The bubble bursts?

After we succumbed to defeat in Tbilisi, I felt a strange, unfamiliar, bitter taste in my mouth. It was defeat. It's such a long time since the Tartan Army have had to a cope with a defeat, particularly one as disappointing as tonight's.

We were due a properly guff performance I suppose. As I said in one of my earlier posts, McLeish was also due a selection blunder. Here it was. He should have learned from Oleh Blokhin's huge mistake on Saturday - if you're away from home, do not play an attacking lineup. Blokhin played three forwards from the beginning - while that does not explain set-piece marking reminiscent of "partially-sighted" paralympic football - the game was too open from the beginning, And it was so with Scotland. With Shaun Baloney (Freudian slip) in the team, we were overrun completely in midfield. Instead, we really should have chucked in Christian Dailly, played McFadden wide left and waited for the Georgians, particularly the inexperienced ones, to get frustrated. Graeme Murty also had a shocker - with the benefit of the Hindsightoscope (the best friend of any football fan who thinks he actually knows something about the game) McEveley might have been a better option, with Alexander on the right. Admittedly, none of these changes would improve the bad luck at the first goal, as TV cameras show Weir's defensive header hit the forward full in the face and went in. Also, I'm not sure anyone execpt Craig Gordon had a decent game to be honest. It was an off day, and it's a relief that it took 11 matches to happen.

So, then. Beat the World Champions at home. Do we have one more miracle in us? On 17th November, we'll find out.

Results tonight have also thrown in the interesting possibility of none of the nations of the British Isles qualifying. Ireland join Wales on the scrap heap after a draw with Cyprus. I know it was a bad result, but surely 3rd place behind Germany and the Czechs is a reasonable spot to finish in? Yet Steve Staunton, with a squad nowhere near the quality that Charlton or McCarthy had, is expected to achieve qualification. It's almost as ridiculous as the idea of us qualifying from a group with 2 world cup finalist and a quarter-finalist.

Northern Ireland must be sick at the thought of what might have been. A wonderful point in Sweden which will still probably be worth nothing, because of two defeats by Iceland (beaten 3-0 by the mighty Liechtenstein tonight, incidentally. Eidur Gudjohnsen must be one depressed man) and one by Latvia. And England! If Israel don't do them a favour against Russia, the unthinkable happens. At least Sven's England qualified for the tournaments.

L.