Scotland vs Malta

[Squirrelhumper]

3 hours ago, Bobby Russell's Lovechild said:

Tonight was about getting the job done. Never in a million years did I think it would a great game and it wasn't, but we were still by far the most comfortable side.

This.

[Squirrelhumper]

46 minutes ago, slasher said:

Not really. That's what the SFA's pricing strategy will get you. I actually thought the turnout was decent considering the £36 to see Malta on a Monday night ?

What tickets were £36? I never saw any on sale for that?

Mine was £17. In fact I got me, my mate and his wee one tickets for £39 combined in West.

[Squirrelhumper]

3 minutes ago, slasher said:

Bully for you. I paid double that (season ticket) and that's too much. Frankly the cut price tickets are a piss take imo but good luck to you ?

They weren't a piss take, it was clear in black and white when the season tickets came out.

You paid £36 for the England tickets, some folk paid £60 in general sale for the same section.

[slasher]

2 minutes ago, Squirrelhumper said:

They weren't a piss take, it was clear in black and white when the season tickets came out.

You paid £36 for the England tickets, some folk paid £60 in general sale for the same section.

I'm pretty sure England tickets were £42 but I'd need to check. If you think you're getting good value carry on, I don't. ?

[robbo cop]

One thing is for sure when we play Slovakia...tickets will not be £17 as they will be expecting a near sell out. I also paid £36 as I joined Scotland supporters club. I would like to know what the hell is going on with the pricing.

Apart from that I hope Snodgrass finds some form as Phillips is not up to it and Forest not much better. I see Scott Brown getting some pelters but would anyone leave him out of the next games ?.

[borojock]

Please feel free to call me a happy clapper but i think there is a load of positives

2nd place is in our hands win the two games and we get second place, 4 games ago no one would have thought that 

We have no suspensions for the Slovak game 

Were on a decent run at the moment last 4 games - 3 wins and 1 draw - GF 7 GA 2

As for Malta game we didnt need to be attacking, i dont goal difference is ever going to come into play at the end of the campaign. We just needed to control the game and thats what we did. It showed a different skill set, one thats not as exciting and doesnt get the headlines but is equally important in these types of games a very controlled and composed performance all we needed to do was win the game and not get any yellow cards. We achieved that. I dont think we'll play like that in the final two games. 

The only thing that worries me is Strachen's loyalty. The lads looked a bit tired tonight he should have freshened it up and made 3 changes in my mind and he admitted that in the after match interview. The loyalty he shows to players is a slight worry, Forrest and McArtur havent looked up to it these two games and im hoping he wont feel the need to put them in the Slovak game due to loyalty and will look at it in an objective manner and put the better players in which for me would be Fraser in for Forrest and Morrison in for McArthur 

Counting the days down to the Slovak game cant wait will be a tough challenge but one if we get our tactics, formation, player selection right and have a bit of luck we can easily win 

 

[Squirrelhumper]

18 minutes ago, slasher said:

I'm pretty sure England tickets were £42 but I'd need to check. If you think you're getting good value carry on, I don't. ?

I meant season ticket price for England was £36. I paid £42 but I bought them outwith season ticket.

Last night my individual ticket was £17 plus £1 booking fee. I think that's decent value.

As for the England game, it's all relative. It's too expensive but 8,000 Celtic fans will fall over themselves to pay £49 to sit behind the goals this month at Ibrox.

I'd like to see lower prices but folk are making up prices to fit their argument. £30 last night for a dad and his two kids is decent value IMO.

[bossman4]

Job done, that was the main aim. Not great by any stretch but I hate us playing teams like that and no bookings either.

Philips was poor, wouldn't say he's not up to it, his peformance on Friday would suggest he is. GS should have changed it up a bit and played Fraser and Ritchie from the start, he did say that in his post match interview. Injuries dictated the subs through the game.

 

Excellent week, if someone had given you a 5-0 win over the two game you'd have taken it. Bring on Slovakia.

Edited September 5, 2017 by bossman4

[Squirrelhumper]

14 minutes ago, robbo cop said:

One thing is for sure when we play Slovakia...tickets will not be £17 as they will be expecting a near sell out. I also paid £36 as I joined Scotland supporters club. I would like to know what the hell is going on with the pricing.

Apart from that I hope Snodgrass finds some form as Phillips is not up to it and Forest not much better. I see Scott Brown getting some pelters but would anyone leave him out of the next games ?.

Slovakia is £30 for the West. Prices were set when season tickets went on sale. I don't see how this is a surprise to people.

[TDYER63]

Atmosphere was dreadful. I was at a recent friendly which was far better with even less people. West Stand do their best to get things going. North Stand need  a kick up their arse. 

