Euro Qualifier: Scotland v Italy - 17th Nov 07

[LAF]

Yes we have average players but we also have Britains best GK and RB playing for us, aswell as players like Ferguson, Brown, McFadden.

You need to watch these players everyweek to make those comments NJ10. For instance BARCA stuck a man marker on Hutton at the Camp Nou because they feared him as an attacking threat. Form is everything and Hutton has been incredible for club and country, abit like Brown.

[azzurri]

Originally Posted by Doc-Bhoy

Jager, we were robbed of a draw - not a win as you seem to think. That draw could have meant qualification for the Euro 2008, we havent been in a major championship since France 98 so what do you expect? you want all scots just to sit back and take the decision as a poor call from the ref and move on, forget about it - our performance in this group shows that we deserved a place in the finals.

Stop being thick. U talk about being robbed on the Chiellini foul, yet the game was close at that point only because Italy were robbed twice b4 that.

Your arguement isn't logical. Every neutral Ive spoken too states the exact opposite, because they realize how lucky Scotland were to have the ref call back a legit Italian goal, and let Scotland score an offside 1.

[LAF]

Assistant referee, not referee .

[Doc-Bhoy]

lol Azzuri away and tell it to someone who cares. If the roles were reversed we would never hear the end of your shite.

Im just pleased to see Scotland have a successful campaign and the country's full backing was phenomenal. We humbled the WC for 88 mins of the game and beat the runners-up and best footballing side in europe both home and away, very successful which ever way you look at it.

Change of subject for a minute, How does the draw for the world cup work??

[NJ10]

to LAF....

sorry, do i?

i watch Darren Fletcher very regularly, and actually i thought he was coming along nicely last season for United, but the signings of Anderson & Hargreaves have cocked that up. I think he needs a move and first team football before he gets to a level above average/decent.

i watched David Weir every week for about 7 years, good old fashioned defender, no pace whatsoever and not a particularly good footballer, average. same goes for Gary Naysmith.

James McFadden, watched a lot of him at Motherwell when SPL was on SKY, he was a precocious talent. Moved south too soon if you ask me, he has the ability to be a good player, but doesnt show it enough, has played out of his skin for Scotland (awful yesterday though), but he isnt a great player, not in a million years. If he was, he would be in Everton's team every week. He doesnt have the consistency or the attitude to be bracketed in as a top player imo.

Paul Hartley. Did superbly at Hearts til the arse fell out the club. But he isnt better than average, indeed he had a pretty poor first six months at Celtic and a few fans were on his back. I know this. He again has performed well for Scotland, but not as well as Gordon, Ferguson or Brown, who i do rate as very good players (with Hutton and Brown, when the campaign started, i would have had them- along with Boyd, Naismith & Whittaker- as the potential stars, i didnt think theyd step up so quick tbh- that part was omitted from my original post).

also please, Scots.....read what i said. "If any of you thought......were anything more than average players BEFORE this campaign started"....come on, how many of you did?

You need to read posts full before you accuse bias LAF.

[DavidMc]

Shame we didnt make it. But if the core of this group can stay together, we should be on course to qualify for World Cup 2010 in South Africa.

NJ10, we understand your point.

Good thing for us is that most of these players will play regular Champions League football, not to mention playing in the Premiership.

The future looks good for Scotland. Pity we didnt make it but its in the past. We can take a lot of good points from this campaign.

[NJ10]

Again i will ask....who is gonna partner McManus in the next campaign? Surely another couple of years is beyond Weir.

[DavidMc]

Originally Posted by NJ10

Again i will ask....who is gonna partner McManus in the next campaign? Surely another couple of years is beyond Weir.

Tough question, and I'm sure its one that must be at the back of McLeish's mind.

At the moment I cant think of many candidates. There are a few youngsters coming through in that position but its difficult to tell at the moment if they can play at that standard.

[Doc-Bhoy]

Doubt Weir will last, I can't really think of anyone apart from Caldwell which i hope doesn't happen because he is a disaster.

