Scotland V Norway Match Day Thread

[FortressICT]

Discuss the Scotland game in here.

They'll be a few people on here that are going to the game.

I'm going out to watch it but thought might as well get a thread going, so we can get a bit of banter and support for our amazing nation before the game!

Anyone who gets any team news post it straight away!

COME ON SCOTLAND!!!

Edited October 11, 2008 by roscoe23

[tm4tj]

I suppose I will watch it out of sheer boredome.

These games get in the way of the proper stuff, supporting yer local team.

[Mee]

Anyone who gets any team news post it straight away!

Lets start with wtf is the crack with MacGregor being first pick over Gordon?

I'm staying in to watch the match - anyone who wants to watch it through the wonder of modern technology and not a subscription service, PM Mee :thumb04:

[FortressICT]

McGregor is starting over Gordon?! That is a joke! Gordon is in my own opinion one of the top 10 keepers in Europe!

[Mee]

McGregor is starting over Gordon?! That is a joke! Gordon is in my own opinion one of the top 10 keepers in Europe!

I agree! And I read it here but reading it again, maybe it just means he's kept his place in the squad?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/i...als/7648194.stm

Wolves striker Chris Iwelumo and Bristol City left-back Jamie McAllister have been named in the Scotland squad to face Norway on 11 October.

Keeper Allan McGregor retains his place for the World Cup qualifier at Hampden, despite being dropped by Rangers.

Ibrox defender Kirk Broadfoot is also kept on by manager George Burley after his impressive debut against Iceland.

Edited October 11, 2008 by Mee

[Hiro]

Gordon will definately start, of that there is no question. By all accounts the team will look something like as follows:

Gordon

Broadfoot Weir Caldwell Naysmith

Fletcher Hartley Robson

Morrison McFadden Maloney

[SMEE]

[CaleyD]

Very frustrating, but the team put on a great performance. "on another day" we'd have walked that game by 3 goals or more.

[+Wanderer]

Very frustrating, but the team put on a great performance. "on another day" we'd have walked that game by 3 goals or more.

Really? I thought Norway were the more likely to take something. Huffing and puffing ain't threatening. They knew our game plan and snuffed it out. End of day they had more chances...despite the fact we had more possession.

Whatshisface Iwojima will never again pull on a Scotland shirt. Offside, blind linesman, perfect ball along the deck, 6 feet out, no keeper, no defenders, middle of the goal, skew it wide...a You Tube classic!

[TSTtiger]

on another day it could have been 3 each. on chances created norway deserved 3 points while the best chance fell to us which was a miss of van vossen quality. not that we played that badly but we started wrong team. should have started boyd and iwelmo.

despite what most think though i still dont think qualifying is beyond us yet

[Alex MacLeod]

Typical Scottish football...........lump it up and hope for the best

[ICTFCkev]

Iwelumo.... Why?

:thumb04: :018: ;) :015: :D :P

[SMEE]

Typical Scottish football...........lump it up and hope for the best

I never saw the game...was that the craic? have to say....stating the obvious but, 2 VERY valuable points dropped at home.....am not fancying our chances for second place at this rate. We seem to have taken a footballing step backward under Burley.

[CaleyD]

Very frustrating, but the team put on a great performance. "on another day" we'd have walked that game by 3 goals or more.

Really? I thought Norway were the more likely to take something. Huffing and puffing ain't threatening. They knew our game plan and snuffed it out. End of day they had more chances...despite the fact we had more possession.

Whatshisface Iwojima will never again pull on a Scotland shirt. Offside, blind linesman, perfect ball along the deck, 6 feet out, no keeper, no defenders, middle of the goal, skew it wide...a You Tube classic!

I should have perhaps said "if it had been our day".

It could easily have been 3-0, 0-3, 3-3....but had we got some breaks (and put that sitter in the net) then I think we were playing well enough to have deserved the 3 points.

We certainly did more and played better than I had expected.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Broadfoot;Weir;Caldwell;Naysmith Mcgrain,Buchan,McQueen,Albiston

Spot the difference !!

Iwelumo.... Why?

:thumb04: :018: ;) :015: :D :P

What a miss but he is deffo an improvement.

[ralph milne]

An improvement on what ?

[alternative maryhill]

Typical Scottish football...........lump it up and hope for the best

I never saw the game...was that the craic? have to say....stating the obvious but, 2 VERY valuable points dropped at home.....am not fancying our chances for second place at this rate. We seem to have taken a footballing step backward under Burley.

Having defended Fletcher in your earlier thread SMEE, I've got to admit that he was pretty pish today - didn't seem to know where he should be playing, and a certain ex-ICT player was by far the better of the attacking midfielders.

Just posted a lengthy post-mortem on P&B so can't be bothered going over the same ground again, but 2 mistakes on Burley's part are clear: McFadden should not be on his own as a lone striker, and Morrison should not have been picked in the first place, particularly when Brown, Robson and McFadden can all play wide midfield (in addition to Maloney, who was, IMO, on the wrong wing).

Edited October 11, 2008 by alternative maryhill

[Yngwie]

Can't argue with the result. Aside from Iwulemo's unbelievable miss, Norway had all the best chances and could well have snatched the points. Craig Gordon was our best player. And I thought Iwelumo actually looked pretty decent, and we looked far far more threatening after he came on.

[chris123]

An improvement on what ?

Steven Fletcher for a start, who could be a very talented football player, but won't be because "Real Madrid" has gone to his head.

Just back from the game. The papers tomorrow will blame Iwelumo and Burley. To be honest, that's pretty much fair enough. I liked the look of Iwelumo when he came on, and unlike most idiots, think that he his definately good enough to play for Scotland (I don't remember people saying McFadden should not play for Scotland again after he missed an open goal against Italy) but it was a horrific miss.

