Will Scotland end 20 years of hurt?

Tartan Army demands a place in Russia

The Tartan Army saw a battling performance from their heroes at Hampden on Sunday evening, the type of display that has been missing from Gordon Strachan’s side for far too long.

Scotland have been so poor in recent months in fact that the vital World Cup qualifying win over Slovenia was played out in front of a national stadium that was more than half-empty. Chris Martin climbed off the bench to score the winning goal after a game of pressing football from the hosts, but even the match winner was boo’d by those in attendance when he came onto the pitch.

Scotland’s search for a scorer goes on

It’s not the behaviour Scotland players are used to from the stands, but no one can blame supporters for thinking enough is enough. They have watched their neighbours progress while their team have gone backwards.

A number of Celtic players were included in the starting line-up for the hosts – some fared better than others. Kieran Tierney was fantastic, Scott Brown gave his usual gutsy display, but Leigh Griffiths was poor up top. He was unlucky not to score, and did get into the right positions, but hit the bar when it looked easier to score. The nation’s search for a reliable goal scorer continues.

That 1-0 win over Slovenia was fully deserved, and the points gained moved them to fourth in the table. There’s only Lithuania and Malta currently worse off, but Scotland have just two points to find to match Slovakia in second-place. Not ideal, but they have found themselves in much worse situations at this stage of competitions.