***World Cup Play-off Draw - Ukraine. ***

[tian447]

28 minutes ago, spacerjoe said:

In an attacking position.

 

We have arguably thr best left back in Europe.

 

Really worked wonders for us when we let Ukraine spaff 3 goals past us. 

 

If Scotland go 1-0 down, you never get the feeling they're going to come back from it. 

[vegas-voss]

38 minutes ago, Der Kaiser said:

Yeah I probably should have worded that as we have better players which is what I was trying to say. The performance on Wednesday looked like a league game mentality and not the cup final mentality we should have shown.

 

I think Clarke has done a really good job but I don't think hes the guy to take us the next step forward. Too much deadwood in the squad still and a reluctance to play attacking football.

 

 

Wales have a system and play with it.They are not amazing but they all seem to play with pride for the jersey.Can we really say that with Scotland , yes we can raise it sometimes but others we just don't seem to have it.

[Tommy Brown]

19 minutes ago, Morgan said:

Bloody Wales!?  

 

Honestly?

 

That could, and should, have been Scotland heading off to the WC.

 

 

We are heading to the WC

[haj]

1 minute ago, briever said:

 

Wales had their own Dykes up front, they won with an OG - try not to get too carried away.

I won’t

 

cheers

[vegas-voss]

6 minutes ago, Jambo in Bathgate said:

We’re out. Shite on Wednesday. Well beaten. No fight. Players playing in wrong positions. Wales on the other hand put their bodies on the line. 

It's pretty frightening really it's as if they didn't really realise just what was at stake.****me it's what you dream of as a kid

[Rudy T]

Wales watched the way we played and set up accordingly. I don’t think Wales beat Ukraine if they play them without seeing how they played the other night.

 

Anyway good luck Wales, would’ve loved it to be Scotland.

[CF11JamTart]

Great result. Really pleased with that. 

[Percival King]

There's shades of hibs.net on here tonight - "we're better than the team that beat the team that (comfortably) beat us, if only........."

[Luckies1874]

Anyone who knows their World qualifying history will appreciate that sport being sport it was simply Wales time. They weren't very good today, barely better than we were on Wednesday but they crucially got the breaks (which they've never got in massive play off like scenarios previously - when we've been the victors too), Ukraine were far more leggy and lacked the ruthless edge they played with at Hampden. Scotland have nobody to blame but ourselves as we simply didn't turn up in midweek but there is very little at all between the 3 sides and I suspect we will end up getting a result against Ukraine later in the year in the nations League.

 

It is what it is, we didn't do enough, they fell over the line, that's the fine margins! Roll on Germany 2024 which we very much should be qualifying for.

[CF11JamTart]

1 minute ago, Percival King said:

There's shades of hibs.net on here tonight - "we're better than the team that beat the team that (comfortably) beat us, if only........."

Ain't it just. 

 

Football is about scoring more goals than the team you are playing against. 

 

That's the unpalatable truth. 

[CF11JamTart]

3 minutes ago, Luckies1874 said:

Scotland have nobody to blame but ourselves as we simply didn't turn up in midweek but there is very little at all between the 3 sides and I suspect we will end up getting a result against Ukraine later in the year in the nations League.

 

It is what it is, we didn't do enough, they fell over the line, that's the fine margins! Roll on Germany 2024 which we very much should be qualifying for.

Agreed. Scotland took about an hour to waken up midweek. But on paper the three teams were evenly matched. 

 

Scotland blew it. 

Edited June 5, 2022 by CF11JamTart

[Luckies1874]

2 minutes ago, CF11JamTart said:

Agreed. Scotland took about an hour to waken up midweek. But on paper the three teams were evenly matched. 

 

Scotland blew it. 

 

No doubting that, it was a very disappointing and lacklustre performance and in addition to debatable tactics or at least the ability to change them we looked pretty exhausted whilst the Ukrainian team seemed fresher and very well prepared having been together a while. This was always going to be to Wales advantage whoever got through and I think everything worked against Scotland, the emotion of the first game for the Ukrainians also helped them and really it wasn't meant to be. It's also fair to say that back on 1st March a lot of the Scotland team was playing to a high standard and as well as Tierney then getting injured several key players including McGinn and Robertson were far from their best come June 1st. We'll bounce back and overall the squad continues to move in the right direction. 

[Rannoch]

31 minutes ago, haj said:

Bale alone would have beaten us in Cardiff. No chance we’d have laid a glove on them with dykes and adams. Interestingly there was no ‘good guy’ stuff towards Ukraine tonight, which our game was full of. 
 

Scotland has some good players but in the positions where we’re weak, we’re absolutely miles behind.

