Can Levein be Scotland’s lucky man?
Better to be lucky than good
It could all have been so different last night but you have to think that eventually, everything clicked into place.
With the Under-21s booking their play-off place and then the Czech Republic losing at home to Lithuania, it was all set up for Scotland to complete a fantastic evening by steam-rolling the mighty Liechtenstein .
That didn’t happen but the three points from a 97th minute winner are the same three points you get for a 6-0 win.
There must be improvement in next month’s games but these games are likely to suit the players and the managers mindset more than playing the minnows.
A draw away to the Czech Republic would now be viewed as a massive point…and should see the play-off places hinge on two home games versus Lithuania and Czech Republic.
The Liechtenstein away game remains a hurdle and the two Spanish games should be considered a bonus.
In reality, the rest of the teams (outside of the World Champions) are competing in their own wee group and Craig Levein will be feeling rather content this morning.
In our heading, we used the term lucky, which is a bit misleading. You can always contribute to the luck you get and Levein made some ballsy subs.
How many fans would have replaced James McFadden at half-time?
Would many have subbed Kris Boyd at a time a goal was desperately needed?
It may be that Levein boobed in the first place but the subs, including the enforced one following the injury of Lee Wallace, changed the game for the better.
Sure Levein rode his luck with the amount of injury time that was played, time-wasting isn’t always correctly punished but it was this time and in the end, everyone left happy.
It certainly wasn’t the case throughout the evening as the boos rained down from the stands as the Scottish fans turned on their team. However, 3 points, top of the group and everyone can walk about today saying “ach, we always make things difficult for ourselves!”
4 points out of six…same again next month would be just grand.
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I tend to subscribe more to your way of thinking in that its 3pts. We took the 4pts minimum from our opening 2 games roll onto Spain & Czech’s.
The flaws we saw last night (and at the weekend) will worry me when we come round to playing L & L in the the return fixtures as clearly we seem to struggle when teams sit in.
The worrying thing is that barring Gordon and S. Fletcher it was a full strength squad we weren’t ravaged by injuries like we usually are so effectively there isn’t many options to change however by this time next month hopefully the likes of Faddy, Hutton etc. will be fully fit & match fit.