The Sunday Post (Inverness)

Rio will just have to take it on the chin

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It is fair to say England are set for a bit of turbulence over the next couple of days.

We made them look average at Wembley on Friday night, and that can be embarrassi­ng for a big nation.

Their pundits looked at our loss to the Czechs in the opener, and thought it was going to be easy when we met.

Rio Ferdinand had said they would beat us by a couple of goals, and that was the general mood down south.

All week their pundits were talking about this game in terms of not if they would beat us, but by how many?

That is the confidence of the nation, and the media keep the confidence up.

But it is dangerous.

They are our Auld Enemy, and that puts something extra into Scotland players.

I have played in those games, and the teams who wanted it more generally got the result.

We wanted it more on Friday, and it is great that we showed all the pundits who predicted two and three-nils what we are all about.

Now they have to take it on the chin, and move on with it.

England have faltered against us, and they might falter again. But they have quality players in their group, no one can deny that.

There are, though, questions to be answered before they take on the Czech Republic.

While we can be pleased with the willto-win our players showed, Gareth will wonder why his side didn’t show as much appetite for the fight.

Harry Kane is one of the top goalscorer­s in Europe, and he only managed one shot on goal.

I have never had so many social media messages, suggesting we should have had all three points because it was unbelievab­le the extent to which we limited England.

That is great for us, but it tells its own story the other way.

Take the lessons on board, and make sure they are at it in the games to come, and we could yet see England go deep in the competitio­n.

 ??  ?? Rio Ferdinand was one of the English pundits over-confident before Friday
Rio Ferdinand was one of the English pundits over-confident before Friday

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