 

 

Aye noticed that. As a nation we’ve gone all soft and woke.

[Cade]

Wales have been working on this system for about a decade.

They've had a settled team and a settled style of play.

 

Scotland are still only starting their re-build.

Scotland do alright in league games but shit the bed in important ones. Shat the bed against the Czechs, managed to hold England to 0-0 then shat the bed against Croatia.

Shat the bed against Ukraine.

Scotland (and Clarke) simply cannot handle big game pressure.

 

[Ulysses]

Scotland won't be there.  My lot won't be there.  Wales will.  Fair play to them.

[luckydug]

6 minutes ago, CF11JamTart said:

Agreed. Scotland took about an hour to waken up midweek. But on paper the three teams were evenly matched. 

 

Scotland blew it. 

Sums it up really. 

The Welsh FA seem to be night and day to the SFA competence wise. 

They have managed to turn football from a minority sport to running neck with rugby in popularity. 

Some achievement when you consider the historical prevalence of Rugby Union. 

Football will likely take over as the  main sport in Wales now because of the success in qualifying for the World Cup. 

Maybe we should send Rod Petrie and the rest of the blazers down to Cardiff to see how competent organisation operates. 

 

[stirlo]

Congratulations to Wales and commiserations to Ukraine. It really does put into perspective how dreadful Scotland were on Wednesday night as we just couldn't cope with Ukraine.

 

There's no doubt that with Scotland there is a mentality problem. We're making a real habit of just not turning up in big games.  

[Snorri1]

6 minutes ago, luckydug said:

Sums it up really. 

The Welsh FA seem to be night and day to the SFA competence wise. 

They have managed to turn football from a minority sport to running neck with rugby in popularity. 

Some achievement when you consider the historical prevalence of Rugby Union. 

Football will likely take over as the  main sport in Wales now because of the success in qualifying for the World Cup. 

Maybe we should send Rod Petrie and the rest of the blazers down to Cardiff to see how competent organisation operates. 

 

Even the fact that they play at a smaller stadium because it generates a better atmosphere while we play at the 4th best ground in our country.  Maybe lower if you count smaller ones. In the last 10 years Wales have stepped up when it's counted time and again whereas largely we have kept falling short when it's crunch time. Gareth Bale is a major factor though. Generational talent and a rarity that puts his country above club.

[Nookie Bear]

52 minutes ago, kingantti1874 said:

8/9 of our starting 11 would start for wales.. who just knocked them out.

 

and your comments on Adams.  He’d cost maybe £15million to buy

He may well cost us £15m but he played like Cole McStockton up front. Dykes is a donkey. 

[Percival King]

3 minutes ago, luckydug said:

Sums it up really. 

The Welsh FA seem to be night and day to the SFA competence wise. 

They have managed to turn football from a minority sport to running neck with rugby in popularity. 

Some achievement when you consider the historical prevalence of Rugby Union. 

Football will likely take over as the  main sport in Wales now because of the success in qualifying for the World Cup. 

Maybe we should send Rod Petrie and the rest of the blazers down to Cardiff to see how competent 

I wonder how much of it is down to the Welsh FA and how much is down to having some really decent players like Bale, Ramsey and Davies as well as having the riches of the English premier league and championship on their doorstep as a motivation for pursuing football. Then again, the second point could be said of Scotland but perhaps too many of our players see playing for the uglies as nirvana.

[Nookie Bear]

I mean, obviously Clarke didn’t do himself any favours with his selection although it was 50/50 until they scored and then Scotland didn’t know how to break them down. 
 

But seriously, who could replace him and make any kind of difference. The responsibility for this lies at the feet of the clubs who are unable to bring through talent and, if they do, unable to stop them chasing the ££ at pish like Fleetwood instead of developing their game. 

[stirlo]

7 minutes ago, Nookie Bear said:

I mean, obviously Clarke didn’t do himself any favours with his selection although it was 50/50 until they scored and then Scotland didn’t know how to break them down. 
 

But seriously, who could replace him and make any kind of difference. The responsibility for this lies at the feet of the clubs who are unable to bring through talent and, if they do, unable to stop them chasing the ££ at pish like Fleetwood instead of developing their game. 

Got to disagree with that. Ukraine were all over us and it was only Gordon that kept us in the game. Scotland created very little.

 

As for Clarke, I agree that the problems go a lot deeper than the manager, but when the players continually fail to turn up in the big games, it is legitimate to question whether the manager might be at least partly at fault.

[Kiwidoug]

I was taken to task on here a while back for criticising Gilmour.  I'll do so again.  Simply don't know what people see in him.  Nowhere hear international level for my money.

