Looking forward (or not!) to another Scotland qualifying campaign

My father disputes this vehemently, but I swear that, during the mid-nineties, a Scotland away game in Eastern Europe against a middle- or lower-ranking opponent was nothing to be scared of; instead it was something to be bored by.

We would go over there, give a fairly mediocre performance, survive one or two scares, yet, according to my memory, we always seemed to contrive to win 1-0 or 2-0. Usually with a Scott Booth goal involved.

That era came to a resounding halt with the infamous 0-0 draw with Estonia in Monaco in 1997 - the part of me which holds longstanding grudges (a significant part, I must admit) requires me to point out that the game should never have been played, as FIFA and UEFA rules (which were overturned by UEFA's Swedish president, whose countrymen were actually in Scotland's group) should have upheld the 3-0 win awarded to us after the "one team in Tallinn" fiasco. But since then, we have seemed extremely vulnerable when away from home against almost anyone - whether this is due to our inferiority, or an improved quality of an opponent (probably both) is hard to say.

Since our France '98 qualification, our away record in qualifying has included dropped points to Lithuania (draw in 1998, defeat in 2003), Faroe Islands (draws in 1999 and 2002), Estonia (draw in 1999), Moldova (draw in 2004), Belarus (draw in 2005), Georgia (defeat in 2007) and Macedonia (defeat in 2008). So forgive me for saying I would really be okay with a draw in Lithuania on Friday.

It's hard to believe, looking back, that the earliest entries in this blog were about THAT game in Paris, THAT McFadden goal, and displayed an optimism about the future that turned out to be more naive than anyone who believes a word of Tony Blair's memoirs. Instead, after watching Walter Smith and Alex McLeish drag us out of the horrors of the Berti Vogts era, we had to cope with George Burley dragging us back into them.

There is one thing in our favour for these qualifiers - second place guarantees us at least a playoff. Assuming Spain will walk the group...which they will...and Liechtenstein will be hammered left right and centre...which they should (if we drop points to them, Levein should be cremated on a huge funeral pyre in the middle of Glasgow - whilst still alive) - then we compete with the Czech Republic and Lithuania. Take four points off each of them, and we will surely come second.


It's as easy as that.

But if only that was easy.

L.