O Flower of Scotland (Page 6)

Imagine

@ScottT;
Doing exactly that mate, not pulling up any trees but doing just enough to avoid the drop I'm hoping, although I'd ideally like to be aiming for a top half finish if I was setting a real goal. Cheers!

@Justice;
Thank you for the kind words! Looking to continue that rise and side challenges like these will keep me going for longer I feel.

Scotland announce squad for World Cup qualifiers

After a successful Nations League group stage Scotland now move on to the World Cup qualifiers and it's Armenia and Lichtenstein up first. After pulling out with injury last time around Scott Bain again misses out through the same injury and Zander Clark will retain his place in the only change to the goalkeepers called up. Rangers midfielder Ross McRorie is in line to make his international debut after receiving a call up and with his call up raises the prospect of twin brothers playing for the international team, what a remarkable achievement that will be! He replaces Allan Campbell in the squad and Callum McGregor rejoins the squad and it's Lewis Ferguson who also misses out. There was a bit of controversy with the strikers as Leigh Griffiths was sensationally dropped for eighteen year old Rangers forward James Taylor. Taylor spent the first half of the season on loan to Falkirk where he scored fourteen goals in twenty games. He returned to Rangers in January and has only made two sub appearances since so his inclusion has many up in arms. It shouldn't be much of a shack though as Christopher Burns has said all along that he intended to focus on the players coming through the system rather than continuously pick under performing regulars for the sake of it. Leigh Griffiths has certainly been underachieving internationally and his club form is a bit erratic although he has been scoring, it's the consistency in which he plays that's the issue. Maybe it's time for a young star to shine on the big stage.

Goalkeepers
Craig MacGillivray
Robby McRorie
Zander Clark

Defenders
Ryan Fredericks
Callum Paterson
Andrew Robertson
Kieran Tierney
Greg Taylor
John Souttar
Scott McKenna
Ryan Porteous

Midfielders
Ryan Fraser
James Forrest
Matt Ritchie
Ryan Christie
John McGinn
Scott McTominay
Callum McGreggor
Tom Cairney
Ross McRorie

Strikers
Oliver McBurnie
James Taylor
Lawrence Shankland

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Imagine

5 years

Scunthorpe March round up

With our form a bit inconsistent going into March I really wanted us to try and get a bit more of a handle on it and improve results immediately. Unfortunately we were just as up and down in March as we were in February as we lost two matches, very narrowly I must add, and won two as well. Against Wycombe we were perhaps lucky to lost just one nil however, after going down two nil to Lincoln we pulled one back and were actually very unlucky not to pull back level or even win the match in the end, such was our superiority. Thankfully we did manage to sandwich a couple wins in between those defeats though and victories Wigan and Rochdale seen us shoot up the table a little bit. It was pleasing to see Macaulay Bonne finally get on the score sheet again but his three goals in eleven games just isn't quite cutting it for me. I actually gave Tom Elliot a chance to regain his place but in the three games he started this month he only scored in one of them too. A problem area for sure, thankfully the team is contributing as a whole. So that leaves us with six games left of the season and hopefully we can get a good couple of wins to finish the season on a high.

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Imagine

5 years

The recent injury curse has struck Scotland again and this time it's Ryan Porteous who's had to pull out of the squad and he was replaced by David Bates. There was a couple of surprises in the team that faced Armenia as in form goalkeeper Craig MacGillivray was dropped for Robby McRorie and perhaps there was a bit of club bias in that selection with the youngster currently plying his trade with Christopher Burns' club team; Scunthorpe. That being said, he has been playing well. The aforementioned Bates was handed a starting spot as Scott McKenna was suspended and of course, Porteous pulled out of the squad. As rumoured, Ross McRorie was handed his debut at the centre of midfield alongside John McGinn as Burns opted to field the twins together in the senior side for the first time. Tom Cairney was preferred to Matt Ritchie in the attacking midfield spot but it was the shock start that was handed to young James Taylor that really stood out. It was thought that he'd be lucky to make it off the bench in the first game but Burns clearly had faith in him to start. The Tartan Army were treated to a fine start to the match as Ryan Christie swung in a corner that was bandied about the penalty box before Bates stabbed in his first international goal. The match fairly petered out for a good spell after that until young Ross McRorie had a debut to forget and was handed a red card for two bookable offences. Christie managed to get in on the action himself around the hour mark as he thundered in a shot past Sergey Barbarian in the Armenian goal after John McGinn laid him off. Around five minutes later Ryan Fredericks was clattered inside the box and a penalty was awarded, Tom Cairney was scheduled to take it but generously handed it to young Taylor who slotted it past Barbarian to score on his debut. Armenia scored late on to give the McRorie's a shared bad day at the office.

