In November last year our long serving band of usual suspects crammed into a pub in Stirling that we would normally not be seen dead in, In fact the reason we were in Stirling in the first place was to avoid the mayhem of Edinburgh or Glasgow. The rollercoaster ride of the Euro 2008 qualifiers had come down to one last 90 minutes and the relatively simple task of beating the world champions!
We all dared to dream – we all expected the worst – we we not dissapointed, in cruel fashion a battling brave Scotland were put to the sword by the ruthless Italians. Mons Graupius all over again!
As we sat in the aftermath and drowned our collective sorrows we had no mind to go through this again but here we are starting the whole process once more. Tommorow we start our world cup campaign with a game against Macedonia. Under the new stewardship of George Burley we have the same scenes being played out – the same old firm players with suspect ‘injuries’ calling off for the so called ‘non glamour’ ties. The same bravado in the bars at these footballing minnows. mmm been here before havent we? Costa Rica, Zaire, Peru, Faroe Islands.
Macedona are possibly the worst team to start a campaign against – they have held England to home draws twice and also against Poland – underestimate at your peril. These are the teams we frequently trip up against – sure we pull off great performances against France, Holland (at home) etc but then the ‘who are these eedjits’ attitude kicks in and were in for a ‘pasting’.
Its a tough one to call – so I guess it will be that time again to button up my jacket and head up into the stag weekend infested streets of Edinburgh – find a safe haven with a smattering of TV;s and decent bar service and go through the whole thing over again – but you know what? I wouldn’t change it for the world!