[0762]

So lotsa Tartan Army fans still heading to London in spite of the off-putting utterances from certain English sports/health officials, the London Mayor and others, to stay away. Scotland now ranked as having nae chance v a decent England team with lotsa top class players and I must say I rate our chances as nil mainly because we don't have quality striking in our repertoire. We'll see what team the England manager, Southgate, decides to field v Scotland. On a separate note he is an England manger who made a powerful statement defending his players rights to demonstrate against racism and vilify England fans who boo his players - it cast Southgate in a positive light despite his baffling inability to differentiate between England and Britain in his first interview covering the Scotland match - what a confused fellow indeed or was he "got at" by some Tory FA clown to say that!!? And gushing on about his love of royalty and street bunting??? Part of his interview sounded like it came from a letter written by a 1950s widow from my wife's place of birth in Kent and not a modern day footie manager. Anyway, back to the footie! How does Clarke tackle a match that we really have little chance of winning and it looks like Tierney, our best player, is disappointingly not gonna make this match - as if we had enough f###### problems without losing a top class player who hasnae even picked up the injury in a preceding Scotland match!!! As an ex footie player, I'd be "kicking through walls" to get at England and telling all my fellow players what is expected of them as well - I want a typical hi-intensity British cup-tie with no holds barred and absolutely battering England for almost the full 90 mins of combat in order to try and win three precious pts that could greatly change Scotland's chances of qualifying to the next round of the Euros for the first time in footie history. However, we all know Steve Clarke doesn't do passion which is good sometimes but there are occasions where passion and hi-motivating player discussions are required - ask Sir Alex Ferguson all about that stuff eh!! In reality, Clarke will opt for a tight defensive strategy and attempt to play out a drawn match with the next group game v Croatia becoming Scotland's cup final, Clarke's view being that the right result could possibly "sneak" a third place qualification. What will be the Scotland line up?

I'd opt for this high-risk team:-

Marshall (pulled off enough decent saves v Czech Rep to be retained!), Patterson, Cooper, Gallagher, Robertson, Tominay, Forrest, McGinn, Gilmour, Armstrong, Adams

I'd luv to have an old-fashioned "clogger" (somebody like Graeme Souness) in our midfield to "stir it up" in the English mid ranks but IMO we have nobody of that stature any more. Anyway, Clarke will not pick that team! I'm 100% certain on that score. So based on Clarke's more cautious line up, I'm hoping we somehow "nick" the first goal v them and critical parts of this match are more fortuitous for Scotland than before. C'mon boys - give it all you've got, "get stuck in" and no regrets after this match.

[ritchiebaby]

I think we'll be in the position once again of only opening up when we are two down. We will ultimately fail because we're not strong enough in defence, but we can bother the English with our attacking potential. Or is the use of that potential too much to hope for?

Once we've no chance of qualifying, we will probably beat Croatia.

[St Charles Owl]

Do you have to turn everything political!!  Its a football match between the two oldest teams in international football at a major tournament and a game that is usually tight, exciting and often blood and thunder football, can't we celebrate that??  Southgate is the England manager, he isn't some intellectual scribe so I would expect him to make some mistakes in interviews, doesn't mean it's politically motivated!!  Maybe he will call our next opponent Czechslovakia!! And if you are going to criticize Rangers fans for their St Georges square stupidity, then you should also be criticizing any Scotland fans who travel to this game if they don't have a ticket.

On to the game, as usual I don't have a ton of faith that England will win this game as they should. These games are often too tight, Scotland has a habit of raising their game a few notches for this one and we often don't!! If that happens then it could be close. As you say your biggest problem is scoring goals, you don't have a striker that is clinical and this will continue to hurt you. We on the other hand are blessed with forward thinking players but they have to turn up. We have to take advantage of the chances we will create.

As someone else said a couple of days ago on here, this has a 3-0 England win or 0-1 Scotland win written all over it!! I'd wish you luck but I would be being disingenuous, but if we were able I would happily have a beer after the game no matter the score!!

