Typical Scotland.
That’s how I’d sum up the opening to the national team’s World Cup qualifying campaign.
Not just in terms of the performances – but also in our reaction to them as fans.
Here we are after three games sitting second in the table behind Denmark, who we’ve still to play twice.
That’s not bad at all.
Che Adams opens his account for Scotland and it's a great goal! That touch 😍🏴
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— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) March 31, 2021
Okay – I said in a previous column I wanted to see Scotland take seven points from the available opening nine.
Considering we had two home games, I thought that was fair enough.
We fell two points short of that target after drawing at home with Austria.
But we’re by no means in a bad position.
The performance away in Israel wasn’t brilliant – and away games are traditionally where Scotland have done themselves damage in qualifying campaigns.
That was typical.
But there was a lot of negativity before last night’s 4-0 win over the Faroe Islands – and I think we do that to ourselves as a country.
That’s typical too.
Let’s be honest – myself included as an ex-Scotland player – we want to qualify for tournaments so, so badly. We all just want to be involved.
I’m like any other Scotland supporter – I want to go as a fan and watch us play at a major finals.
There’s this great clamour because we’ve been starved of success as a nation for so long.
Our last tournament was 1998, which is incredible when you think about it.
But we’ve got a European Championships appearance coming up this summer – and the feeling of qualifying is still fresh in everybody’s memory.
So when we start a new qualifying campaign and we draw the first two games, we’re probably a wee bit deflated because we’ve put so much pressure on ourselves to get to the next tournament.
There’s nothing really wrong with that. We all want Scotland to succeed.
But let’s put it in perspective…
Again, we’re second in the group after three games. That’s decent. And there’s a long way still to go here.
I wanted seven points from these three games, instead we got five, but we’re not guaranteed anything.
Steve Clarke will be delighted with the Faroes result.
It was a 4-0 win. Good for the goal difference. A good night to get new players involved.
Let’s not get carried away by points totals. We’re second in the group and, in the end, we’re in a really decent position.
If that’s typical Scotland these days, I’ll take it.
