Progress!

When this blog started in September 2007, Scotland's national team, under the command of Alex McLeish, looked like it was going places.

For most of the next six years, it has indeed been going places.  These places include Up S*** Creek, and Down The Toilet.

George Burley's reign was a huge disappointment, marred by fall-outs with squad members and that incident with Allan McGregor and Barry Ferguson.  Luck didn't go Burley's way - imagine that Chris Iwelumo scores against Norway instead of producing the worst miss ever in the history of football (I don't think I'm exaggerating there), or Gary Caldwell didn't get sent off in the return game by a jobsworth referee - but there were plenty of poor performances as well and the decision to get rid of him was the correct one.

Burley, however, was the reincarnation of Jock Stein in comparison to Craig Levein, a man who perhaps regrets using his free time to appear on Sportscene and to cultivate his hobo-beard, rather than watching our opponents.  Only once did he send his side into action with a thought-out gameplan. and we all remember what that plan was.  One Scottish journalist (possibly Graeme Spiers, but I can't find the quote) wrote "his headstone will read 'Here lies Craig Levein.  He played 4-6-0 in Prague'".

But at last, for the first time in a long time, I feel confident writing the following words...

Scotland are making progress.

That's not to say I'm confident we'll make Euro 2016, which presumably is our target.  Even though the next European Championships has expanded to 24 teams, a lot will depend on the draw we get.  We'll be in pot four, just like we were for the Euro 2008 qualifiers, and back then we ended up with three teams who made the last eight of the 2006 World Cup, including the two finalists (that said, it didn't seem to do us a lot of harm, given that we nearly qualified).

However, had it not been for that away win in Croatia in June, we probably would be in pot 5, which would most likely leave us an even harder task.  And we wouldn't have won that game, or drawn it, or even come away with dignity in defeat, if Craig Levein was still in charge.

Gordon Strachan's tenure as national team manager didn't start well, with defeats at home to Wales and away to Serbia in the first two competitive matches - a tame friendly win over Estonia before that doesn't count for anything in my book - but since then there has been plenty to feel positive about.  The game against England in August wasn't really a friendly, given the ferocity it was played with.  Then we had the two games in the past week, at home to Belgium and away to Macedonia.

Friday's match split opinion considerably amongst pundits and fans.  Some lamented a home defeat to a country not much bigger than ours, where we were outplayed for long periods and offered little attacking threat; others, including myself, see the Belgians as a far superior team at the moment (though if one more person says "golden generation", I'll give them a slap) and were not too disheartened.

Against Belgium and again last night in Macedonia, Scotland looked like a team with a plan.  Most fans would consider this to be the absolute minimum required from the coaching staff, but its a marker of how bad things were under Levein that it still feels like a novelty to me.  On Friday night, the midfield was set up to make life difficult for Marouane Fellaini and co, with Charlie Mulgrew and Scott Brown excelling.  In Skopje, Strachan used Ikechi Anya's pace to stretch the game and create space for Brown, Barry Bannan and Shaun Maloney to exploit in midfield, while for the most part Mulgrew was able to squeeze Goran Pandev out of the game.

In both matches - even the Belgium one - I felt the players showed enthusiasm and belief and gave it their best shot.  Dare I say it, they even looked capable of passing the ball well.  Against Belgium, they just weren't good enough; against Macedonia, they were.  Compare this to the away defeat in Wales last season, where Charlie Adam just let Gareth Bale walk past him to score the winner.  Now, the team look like they actually give a toss.

That's not to say that there aren't still glaring weaknesses.  The absence of Steven Fletcher and the retirement of Kenny Miller left us with a powder-puff attack.  Against Belgium, the use of Leigh Griffiths as a lone striker was a desperate move, but he wasn't helped by an insipid performance from James Forrest, who was very effective at Wembley when carrying the ball and running at Leighton Baines, but who got no change out of Jan Vertonghen this time round.  In the Celtic winger's defence, he was probably still struggling with an ankle knock from club duty the previous week.

But what was the alternative to Griffiths?  Some journalists (I'm looking at you, Ewan Murray from The Guardian) slagged off Gordon Strachan for claiming that a one-up-front system doesn't suit Jordan Rhodes, but they're right.  The boss improvised by deploying Steven Naismith in that role four days later.  It wasn't perfect - Naismith only had a couple of glimpses of goal - but it was better, particularly because his link-up play was better than that of Griffiths.  It's a stopgap solution anyway - Steven Fletcher will walk into this side when fit, and one feels he will be a better target for wide players such as Anya to aim at.

The other problem is still in defence.  I'm not so fussed about the left-back position, where I felt Steven Whittaker did an adequate job and we're scunnered until our best left-back gets back to playing against full-time sides on a regular basis.  The paucity of central defensive options is a huge worry, though.  Russell Martin has done well, considering he is a right-back by trade, and has proven reliable so far.  Grant Hanley, on the other hand, is dreadfully prone to losing concentration and silly errors, which I guess is par for the course for most defenders in their early twenties.

But, again, what are the alternatives?  The next man up in the squad was Gordon Greer!  Steven McManus and Andy Webster are not good enough any more, Christophe Berra has been dreadful for the last couple of years, and Gary Caldwell, always a man who polarised opinion, has been perenially injured for months.  Hanley is the least-bad option.

On the bright side, though, Strachan was some way off his strongest XI for these games.  Allan McGregor, James Morrison, Liam Bridcutt, Darren Fletcher (hopefully) and the aforementioned Steven Fletcher would all probably strengthen this side.

As I said earlier, I'm not going to predict we'll make it to Euros.  But I'm damned sure we have a fighting chance.  And that's better than we've had for a long while.

L.