A landslide victory was expected for Scotland against Lichtenstein and the only changes that were made were in the centre of the midfield as Ross McRorie was suspended while Tom Cairney was dropped. Scott McTominay and Callum McGregor were selected as their replacement's and John McGinn was actually given a more advanced role this time around. Fifteen minutes in McGregor struck a thunderbolt of a shot to open the scoring after being teed off by Ryan Fraser. Ryan Fredericks whipped a ball into the box around the forty minute mark and the Lichtenstein defence made a catalogue of errors before allowing James Taylor to score his 2nd international goal in as many games. Fraser managed to get on the score sheet this time around as Ryan Christie turned provider for him to make it three nil. It was the turn of Christie to score next and Andrew Robertson set him up. Substitute Callum Paterson, on for Fredericks, laid off John McGinn who scored the fifth and final goal of the day but it was man of the match Ryan Fraser who really shone in this match.

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Griffo

5 years

I go away for a few days and this story goes into absolute overdrive, good luck with the Scunny job!

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ScottT

5 years

Solid enough work all-round from these past updates.

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Imagine

5 years

@Griffo;

Cheers Griffo! I tend to play this and update in spells, will play non stop and post a whole load of updates for a spell and then disappear for months on end!

@ScottT;

Thanks mate

Scunthorpe final run in

I don't think I've been happier to see a season end as much as I just have with this one. I have said repeatedly that our inconsistency is holding us back massively and last month was our worst yet. We started the month of April off poorly as we slumped to a two one but when we won our next game fairly confidently and with Bonne scoring I was optimistic. However, that was ill conceived as we proceeded to lose our next three games without even scoring a goal. Bare in mind that for two weeks in April we focused solely on general attacking play, team work, team bonding, attacking conversion and attacking creating and STILL these players couldn't score. On the final game of the season they finally got a win and they had to as we had slipped back down the table and needed it to survive. We sat in fourteenth place going into April and had visions of climbing the table further but these past six results meant that we were lucky to finish in eighteenth place. My remit when taking charge was to battle bravely against relegation, with ten wins, two draws and ten defeats I would say that we managed to do just that. However, as someone who believes that you should always being aiming as high as possible I was quite disappointed with how this spell panned out. Everyone kept telling me that my team were League Two players at best so to finish where we did after where we were when I took over, maybe we done well. All I know is that I believe we could and should have done better.

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Imagine

5 years

Burns quits club job and announces Scotland squad

Having taken the Scunthorpe job In December when The Iron where sitting twenty-third in the table Burns made wholesale changes and guided them to safety in eighteenth place. As expected, he stepped down from his position at the seasons end and immediately got back to international duties as he announced the Scotland squad to face Russia and Norway. It was a largely unchanged squad that was chosen by Burns and despite returning from injury Scott Bain doesn't make the squad as the usual three of Craig MacGillivray, Robby McRorie and Zander Clark were picked. Ryan Porteous was brought back in to the squad after he had to pull out through injury last time and his replacement back then, David Bates, was dropped. Lawrence Shankland was the final player to miss out from last time as the call was made on him due to his poor club form. Hibs bound Jason Cummings was called back up in place of him.

Goalkeepers
Craig MacGillivray
Robby McRorie
Zander Clark

Defenders
Ryan Fredericks
Callum Paterson
Andrew Robertson
Kieran Tierney
Greg Taylor
John Souttar
Scott McKenna
Ryan Porteous

Midfielders
Ryan Fraser
James Forrest
Matt Ritchie
Ryan Christie
John McGinn
Scott McTominay
Callum McGreggor
Tom Cairney
Ross McRorie

Strikers
Oliver McBurnie
James Taylor
Jason Cummings

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Imagine

5 years

Kurban Berdyev sacked by Rangers

Rangers have sensationally sacked Kurban Berdyev after little over a year in charge. He took over from Steven Gerrard when the former Liverpool legend left to take charge at Watford, a position he too was sacked from eleven months later. Although Berdyev was pretty much an out of nowhere appointment he led the team to both the Scottish League Cup and Scottish Cup finals albeit they lost as well as that he led them to the Europa League quarter finals and finished the season just three points behind Celtic in the league. From the outside he has actually done a decent job with the club but such as life as an Old Firm manager being runner up simply isn't enough. Worse still, Celtic finally got the much coveted tenth league title in a row, a record in Scottish football. With both Celtic and Rangers getting nine previously it was always going to be a massive thing when that record was finally earned. There are a host of big name managers linked with the Rangers job and they have a major rebuilding job on their hands if they are to ever break Celtic's dominance. With Allan McGregor retiring and five key loanees returning to their parent club the task is made even bigger. It will take a certain type of character to take this job on.

