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I've got my tickets.
Taking my boy to his first international - should get a win and a few goals.
Hopefully I won't be embarrassed by a bunch of idiots booing the Gibraltar national anthem.
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We made very heavy weather of this at times. Poor passing in the centre of midfield and lightweights on the left wing - Anya and Robertson - who were every easily bundled off the ball by a fit and athletic Gibraltar side.
Brown and Morrison were surprisingly poor. Poor possession. Poor passing. Poor tackling. This game was crying out for someone to put his foot on the ball and deliver a few decisive passes through the middle- if only for some variation. Sadly Darren Fletcher didn't get the gig.
Gibraltar were up for it from the off - very physical. No real complaints as we've been know to play the same game against 'bigger' teams. Their goal was a shock, but not entirely undeserved and a very good, very cool finish. Their fans were a credit too. A real power league example of the 90 minutes of singing away fan.
My kids and I had a great day.
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30-03-2015, 00:49
(This post was last modified: 30-03-2015, 00:50 by El Car.)
One banana skin avoided, although we were lax in our play, and with Ireland held at home by Poland we're sitting in a decent position. If we manage to avoid defeat in Ireland in our next fixture I think we'll be well placed to finish top 3 as long as there are no nasty surprises. Mind you, I watched some of the Georgia - Germany 2nd half and although the statistics say it was easy for Germany the Georgians looks capable of getting in and troubling them - some better final balls would have seen them get more shots on the German goal. We probably need to win over there as Ireland, Germany and Poland have all done.
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Aye, one of the wee teams will get a shock result, they always do. As long as the Gibraltar goal was ours I'm happy enough.
Georgia are no mugs, while the republic have relied upon the final minutes of games to keep in touch. We are well capable of taking first of second here. That Poland result against Germany - who are still playing quite poorly all things considered - will be very important come the final games. Poland may well have sealed qualification with a game or two to go.
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I'm glad you and your kids had a great day out, met and spoke to a lot of Scotland fans before and after the England v Scotland game at Wembley the other year and they were a credit to your country.
Also delighted that Gibraltar managed to score a competitive goal for the first time ever. I know you still thrashed them but at least it shows they can score at this level and gives them hope in future games
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Usual reliance on the same players which in some cases is good and not in others
Said it many times but a B side to determine `who ` might be a good choice for senior positions would help immensly
plenty of Midfield players but plenty who beacuse they dont play for an EPL side dont get the nod at all
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03-04-2015, 18:41
(This post was last modified: 03-04-2015, 18:45 by El Car.)
Good idea in theory but the B internationals were phased out because the club managers didn't want to release players for them, and it's hard enough to get players to show up for full international friendlies as it is, so B matches were really turning into C or D matches that didn't demonstrate much of use.
I think has managed to try out a few prospects in friendlies by the way, but he does seem rather set in his ways when it comes to some regular picks. For me, scoring a hat trick against Gibraltar still doesn't justify the inclusion of Fletcher as first choice striker when his strike rate for club and country has been terrible in recent years. It's not just that he doesn't score many, but that he fluffs so many perfectly good chances you'd expect to see put away at a high level.
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i`d like to see an alternative then when a manager can do say a Tour of Oceania and he`ll only pick players from the Scots leagues or from the Championship, it just freshen`s it up a bit
Ive seen the likes of Sweden do it in the past
instead of Snodgrass, Adam, Fletcher etc same instant names in the midfield each time maybe Armstrong/Jack etc who currently are playing well but not getting a sniff due to automatic EPL first claimers