team despite Scotland having the lead. and the better team would come again. Scotland’s sloppiness had caused panicky moments. Hanley left a ball to allan McGregor at one point and didn’t appear to be aware of Bale’s menacing presence behind him. the danger came and went and came again, most of it because of Scotland’s awful mis-use of the ball. James Mcarthur dallied and got sacked in midfield and that brought a flutter of worry. Bale’s shot and McGregor’s save brought another. these seemed like massively important moments and the fact that Scotland emerged the other side of them without conceding looked meaningful at the time. It was all a mirage.
the truth is that Scotland were dominated by Wales, but Wales didn’t have the elan they had in cardiff last year. they had Gareth Bale but not GaREtH BalE! the genius was not himself from the start, didn’t have his pace and his ruinous dynamism, didn’t go by players, didn’t impose himself on the match in the way he can and nearly always does these days.
You have to credit Scotland with an efficient job in crowding him out, but the truth about Bale’s lack of impact probably had more to do with his health than anything else. Fighting a virus all week, he never really looked like he’d gotten over it before suffering a knock to his ankle in the first half, a blow that brought an end to his evening. Hampden didn’t exactly weep
‘Wales were the better team despite Scotland’s lead. And the better team would come again’
when the news was relayed over the public address system. His failure to reappear added to the feelgood, if feelgood was an appropriate word on a night when the weather was so icy that it could have cut you in two.
a goal to the good and no Bale to worry about and now Scotland had possession. they had territory. they had chances, too. Kenny Miller had a shot charged down by Sam Ricketts. amid a sustained period of Scotland dominance, Snodgrass snapped a left-foot shot against Boaz Myhill’s left-hand post. If only, if only. If only Fletcher hadn’t gone off so painfully early. If only the headed chances that fell to Miller in the first half had fallen to the Sunderland striker, he of the deadly head.
the what-might-have-beens soon came in waves. With 19 minutes left and the game seemingly under some sort of control, Snodgrass did something dense, giving away a penalty and getting himself sent off. It was the defining moment of the night, a rash and utterly maddening lunge in the box on chris Gunter, initially given as a free-kick by referee anthony Gautier but within seconds revised upwards to a penalty. Having already been booked, Snodgrass walked. By the time he’d reached the private hell of the dressing room Ramsey had smacked in the equaliser via the underside of McGregor’s crossbar.
Scotland then got suckered. they shot themselves in the foot with the concession of the first, then reloaded and shot again. the winner had none of the beauty of Bale’s equivalent in october, but it had all the draining drama from the tartan army’s perspective. an andy King cross drifted between Gary caldwell and Hanley, a pair of ballwatchers neither of whom knew what was happening around them. Hal Robson-Kanu had time to glance a header past McGregor and bring Hampden to silence.
the silence – like Scotland’s lead – didn’t last. on the final whistle there was booing. Not a lot, but enough to remind Strachan of the mountainous job he has on his hands and the crushing and self-inflicted fall his team suffered here. Five qualifying games and only two points. Mickey thomas, we take it all back.