 

We have only 3 players imo who can genuinely compete at the top level.  Robertson, Tierney and Gordon.  One or two others like MxGinn are good but not good enough at that level.

 

Can't blame Clarke for that although why he didn't play Souttar I will never know.

[Australis]

Well done to Wales, I am delighted for them. They looked much better set up and organised against the Ukraine than we were.

 

But they were not managed by a chancer who had a lucky season at Kilmarnock.

 

[upgotheheads]

Wales deserved to win today, they defended brilliantly, but they also got the big break. They must also have learned a lot about how to play them from watching us.

[Malinga the Swinga]

6 minutes ago, Kiwidoug said:

I was taken to task on here a while back for criticising Gilmour.  I'll do so again.  Simply don't know what people see in him.  Nowhere hear international level for my money.

 

We have only 3 players imo who can genuinely compete at the top level.  Robertson, Tierney and Gordon.  One or two others like MxGinn are good but not good enough at that level.

 

Can't blame Clarke for that although why he didn't play Souttar I will never know.

See I sort of agree. No point blaming Hanley, Cooper, McGinn or Gilmour though. One man put them out with a plan the players didn't believe in or understand, one man left better players on bench than started, one man played players out of position, one man refused to make changes till it was too late and finally, one man refused to face up afterwards to the complete ***** he made of it all. One man cost Scotland to he chance to play Wales and one man only.

That man is Steve Clarke. 

[Jamhammer]

I was born in 1963 and Wales have NEVER qualified in my lifetime

I can finally support my country in a World Cup

Me and my mates always said we’d go.

I’m not  going to fn Qatar 😀

Chuffed to bits tho

[stirlo]

21 minutes ago, Kiwidoug said:

I was taken to task on here a while back for criticising Gilmour.  I'll do so again.  Simply don't know what people see in him.  Nowhere hear international level for my money.

 

We have only 3 players imo who can genuinely compete at the top level.  Robertson, Tierney and Gordon.  One or two others like MxGinn are good but not good enough at that level.

 

Can't blame Clarke for that although why he didn't play Souttar I will never know.

 

Chelsea fans seem to rate Gilmour very highly and he's put in a few impressive performances for Scotland - but on Wednesday he looked like a player very short of confidence. It will be interesting to see what he does next. I've absolutely no idea why they sent him to Norwich of all places. But he's now at a stage where he either needs to get his chance at Chelsea or seek first-team football elsewhere.

[Malinga the Swinga]

As a reaction to Wales getting through, I can finally say it is no longer Anyone but England. It goes against majority but when they play, I'll be wanting England to smash them.

I'd prefer them both to fail, but Wales and their supporters, much like in rugby, are more arrogant than their results warrant.

[CF11JamTart]

1 minute ago, Malinga the Swinga said:

As a reaction to Wales getting through, I can finally say it is no longer Anyone but England. It goes against majority but when they play, I'll be wanting England to smash them.

I'd prefer them both to fail, but Wales and their supporters, much like in rugby, are more arrogant than their results warrant.

Semi finals of Euro 2016.

Last 16 of Euro 2020.

 

Are Scotland fans actually more arrogant than their results warrant?

[TyphoonJambo]

3 minutes ago, stirlo said:

 

Chelsea fans seem to rate Gilmour very highly and he's put in a few impressive performances for Scotland - but on Wednesday he looked like a player very short of confidence. It will be interesting to see what he does next. I've absolutely no idea why they sent him to Norwich of all places. But he's now at a stage where he either needs to get his chance at Chelsea or seek first-team football elsewhere.

Maybe with us?

[Malinga the Swinga]

Just now, CF11JamTart said:

Semi finals of Euro 2016.

Last 16 of Euro 2020.

 

Are Scotland fans actually more arrogant than their results warrant?

So ****ing what, they have won same as us, nothing, NADA, sweet **** all.

Not sure Scotland fans arrogant, we tend to expect nowt and receive less.

[TyphoonJambo]

21 minutes ago, Malinga the Swinga said:

See I sort of agree. No point blaming Hanley, Cooper, McGinn or Gilmour though. One man put them out with a plan the players didn't believe in or understand, one man left better players on bench than started, one man played players out of position, one man refused to make changes till it was too late and finally, one man refused to face up afterwards to the complete ***** he made of it all. One man cost Scotland to he chance to play Wales and one man only.

That man is Steve Clarke. 

100% this. Mans a fud.

[CF11JamTart]

58 minutes ago, Snorri1 said:

Even the fact that they play at a smaller stadium because it generates a better atmosphere while we play at the 4th best ground in our country.  Maybe lower if you count smaller ones. In the last 10 years Wales have stepped up when it's counted time and again whereas largely we have kept falling short when it's crunch time. Gareth Bale is a major factor though. Generational talent and a rarity that puts his country above club.