[0762]

And you call yourself a site moderator St Charles Owl?????? YOU DINNAE HALF HAVE YOUR OWN CRITICAL MOMENTS - PROVED TO BE A HUMAN BEING WITH HUMAN FRAILTIES AS WELL AND SANCTIMONIOUS ONES AT THAT! AS WELL AS SUDDENLY BEING ULTRA DEFENSIVE EHHHHHHH!!!
Btw lotsa Tartan Army fans heading to London because their plans to travel were pre-arranged months ago at cost - just saying!! And in my OP it is just a statement of fact. I haven't defended it or backed it. As for Southgate's silly interview, I'm not gonna bother reeling off his jaw-dropping comments word for word but it certainly had a good number of Scot people, incl myself, coming out with the classic EHHHHHHHH word!! It was a football interview, not a political one, on a sports media channel!!! Embarrassing what!! And he did it twice FFS!!
Also re the Tartan Army, I'm sure most of us will have already "set our watches" for the first mention of 1966 - as predictable as clockwork with the self-assured reasoning that everyone, irrespective of their national background shares the same overwhelming English history - it is the very essence of entitlement.
Lastly, re that "political dimension" re footie - over the next few weeks, the serially dense will be out and about making the naive case for disaggregating politics and sport - a flawed argument with next to no moral authority whatsoever. Football reflects a sense of nationhood and community; it is funded by corporate capital and global media, and it is riven with old enmities sometimes born out of war and annexation - all components of what we widely consider to be politics. There are many historical international footie matches that reflect that association and there will be many more in the future.

[Tobias Chuddlewick]

Much ado about nothing methinks. Perhaps we'll just watch the game & let the game itself affect your blood pressure . The rest is just nonsense. Enjoy.

[0762]

Much ado from a so called site moderator Tobias - that is the crux of the last couple of threads!! Enjoy!

[St Charles Owl]

And you call yourself a site moderator St Charles Owl?????? YOU DINNAE HALF HAVE YOUR OWN CRITICAL MOMENTS  - PROVED TO BE A HUMAN BEING WITH HUMAN FRAILTIES AS WELL AND SANCTIMONIOUS ONES AT THAT! AS WELL AS SUDDENLY BEING ULTRA DEFENSIVE EHHHHHHH!!!
Btw lotsa Tartan Army fans heading to London because their plans to travel were pre-arranged months ago at cost - just saying!! And in my OP it is just a statement of fact. I haven't defended it or backed it. As for Southgate's silly interview, I'm not gonna bother reeling off his jaw-dropping comments word for word but it certainly had a good number of Scot people, incl myself, coming out with the classic EHHHHHHHH word!! It was a football interview, not a political one, on a sports media channel!!! Embarrassing what!! And he did it twice FFS!!
Also re the Tartan Army, I'm sure most of us will have already "set our watches" for the first mention of 1966 - as predictable as clockwork with the self-assured reasoning that everyone, irrespective of their national background shares the same overwhelming English history - it is the very essence of entitlement.
Lastly, re that "political dimension" re footie - over the next few weeks, the serially dense will be out and about making the naive case for disaggregating politics and sport - a flawed argument with next to no moral authority whatsoever. Football reflects a sense of nationhood and community; it is funded by corporate capital and global media, and it is riven with old enmities sometimes born out of war and annexation - all components of what we widely consider to be politics. There are many historical international footie matches that reflect that association and there will be many more in the future.

Yes the seriously dense will turn this political, but that was my point in the first place, and before you start I do not consider you to be in that bracket. As for me being a site moderator, I don't see what that has to do with anything!! My "sanctimonious" moments have all occurred on threads surrounding that particular topic, I just didn't like seeing a football match thread being political from the off, I don't think that is necessary and there are plenty of other threads to do that. We have enough on the field history to have a good rivalry and have some banter, politics is just divisive at the moment. And we will always remember 1966, we won something, and if you ever get to win something you will do the same!! And lets not forget your name is your way of celebrating a couple of wins by your team over it's rivals, so we all remember the successes in our own way.

[0762]

And you call yourself a site moderator St Charles Owl?????? YOU DINNAE HALF HAVE YOUR OWN CRITICAL MOMENTS  - PROVED TO BE A HUMAN BEING WITH HUMAN FRAILTIES AS WELL AND SANCTIMONIOUS ONES AT THAT! AS WELL AS SUDDENLY BEING ULTRA DEFENSIVE EHHHHHHH!!!
Btw lotsa Tartan Army fans heading to London because their plans to travel were pre-arranged months ago at cost - just saying!! And in my OP it is just a statement of fact. I haven't defended it or backed it. As for Southgate's silly interview, I'm not gonna bother reeling off his jaw-dropping comments word for word but it certainly had a good number of Scot people, incl myself, coming out with the classic EHHHHHHHH word!! It was a football interview, not a political one, on a sports media channel!!! Embarrassing what!! And he did it twice FFS!!
Also re the Tartan Army, I'm sure most of us will have already "set our watches" for the first mention of 1966 - as predictable as clockwork with the self-assured reasoning that everyone, irrespective of their national background shares the same overwhelming English history - it is the very essence of entitlement.
Lastly, re that "political dimension" re footie - over the next few weeks, the serially dense will be out and about making the naive case for disaggregating politics and sport - a flawed argument with next to no moral authority whatsoever. Football reflects a sense of nationhood and community; it is funded by corporate capital and global media, and it is riven with old enmities sometimes born out of war and annexation - all components of what we widely consider to be politics. There are many historical international footie matches that reflect that association and there will be many more in the future.