Agree that we looked comfortable for most of the match but am concerend we will revert to type when the pressure is really on against stronger oppostion during the last 2 games.  Hope I am wrong. 

[slasher]

3 minutes ago, Squirrelhumper said:

Slovakia is £30 for the West. Prices were set when season tickets went on sale. I don't see how this is a surprise to people.

U should read 'Stewart Regan's twitter spat with fan'. I think that explains matters pretty well ?

[Caledonian Craig]

Well Slovakia were ripped apart last night. Okay they only lost 1-0 but England actually had 26 shots on goal against them last night with Slovakia managing just 4 I think it was. And this is an England side hardly seen as their greatest side ever - far from it.

[Toepoke]

2 hours ago, Parklife said:

Matt Phillips is probably the most annoying player I've ever watched. He must've given the hall away about 60% of the times he had it. 

He had a bit of a stinker. Position up for grabs v Slovakia?...

 

[aaid]

11 hours ago, DaveyDenoon said:

There's no pleasing some folk. After the position we were in in November we now have it in our own hands with two games to go. Can't really ask for much more.

The team and, yes, the manager have done well this year to get us back into contention.

Good results, generally decent performances and quite honestly I don't care how rank rotten we look against the likes of Malta or anybody else as long as we take the three points. England have been at for donkeys but churn out the results in qualifying.

Win our next two games and were in the playoffs. I'll take that.

Sorry but I don't agree with that at all.   What we should have been looking for going into the last two games is not having to win both matches and hope one of our group rival slips up away to England.

Thats all down to the poor home results in particular not beating Lithuania at home - and remember that was a late equaliser.

We should be going into the last two games knowing that a win against Slovakia and a draw against Slovenia would be good enough.   That would be much more achievable.  

Weve just won both matches in a double header for the first time in ten years. When was the last time we won four competitive games on the bounce?

My concern is that we'll just fall short in some glorious failure and the focus will be on how we finished the group and not how we started it and that would be a big mistake. 

Strachan out.

[bossman4]

2007 we beat Faroes, Lithunia, France and Ukraine

[ParisInAKilt]

1 minute ago, bossman4 said:

2007 we beat Faroes, Lithunia, France and Ukraine

Think it was Lithuania / France 

We lost in Georgia after the Ukraine game 

[Grim Jim]

We won two friendlies on that run too.   Unusual in itself!

[Squirrelhumper]

1 hour ago, slasher said:

U should read 'Stewart Regan's twitter spat with fan'. I think that explains matters pretty well ?

I did. Both he and Div from P&B don't come out of it looking well.

Both using twisted facts to suit their argument.

[Parklife]

1 hour ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Well Slovakia were ripped apart last night. Okay they only lost 1-0 but England actually had 26 shots on goal against them last night with Slovakia managing just 4 I think it was. And this is an England side hardly seen as their greatest side ever - far from it.

Eh? It was 2-1. 

46 minutes ago, aaid said:

Sorry but I don't agree with that at all.   What we should have been looking for going into the last two games is not having to win both matches and hope one of our group rival slips up away to England.

Thats all down to the poor home results in particular not beating Lithuania at home - and remember that was a late equaliser.

We should be going into the last two games knowing that a win against Slovakia and a draw against Slovenia would be good enough.   That would be much more achievable.  

Weve just won both matches in a double header for the first time in ten years. When was the last time we won four competitive games on the bounce?

My concern is that we'll just fall short in some glorious failure and the focus will be on how we finished the group and not how we started it and that would be a big mistake. 

Strachan out.

Hard to disagree. It takes more than wins vs teams ranked 99 and 190 by FIFA to change the previous incompetence. 

[DoonTheSlope]

2 hours ago, Mee said:

Good performances and results.

Shocking turn out for a must win qualifier at home.

Can you please clarify what is not a must win qualifier 

[slasher]

8 minutes ago, Squirrelhumper said:

I did. Both he and Div from P&B don't come out of it looking well.

Both using twisted facts to suit their argument.

Fair enough but you did ask where the £36 a ticket came from. The season ticket may not have been a gigantic rip off but it certainly wasn't value for money either. I won't be indulging again.

I hope everyone who could filled out the SSC survey. A good chance to get views across, it'll be interesting to see if anything comes out of it.

[Caledonian Craig]

5 minutes ago, Parklife said:

Eh? It was 2-1. 

Hard to disagree. It takes more than wins vs teams ranked 99 and 190 by FIFA to change the previous incompetence. 

Aye awright it was a long night last night but point still stands.

