Never has a football game been more looked forward to than tonight’s Scotland – Italy match. All week I’ve been getting more and more excited about it, more and more drawn in to the drama and passion surrounding it. Flower of Scotland has never been sung more louder at Hampden I reckon. Never have I felt so cheated and so down after a game of football.
We got off to the worst possible start and lost a really soft goal. To many not paying attention, Toni given too much room. At times we looked a real second best and a cracking Gordon save followed by a great decision by the linesman kept the score 0-1 going in to half time. But we had hope. Hutton came close and Weir’s header was cleared of the line. Second half was certainly better for Scotland. Hutton started to make the run’s we’ve become used to, Brown roamed as the game opened up and from a poor free kick we scrambled an equaliser. I went mental!! We had another glorious chance that McFadden just couldn’t connect cleanly with but it looked like a great draw for us and a nail biter on Wed as France went to Ukraine looking for a win. Italy brought on a defender and we seemed to have defended a late attack as Hutton covered in defence and then got fouled on the ball. WHAT? Crazy decision. The ref (bastardo) gave the Italians the free kick and they promptly scored. Game over, Scotland failed to qualify again.
I’m still gutted, almost empty at the loss. However it would be too easy to dwell on negatives, to familiar to adopt the unlucky loser mentality. Scotland have had a great campaign, one of their best ever and if it wasn’t for the group of death we were drawn in then who knows. To get to the position we were in tonight with three of the top ten teams in the world, the world cup runners up and the world cup holders is amazing and the whole Scotland team, past and present management and especially the supporters should take a huge amount of credit and also a massive amount of confidence into the soon to be drawn world cup campaign. Bring it on!
I couldn’t believe it, still cant… It’s easy to say we were robbed, but fact that the referee was appalling earlier in the match hardly means we can’t complain about a scandalous decision at the end. The referee was dreadful throughout. I feel bad for us because to get 24 points in a group containing the two World Cup finalists is brilliant and they dominated yesterday’s game after a shaky start but the good news is that they have improved so much this campaign that they will have a much better seeding. Smith and McLeish have done a great job and they now have a good nucleus of a squad there so yeah, it’s a shame but they’ve done brilliant in that campaign and at the moment are the best team out of the Home Nations.
Your right of course, the referee & linesmen were poor during the game but it still leaves a bitter taste getting back in to that game and then losing in that manner. Still, roll on next campaign – only a week to go before we learn our fate.
The linesman handed us two lifelines. Faddy really should have scored at 1-1, then it was woeful defending to give the same man two free headers in a row, and no-one on the posts for a free kick which was effectively a corner. The Georgia game apart though, they have exceeded expectations big time, and being in the second pot for the WC gives us a great chance if the draw is kind.