Watty gives us back our dignity
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Italy | 10 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 17 | 8 | +9 | 23 |
 Norway | 10 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 12 | 7 | +5 | 18 |
 Scotland | 10 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 9 | 7 | +2 | 13 |
 Slovenia | 10 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 13 | −3 | 12 |
 Belarus | 10 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 12 | 14 | −2 | 10 |
 Moldova | 10 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 16 | −11 | 5 |
Scotland had followed up the Euro 2004 playoffs by losing friendlies to Wales (4-0!), Romania, Denmark and Hungary (3-0 at home! Thankfully I have no memory of this) so the knives were already out for Berti Vogts before this one even got going.
And essentially we were buggered after three matches - a 0-0 at home to Slovenia where a young Craig Gordon nearly threw the ball into his own net; a 1-0 defeat at home to Norway where James McFadden got sent off for handballing on the goalline; and a 1-1 in Moldova (who had just been gubbed 4-0 by Belarus) where we were hanging on for the draw whilst Vogts, serving a touchline ban, sat in the stand.
So Berti got punted, and in came Walter Smith. Wattie didn't exactly get off to a great start - being beaten by two Andrea Pirlo free-kicks in Milan was nothing to be ashamed of, but then we made heavy weather of beating Moldova at Hampden and were somewhat fortunate to draw 0-0 in Belarus. With just four games to go we were fifth, but with Norway and Slovenia dropping points too we were remarkably just three points off second spot and a playoff place...
...and then suddenly for one glorious week Kenny Miller played like a boss. We were unlucky not to hold on to win against the Italians after Miller gave us a first half lead, and then he scored two in Norway in our best away win since god knows when. We were right back in this.
And then we weren't. Losing 1-0 at home to Belarus derailed us, though in reality Norway's strong finish meant that we wouldn't have come second anyway. And at least we went out with a bang, thumping Slovenia in Slovenia to clinch third spot. There was to be no World Cup, but there was at least some momentum to take into the Euro 2008 campaign.
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