We keep hearing on here about how pish this England side is and yet they wracked up so many shots on goal against Slovakia - far more one-sided match than the 2-1 scoreline suggests. That is the point I am making. If you look at our game down there we actually outdid England for shots on goal. Our problem without a doubt is our defence but we do seem to have shored up a bit in recent games.

Edited September 5, 2017 by Caledonian Craig

[andyD]

10 points from 12.. an excellent turn around after the two 3-0s.
Fair play to Strachan for getting everyone's heads up and actually keeping us in with a shot at qualifying.

The Malta game itself wasn't a classic. but we managed it well. We were mature and played keep ball a lot in the 2nd half. Could and should really have had more goals, but they did pack the area and make it as difficult as they could.

Concerns:
Berra -  looks sooo limited. Slow and ponderous on the ball. Starting to show his age i think, which makes me worry about the next campaign.
Tierney - such a waste. I was so frustrated with him last night.. and the player around him. Every time the ball came to him he stopped, turned inside and rolled it to a centerback or central midfield. It completely killed out right hand side as an attacking force. A couple of times he did roll it up to Forrest, then ran beyond, but it quickly became clear that if we put him in behind that he couldn't actually delivery a ball with is right. Eventually people just stopped giving it to Tierney in attacking areas even tho he was taking up good positions. I like Tierney, he's a top player, but right back is a waste of his talents and it stifles our right side so much. Paterson can't come back soon enough for me. Tho that said, Tierney is pretty solid defensively and perhaps that's the only thing we need from a right back in the coming 2 games. I do feel like putting him at right back means the right winger is basically anonymous.. there's no link up between the two at all.
Forrest - very average again. didn't really make anything happen. as i said he wasn't helped by Tierney particularly, and the ball also didn't come down that flank much as our entirely left footed back 5 all tended to play it round to the left. He did have one good link up with Griffiths which was maybe born of a club understanding, but I'm struggling to believe that Fraser is worse than Forrest tbh. Where Phillips was going past people on the outside or cutting inside, being a problem, making spaces and creating chances, nothing much like that came from Forrest. he was 'around' and popped up for a couple of shots, but he didn't make anything happen. Hopefully Bournemouth's form picks up and Fraser can make his case for a start next month.
McArthur - Much as against Lithuania. Stray passes, including a quite bizarre corner he conceded from around the halfway line. His defensive offering isn't particularly effective, his distribution is poor and his attacking contributions are pretty much non-existent. I'm struggling to see why he's there, other than.. Fletcher, Bannan and Crainey are all injured. But even then. We have other players.. McDonald, Shinnie, McGregor.. all of whom must surely have more to offer than McArthur. Central midfield is such a key position, McArthur is probably my number 1 worry for the remaining 2 games.

Positives:
Phillips - another solid performance from him. unlucky to not get on the score sheet, but made things happen.
Griffiths - got his open play goal which is great for him.
Brown - didnt get booked!
Robertson - i actually thought he did well.. if forrest had gambled at the back post more, then those zipped crosses would have paid dividends. also deserves credit for being kicked nonstop for 90 minutes without reacting.
Armstrong - again a fantastic link for the midfield. kept things moving and was a great pivot for the attack to work around.

All in all a really good double header. Comfortably did the job that pretty much all of us had more than a few doubts about before hand. It's in our own hands now, which is a credit to the players and the manager. Still a big ask, Slovakia is going to be a hell of a game, but they come here in a months time to face a very different side than the one they beat 3-0 at their place. I hope they come complacent and think it'll be a stroll again, because we're capable of punishing them now.

[Paulo2576]

1 hour ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Aye awright it was a long night last night but point still stands.

We keep hearing on here about how pish this England side is and yet they wracked up so many shots on goal against Slovakia - far more one-sided match than the 2-1 scoreline suggests. That is the point I am making. If you look at our game down there we actually outdid England for shots on goal. Our problem without a doubt is our defence but we do seem to have shored up a bit in recent games.

Correct. Slovakia are the same level as us and nothing to fear. We actually dominated them until they scored the 2nd, admittedly it was horrendous from there on in. If we play like we did against Lithuania, who I know are poorer, then we've every chance. Just because we haven't won 4 games on the bounce in previous generations means SFA. Worrying how light we are up front though,. 

[Shed_Tartan_Army_Yeah]

Goal difference is still a major part of this group if we draw the Slovenia game. I thought the team and management would have worked that out but the intensity seemed to drop towards the end of the game which was frustrating.

 

I really hope this doesn't happen but if you presume England win their remaining games and Malta lose their remaining games:

If we beat Slovakia (by 1 goal) and draw with Slovenia we end up on same points as Slovakia - we drop to third on goal difference by 3 goals....