Yes the seriously dense will turn this political, but that was my point in the first place, and before you start I do not consider you to be in that bracket.  As for me being a site moderator, I don't see what that has to do with anything!!  My "sanctimonious" moments have all occurred on threads surrounding that particular topic, I just didn't like seeing a football match thread being political from the off, I don't think that is necessary and there are plenty of other threads to do that.  We have enough on the field history to have a good rivalry and have some banter, politics is just divisive at the moment.  And we will always remember 1966, we won something, and if you ever get to win something you will do the same!!  And lets not forget your name is your way of celebrating a couple of wins by your team over it's rivals, so we all remember the successes in our own way.

Compare both comments in bold and reflect! May I also say again that these comments in my OP that you have personally "made a mountain out of a molehill" (due to some personal "beef" re politics and sport being inter-related, AND THEY ARE BTW!!) are just accurate details of events in the lead up to the match at Wembley on Friday. Re the politics attached to this particular fixture, may I add that 1000s of Tartan Army members regard this match at this particular time to have a political element attached to it because of the expected anti-Scotland "poison" from the usual RW English press sources - THEY NEVER FAIL TO ANNOY AND SHOW DISRESPECT AND IT IS CONTRIVED! And re the repetitive 1966 reference, ad nauseum, the main point being made is why do the English media (esp in tv/radio broadcasts!!) have this "self-assured reasoning that everyone, irrespective of their national background, shares the same English footie history"?? That is indeed the very essence of entitlement and an affront to other disinterested footie fans/viewers/listeners of another national persuasion!! Is it a "crumb of comfort", something to hold on to, for those nostalgic people who "can't let it go"???? It happened well over half a century ago FFS!!! Well done but "leave it in the historical footie museum" at Wembley ehhhhh!! Lastly, even the "taking of the knee"/BLM issue demonstrated by England players became a political issue when the Scotland players and management were suddenly drawn in to it last Thursday (the day before the Euros started!!) that IMO arose mainly because the England players were booed AGAIN by sections of their own fans for doing this. Scotland/the SFA/Scot players eventually considering this "sudden criticism" from the Great Brit press/media sources re their "standing up against racism" (agreed and practiced for months by the Scotland players plus the SRU following the same line!) and deciding to show solidarity with the England players at Wembley in a one-off change of practice while in the background a Brit govt Home Secretary, an idiot who should've "shut her trap", vilified the England players for "taking of the knee"????? Again a highly political situation whether we like it or not!! D'ya remember a racist US President named Trump and his clashes with the NFL and NBA to try and "shut them up" on the same issue?? It is indeed nice to debate footie without all this kinda shit. But you can't "bury your head in the sand" TBH and in this case the England players had a right of reply to defend their stance.

[spireitematt]

Do you have to turn everything political!!  Its a football match between the two oldest teams in international football at a major tournament and a game that is usually tight, exciting and often blood and thunder football, can't we celebrate that??  Southgate is the England manager, he isn't some intellectual scribe so I would expect him to make some mistakes in interviews, doesn't mean it's politically motivated!!  Maybe he will call our next opponent Czechslovakia!! And if you are going to criticize Rangers fans for their St Georges square stupidity, then you should also be criticizing any Scotland fans who travel to this game if they don't have a ticket.  

On to the game, as usual I don't have a ton of faith that England will win this game as they should.  These games are often too tight, Scotland has a habit of raising their game a few notches for this one and we often don't!!  If that happens then it could be close.  As you say your biggest problem is scoring goals, you don't have a striker that is clinical and this will continue to hurt you.  We on the other hand are blessed with forward thinking players but they have to turn up.  We have to take advantage of the chances we will create.

As someone else said a couple of days ago on here, this has a 3-0 England win or 0-1 Scotland win written all over it!!  I'd wish you luck but I would be being disingenuous, but if we were able I would happily have a beer after the game no matter the score!!

I said that St Charles on the other thread about England either winning this 3-0 or Scotland winning it 1-0.

We don't need to bring politics or Brexit into this, it's football and like you say St Charles there is already a big rivalry between England and Scotland.

The title of this thread though could upset Welsh or even Northern Irish fans of their national teams.

[Lord Snooty]

I think what would upset the Welsh more would be the half time talk in their match today.

"Right, enough about the Taffies. Let's talk England v Scotland!"