[azzurri]

Originally Posted by Doc-Bhoy

lol Azzuri away and tell it to someone who cares. If the roles were reversed we would never hear the end of your shite.

No I wouldn't, because I'm intelligent enough to realize that my arguement is void based on events earlier in the game.

[Mr Brightside]

I would like to commiserate with my fellow Scots on this result. Scotland performed heroically and, in my opinion, were robbed by an absolutely scandalous decision by the Assistant Referee.

In fact, all through the game, the ref was woeful, getting decisions wrong time after time.

But before you Scots get too despondent, remember that you got 24 points, amazing, and you were only pipped by the World Champions and Runners Up. Magnificent achievement. I hope Big Eck stays and rallies the troops for the WC 2010 Qualifiers, but it's possible that he could be off to The Premier League in England next Summer, or before that.

I would compare your campaign to ours. Northern Ireland. Losing silly points to teams that we should beat.

Give us a big shout on Wednesday night in Gran Canaria lads. Boy do we need it !!!!

[LAF]

Originally Posted by NJ10

You need to read posts full before you accuse bias LAF.

You have been one of our supporters on the forum and I never accused you of bias at all. Just that you were under rating our players by labeling them 'average'. When this isn't the case.

You are right about before this campaign, players like Brown, McManus and Hutton have improved incredibly well throughout. But we already had players like Fletcher, Ferguson, Gordon and Hartley who were performing great under Walter Smith for the WC qualifiers.

Imo we have 3 players that would not look out of place playing for top teams (Brown, Hutton and Gordon) aswell as very good players like Ferguson, Hartley and Fletcher. Also I personally think McFadden is abit overrated, yes he can perform miracles but he can have absolute shockers (kinda like Italy) he doesn't have the consistency, which is a shame for Evertonians as they rarely get the best of him.

Originally Posted by NJ10

Again i will ask....who is gonna partner McManus in the next campaign? Surely another couple of years is beyond Weir.

Hmm... Weir could last as another campaign as he hasn't shown any signs of slowing down.

The obvious contenders are Kennedy (Celtic), Webster (Rangers) and Wilkie (Dundee Utd) the problem with those three is they have all suffered big injuries (Kennedy and Wilkie were out of the game for 2/3 years). No doubt Kennedy would be my pick, he would have McManus' place just now and was brilliant for Celtic before his horrible injury.

Originally Posted by Mr. Brightside

I would like to commiserate with my fellow Scots on this result. Scotland performed heroically and, in my opinion, were robbed by an absolutely scandalous decision by the Assistant Referee.

In fact, all through the game, the ref was woeful, getting decisions wrong time after time.

But before you Scots get too despondent, remember that you got 24 points, amazing, and you were only pipped by the World Champions and Runners Up. Magnificent achievement. I hope Big Eck stays and rallies the troops for the WC 2010 Qualifiers, but it's possible that he could be off to The Premier League in England next Summer, or before that.

I would compare your campaign to ours. Northern Ireland. Losing silly points to teams that we should beat.

Give us a big shout on Wednesday night in Gran Canaria lads. Boy do we need it !!!!

Thanks mate. The country is proud of the players. I remember when the draw got made I went out to buy a Scotland DVD of our best victories over England at Wembley to cheer myself up. Everybody thought we were fucked, but to go all the way with the two WC finalists aswell as a team that made the 1/4 is amazing, not only that but we look like a very good team. Amazing!

Hopefully you make it through. It's disgusting the lack of coverage your campaign has been getting as it's up there with our achievements in this campaign.
If you make it that means the beeb will have to actually talk about something rather than England.

[LAF]

Thought this thread needed this, lol.

[Doc-Bhoy]

If the roles were reversed, yes you would go on for the next year or so about how use were robbed, everyone against italy, no-one respects us blah blah blah.

Least i have the intelligence to support my true country but thats another story/debate.

Thanks for the encouraging comments Mr Brightside, we will be confident to face anyone now after this campaign.

[LAF]

Steady mate, lets not turn this into a tit for tat sissy fight.