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ScottT

5 years

Could this be a job for Burns? I think so! Maybe the Rangers vacancy could tempt his interest for more than six months or so.

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Imagine

5 years

Gennaro Gattuso is the new Rangers manager

After a short period of consideration Rangers have made the sensational appointment of Gennaro Gattuso as manager. Gattuso played for Rangers for a season in the nineties and is still considered a fan favourite despite his short stint. It is a huge coup that they have been able to bring the legendary Italian back to the club. Although, Gattuso's managerial career hasn't quite went to plan after he was sacked from his first couple of positions at Sion and Palermo then he resigned from his next two at OFI Crete and Pisa. He returned to AC Milan to coach the under nineteen's before taking the first team job after Vincenzo Montella was sacked. After two years in charge he was sacked by AC MIlan too. With such a poor start to his managerial career he will be hoping to turn things around at his former club. He might well be the manager that Rangers need at this moment but only time will tell.

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ScottT

5 years

An interesting appointment for Rangers, he's certainly a big character and I suspect he'll be bring a certain extra spice to the already fiery Old Firm games.

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Imagine

5 years

Scotland got their World Cup qualifiers off to a great start after winning both of their opening matches but will face a much tougher test against both Russia and Sweden. Christopher Burns made a couple of changes to the team that played Lichtenstein last time out. Ross McRorie was given another chance to shine and he was put in at centre back where he played just in front of twin Robby who started in goals, both players had a tough time against Armenia and were looking to put it right against Russia. There wasn't too many shocks to the starting line up apart from that and as expected Oliver McBurnie started ahead of youngster James Taylor due to the higher calibre of opposition you would assume. Magomed-Shapi Suleimanov proved Scotland's undoing early on as he whipped in a superb free kick that met Ilja Kutepov who's initial header was saved but he got to the rebound to put his side ahead. There was another set of twins on the park today and it was the duo of Anton and Alexey Miranchuk who combined to make it two nil to Russia. Scotland pulled one back minutes later after a bollocking on the sidelines from their manager. Ryan Fredericks cut the ball inside to James Forrest who repeated the move to find Oliver McBurnie who in turn slid Andrew Robertson in on goal and he joined the fifty cap club with a goal to mark the occasion. Russia weren't having it though and on the immediate attack afterwards they were awarded a penalty after John Souttar fouled Artem Dzyuba. After Alexey had scored the first goal Anton was given the penalty which he scored. A fun and historical feat for the Miranchuk duo. With the clock ticking down towards half time Robertson switched an excellent cross field ball up to Forrest who bore down on goal and finished clinically to make it three two. As if scoring on the forty-first minute wasn't enough Scotland only went and scored another on the last of three minutes of added time. Ryan Fraser's cross was met by McBurnie who's pinpoint header flashed past Anton Mitryushkin in the Russian goal. In the second half the all action performance from the first half slowed right down as both sides looked to find that winning goal without conceding another in the process. With time running out to get that goal Russia looked to have broken Scottish hearts with an eighty-ninth minute winner through Suleimanov but it was ruled out for offside and the match ended in a draw. Not a bad point for Scotland considering they were behind and looked out of it for large periods.

Fresh from their remarkable match up with Russia Scotland were looking to get back to winning ways and should have faced a tough test against Norway who were flying after a nine nil victory over Lichtenstein but it didn't turn out that way. Andrew Robertson was given a rare rest for this game and Kieran Tierney replaced him at left back while Callum Paterson replaced the suspended Ryan Fredericks in the only other changes to the team. The Tartan Army fans were treated to a wonderful goal minutes after their national anthem as midfield maestro John McGinn converted from James Forrest's cross. Forrest was a man on a mission as less than a minute later he was put through on goal by Scott McTominay and bore down on goal and clinically finished it, much like the last game. Forrest caused havoc once again ten minutes later when he crossed the ball into the box and an almighty cock up by the Norwegian defence allowed McBurnie to tap in the third goal of the game. The last action of the first half again involved Forrest as he sprinted past Birger Meling who subsequently hauled him down and a penalty was awarded. A confident Forrest stepped up and despatched the penalty. The goal that ended the first half was the goal that ended the match as Scotland remained patient as Norway tried to spare further embarrassment in the second half. James Forrest played out of his skin in that first half and he was finally the player that Scotland have been needing him to be in recent times.

