calscot

Brilliant.

I take it you won't be watching the Wigan or West Ham games?

What about Brazil?

Maybe Scotland just do better with ex-Rangers managers...

Our best chance of quafying is to win the next two games and draw against Italy. That would make us top the group. I think Italy's other two games are bankers but they may have to beat us to qualify if all three teams win all the other games. I'm hopeing Ukraine will give France a hard game in Kiev and get at least a draw. That would mean we could win the next two games and still lose to Italy. It still hard to believe we're looking at the permutations of qualifying from the group of death with only 3 games to go...

PS When you look at the table we've also scored the most goals. That's a turn-up for the books. France have only conceded 3 goals - 2 from us and 1 from Italy.

I think it's the two wins in both home and away games that makes it so spectacular. We took 6 points off the World Cup runners up; the first team to beat France on their own patch for 8 years. It's some achievement. Right at this moment, you could argue that Scotland are one of the top few teams in Europe for form, results wise. It's pretty hard to argue against. We may not play the most aesthetic football, but it sure seems to be effective. However we can't let it get to our heads as we have 3 incredibly hard games to go, especially considering our football does not in any way guaratee a win against even the smallest of teams. Georgia away is a tricky one, Ukraine even at home is a very difficult tie and no need to say much about hosting Italy.

Are you sure it's not just a chance to vaunt your well known favourite 5-3-2 formation? I think Alexander may play instead of McEveley even though he's a right back. Eck putting players out of position? Never!

I'm sure he called him Dado Preesho, when in fact the man himself says Prooshow, but with the oo so very short to almost not be there.

I think it should be "do as you would have done to you," which is paraphrasing what some guy in ancient history said. All the so-called "prods" at the games should take note, considering they worship the author of the sentiment...

Trouble is that Wattie is still trying to find his best front two, with Darcheville, Boyd, Cousin and Novo all doing decent jobs, so it's hard to drop them. Naismith is also only 20 which gets him an automatic place on the bench. I would agree he needs the carrot of at least a subs appearance to keep him motivated, so if he's doing well in the reserves it's time to reward him, otherwise why should he try?

looking again I think Barca are the 2nd top seeded team in pot 1. Lyon are 2nd top seed in pot 2 Stuttgart are 3rd top seed in pot 3 Rangers are 1st top seed in pot 4. That's an average of 2nd top seed where the expectation value is 4.5.

Barcelona; the 6 times French champs, Lyon; and the German champs, Stuttgart. Yep seems pretty Glamourous to me. No other group has two big five champs, and we have a huge team in Barca to boot. I'd also like to think we're one of the better pot 4 teams and as we were top seeded in that pot, we're really the best - especially as this year we've already moved up from 45 in the seedings to 34.

Goram...................MacGregor MacPherson..............Hutton Gough...................Cueller Brown...................Weir Robertson...............Papac/Smith Ferguson................Whittaker Durant..................Ferguson McCall..................Thomson/Hemdani Gordon/Michaelichenko...McCulloch Hateley.................Darcheville/Cousin McCoist.................Boyd

That's a good point as I can't see him getting anywhere near the team at the moment. However the price may escalate in that time if he improves. Perhaps we should buy him and loan him back. We could even do that cheating thing of not allowing him to play against us to give us an advantage - although I find that totally unsporting.

We've got Gow kicking his heals in the stand too.

It's what they use for the seedings except it's a five year total. Celtic were 24th at the end of last season which obviously guarantees them at least 3rd pot if they qualify, but as of this year lose their UEFA cup run and so are currently now 42nd. Rangers were 45th as of last season with a big part of that low rating due to the Zhizkov debacle. That will no longer count this year so we've moved up to 34th. Finishing a few places higher than this could get us into pot 3 next season, should we qualify.

It's a strange time to be leaving Rangers when we're on the up, just qualified for the CL and sure to win something this season. Am I right in saying that Hemdani hasn't won anything at Ibrox? I don't think Osasuna are even in the UEFA cup. Being dropped for the run of the mill SPL games and then getting picked for CL games doesn't seem that bad to me...

Sounds like he'll fit in very well at Rangers... :devil:

When you look at the teams it seems to me that Pot 3 and 4 don't look much different in potential. I don't think it's that important which one we're in as they are much of a muchness.

What was it with Fergusons long balls to the billboards? You'd think he'd learn the speed of the pitch after the first one or two... I thought our midfield lacked a bit of composure in possession and Barry was the number one culprit which is ironic seeing as he's our playmaker. I can't help thinking we need someone with that bit more quality in the middle of the park. Perhaps we need a new attacking, midfield general with Barry taking over Thomson's role with the latter as back up.

Agree that Hutton wasn't at his best and got skinned a fair few times on the left and allowed cross after cross to get in. Whittaker wasn't any better. To be fair that's where their best players were and they seemed to love the fast overlap, which our players seem to read pretty well. I thought Hutton got better as the match went on and started to take the ball off of Koroman when he was trying to be fancy.

Papac is definitely found a bit wanting as a left back in Europe. We definitely need someone who has that as his number one position. Papac is ok for the SPL and does a decent job there considering he's a centre back. A left back is now a priority before the deadline. PS Shame about Stevie Smith, he looked like a great player in the making and hopefully he can recover in the coming months. I still put him above Hutton on talent and consistency.

Ho ho! b:)

I'm surprised there haven't been any Celtic fans complaints that he's been sent to the Orange league for an education...