Yup. They have set-up home at the Cardiff City Stadium. Good ground. Good atmosphere. Popular with the fans. Relatively easy to get to.

 

Hampden feels like a millstone around Scotland's neck. 

[stirlo]

4 minutes ago, TypoonJambo said:

Maybe with us?

 

Unfortunately if he does head to Scotland it would in all likelihood be Rangers.

[Des Lynam]

 

[CF11JamTart]

1 minute ago, Malinga the Swinga said:

So ****ing what, they have won same as us, nothing, NADA, sweet **** all.

Not sure Scotland fans arrogant, we tend to expect nowt and receive less.

Yeah you're right. 

 

Getting to the semifinals of the Euros six years ago was much the same as not qualifying at all. 

 

[CF11JamTart]

3 minutes ago, stirlo said:

 

Unfortunately if he does head to Scotland it would in all likelihood be Rangers.

The Old Firm. The graveyard of footballing ambition. 

[Malinga the Swinga]

24 minutes ago, CF11JamTart said:

Yeah you're right. 

 

Getting to the semifinals of the Euros six years ago was much the same as not qualifying at all. 

 

Get a trophy did they? They won nowt.

[Malinga the Swinga]

Now seen highlights. Ukraine very unlucky not to be awarded penalty and missed good chances. Wales also missed chances though and free kick deflection was fortunate.

Hopefully they get no more luck and exit tournament at first stage.

[briever]

2 minutes ago, Malinga the Swinga said:

Now seen highlights. Ukraine very unlucky not to be awarded penalty and missed good chances. Wales also missed chances though and free kick deflection was fortunate.

Hopefully they get no more luck and exit tournament at first stage.

 

You've seen their group haven't you?

[Malinga the Swinga]

1 minute ago, briever said:

 

You've seen their group haven't you?

Hoping England, USA and Iran can do business. An injury to Bale before tournament would be ideal.

[Morgan]

15 minutes ago, Malinga the Swinga said:

Now seen highlights. Ukraine very unlucky not to be awarded penalty and missed good chances. Wales also missed chances though and free kick deflection was fortunate.

Hopefully they get no more luck and exit tournament at first stage.

 

10 minutes ago, Malinga the Swinga said:

Hoping England, USA and Iran can do business. An injury to Bale before tournament would be ideal.

You’re pretty sick, aren’t you?

[Malinga the Swinga]

Nope. Just honest. Can't stand Wales, Bale or their supporters.

 

[Fozzyonthefence]

2 hours ago, luckydug said:

Sums it up really. 

The Welsh FA seem to be night and day to the SFA competence wise. 

They have managed to turn football from a minority sport to running neck with rugby in popularity. 

Some achievement when you consider the historical prevalence of Rugby Union. 

Football will likely take over as the  main sport in Wales now because of the success in qualifying for the World Cup. 

Maybe we should send Rod Petrie and the rest of the blazers down to Cardiff to see how competent organisation operates. 

 

Aye, let’s hope the Scottish league one day becomes as good as the Welsh league.  Some cracking teams in that league. 

[Ulysses]

Delighted for Wales, though I'd have preferred to see Scotland get to the finals.  For small countries it's all about qualifying, and Wales have done that.

[Ulysses]

11 minutes ago, Fozzyonthefence said:

Aye, let’s hope the Scottish league one day becomes as good as the Welsh league.  Some cracking teams in that league. 

 

The League of Ireland is completely shit, but that doesn't matter to us whenever we can scrape a World Cup or Euro finals qualification.

[colinmaroon]

13 hours ago, Pasquale for King said:

Well done Wales, shame for Ukraine, I had forgotten about the group that was waiting. 
How Clarke hasn’t been sacked is frankly a joke. 

 

Scotland, the smelter of world football, SFA, SPFL, The Uglies  all the crap rises to the top.

 

[TexasAndy]

So frustrated watching that game yesterday. A very very ordinary Wales team against a Ukraine side who had obviously put all their energy and emotion in to the Hampden game.   I get all the criticism fired at Scotland but we seem to have been the losers in this whole situation.  Oh well it's the usual support whoever is playing Engerland.  

[LochcarronJambo]

On 02/06/2022 at 21:23, Malinga the Swinga said:

Fair enough if you were there. On TV, there were large periods where Scottish fans could be heard booing their team.

Can't have helped their confidence.

The Scotland fans were fantastic, there was occasional frustration with some of the play & tactics, but the support was tremendous-it wasn’t for large periods let me assure you