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Imagine

5 years

Scotland announce squad for World Cup qualifiers

With recent speculation linking Christopher Burns with the managerial position at boyhood club Rangers it was unknown if there would be a circus around this announcement. However, the Scotland boss came out and denied any interest in the job at this time and the club swiftly appointed Gennaro Gattuso anyway. There was rumours of him missing out on a job back in League One with both Hull and Sunderland after interviews. Perhaps he's getting a reputation as a relegation saviour and will only get those jobs! Back to Scotland though and with them sitting top of the group on goal difference only they knew they had to come out of their next couple of matches with maximum points, particularly against Switzerland, if they really wanted to cement top spot in the group. Burns made a couple of bold changes to his squad as they continuously look to improve. MLS based Jordan Archer was handed his first call up under Burns meaning Zander Clark missed out. After impressing for Stoke in recent years Liam Lindsay was given the opportunity to win his first cap as he replaced the injured Porteous in the squad. Greg Taylor was dropped from the squad alongside Matt Ritchie and Stuart Armstrong was brought back in from the cold after a recent upturn in form, Mikey Johnstone was also given an opportunity to stake his claim for a regular call up should he make his debut and impress. Perhaps the end of an era for Scotland as Matt Ritchie joins the likes of Leigh Griffiths, John Fleck, Liam Cooper, Joe Bryan, Scott Bain and several others who have been phased out of the national team. With an average age of twenty-five this Scotland team could be the core for many years. Only James Forrest, Tom Cairney and Stuart Armstrong are over the age of twenty-eight.

Goalkeepers
Craig MacGillivray
Robby McRorie
Jordan Archer

Defenders
Ryan Fredericks
Callum Paterson
Andrew Robertson
Kieran Tierney
John Souttar
Scott McKenna
Liam Lindsay
Ross McRorie

Midfielders
Ryan Fraser
James Forrest
Ryan Christie
Mikey Johnstone
Stuart Armstrong
John McGinn
Scott McTominay
Callum McGreggor
Tom Cairney

Strikers
Oliver McBurnie
James Taylor
Jason Cummings

@ScottT;
Thought'd I'd throw a little spanner in the works with that one! He definitely is that, such a high class appointment. Although given his managerial record...

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ScottT

5 years

Good results in the grand scheme of things. The game against Switzerland could be pivotal in deciding which two sides make their way to the World Cup.

The squad is looking extremely fresh these days.

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Imagine

5 years

Armenia were the first of Scotland's double away trip and they were hoping to pick up their first points of the campaign. There was a slight change to Scotland's tactic as the usual attacking midfield position was withdrawn into a midfield three. No one has really been playing well in the role and it was time for a change I guess. Ryan Fredericks returned to the starting line up in place of Callum Paterson and Stuart Armstrong took Ryan Christie's place too. Armenia got off to a great start and followed it up with a goal after seven minutes that sent shock waves around the Tartan Army. The Armenian's doubled their lead with ten minutes left of the first half but luckily for the away side it was ruled offside. With his team one nil down at the break Burns brought both full backs on, perhaps because they were both booked, and replaced them with Andrew Robertson and Callum Paterson. Robertson will have been wondering why he didn't start this game in the first place. Stuart Armstrong scored with a 70th minute penalty and was subbed immediately afterwards for James Taylor who came on to play alongside Oliver McBurnie. Ten minutes later, Armenia sparked back to life and took the lead through Davit Ghevnodyan who scored a peach of a voller from outside the box on an angle. A great goal. As Scotland went all out attack in search of another equaliser Roma's Henrikh Mkhitaryan put the home side three one up. Young Taylor scored on the ninety-fourth minute after a few defensive mishaps by his opponents but it was all too late and Scotland were beaten by the team ranked one hundred and third in the world.

A couple of key changes were made and needed for the Switzerland after such a shocking result against Armenia. Craig MacGillivray returned in goal, Scott McKenna came in for Ross McRorie and Andrew Robertson took his place back from Kieran Tierney. Unfortunately, the changes that were made to the team didn't shake it up enough to get the win here as the teams played out a bore 0-0 draw. It could be said that the tactical change isn't working so it remains to be seen whether the manager reverts back to the previous formation or tries something else out completely. The past couple of results haven't been kind to Scotland's world ranking as they slip back down to twenty fifth.

@ScottT;
Aye it was par for the course right up until that last couple of games there unfortunately, just need to get a handle back on things. Just the way I wanted it to be mate, only two seasons past as well.

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O Flower of Scotland

Scotland announce squad for World Cup qualifiers

Scunthorpe March round up

Scunthorpe final run in

Burns quits club job and announces Scotland squad

Kurban Berdyev sacked by Rangers

Gennaro Gattuso is the new Rangers manager

Scotland announce squad for World Cup qualifiers

FMS Chat–