McFadden should not have started. It should have been Iwelumo as the central figure with Boyd picking up his scraps so to speak. Robson, Brown, Gordon and suprisingly enough Broadfoot and Naysmith all did enough to get pass marks from me, particularly Brown, who has come in for a lot of stick in the last few months after a dip in form. What a lot of people don't know is that Brown's dip in form coinsided with the loss of his younger sister to cancer. Weir was horrific, Carew tore him a new ********. Panicked off the ball, clueless of it.

All is not lost, most people seem to think Norway deserved somthing from the game, but in the second half in particular it was one way traffic, with their form of "counter attacking" being to clear it out of defence to anywhere in the pitch (Grant Munro style) and hope that Carew would be there to pick it up. It could be argued that our four most important outfield players were missing today, and we will definately have to much for Iceland and Macedonia at home. The big tests are Norway away and Holland at home, think we need at least 2 points from those games to stand a chance.

Keep believing, as things stand right now, were still in a qualifying position

Edited October 12, 2008 by chris123

[RossP]

My phone went mental before kick off, with people saying I was on tv. Right enough there I am in the WC Italia 90 top and glengarry...

I'm guessing they were trying to focus on the attractive girl behind my right shoulder

Edited October 12, 2008 by RossP

[Council Juice]

An improvement on what ?

Just back from the game. The papers tomorrow will blame Iwelumo and Burley. To be honest, that's pretty much fair enough. I liked the look of Iwelumo when he came on, and unlike most idiots, think that he his definately good enough to play for Scotland (I don't remember people saying McFadden should not play for Scotland again after he missed an open goal against Italy) but it was a horrific miss.

McFadden should not have started. It should have been Iwelumo as the central figure with Boyd picking up his scraps

Iwelumo would be good enough to play for Scotland... If Berti was still in charge perhaps. His 1st touch was horrendous even for a guy his size. And as for his two open goal misses. (one which he totally fluffed and put wide and the other he was far too slow in getting to.) Absolute shocker!

Burley got his tactics wrong from the start. Morrison should not have started. He's shown nothing to suggest he merits a start and did nothing yesterday.

How ironic that Boyd is never trusted in the bigger games and yet he would have been there in the box putting that chance away blindfolded with both legs bound together. 1st mistake (Iwelumo over Boyd)

It was right to start McFadden. For the most part he worked hard and was always trying to create chances. He played fairly well but was far too isolated and had to go ball hunting far too often. It was often him trying to get the ball into the box when he as the main striker should have been getting on the end of them. This was not entirely his fault as Morrison was posted absent most of the time. 2nd mistake (not playing McFadden just off a main out and out striker from the start ie Kris 7 in 15 games for country Boyd)

Why was Fletcher the one to replace Morrison? What was he really going to do? His form has been patchy to say the least. I was sceptical of his inclusion as his form is not as it was last season, but he definitely should not have come on at that score line at that time. Did little.

Darren Fletcher was another absentee and Robsons dead ball delivery, from corners specifically, in the main was not up to standard.

The defence were good enough, played against a top forward in Carew. I thought Broadfoot played well again and Naysmith was good too. Weir and Caldwell were occasionally caught for pace by the deceptively quick Carew, but the managed to just about contain him to snap shots and wide efforts.

I felt Maloney and Brown were very good, particularly Maloney 1st half and Brown 2nd. Had Brown not over hit that pass for Steven Fletcher, who knows. Gordon was superb. Gathered well and made the saves required. McFadden huffed and puffed but was tactically limited leading the line.

Iwelumo has probably cost us our opportunity of a place in SA. That was the chance, and as i leapt to celebrate i banged my leg. Hurt. And he missed it. Had he scored i could have forgiven him.

Had Burley went with a 4-3-3 with Boyd up leaving out Morrison, or a 4-4-2 with Boyd and McFadden and either not played Morrison or Robson I in my heart of hearts think we would have won and scored a few.

The Line up was fairly negartive. There were 3 supporting players playing as the front 3 with 3 further supporting them. Who was being supplied with this support until Chris "clearly no where near good enough clumsy horse" Iwelumo came on is anyones guess.

In fact on his 1st touch Iwelumo made Bert Konterman look silky.

Can only look ahead. We must take the points in Norway and maximum against both Iceland and Macedonia at Hamden to have a shout, while aiming for something off the Dutch, Home or Away. Under Burley and his tactics, Im somewhat sceptical. As much as i praise his formation and Boldness if he cant pick the right team its pointless. Also at least the previous two managers got a few results along the way.

Who'd be a Scotland fan eh? Euro 2012 here we come then!

[ralph milne]

Very surprised nobody has been critical of Craig Gordon, i thought he had a shocker and we were lucky that he didn't cost us. He lumped it up the park for the first hour constantly giving possesion to Norway when short kicks would have been better employed, he was very lucky with the save that he parried in the first half straight to the strikers feet and he completely missed two cross balls in the second half that were lucky not to be punished. He's a great shot stopper but McGregor would get my vote before him every time !

[ictchris]

Kris Boyd has said he won't play for Scotland again while George Burley is manager.

[FortressICT]

Very surprised nobody has been critical of Craig Gordon, i thought he had a shocker and we were lucky that he didn't cost us. He lumped it up the park for the first hour constantly giving possesion to Norway when short kicks would have been better employed, he was very lucky with the save that he parried in the first half straight to the strikers feet and he completely missed two cross balls in the second half that were lucky not to be punished. He's a great shot stopper but McGregor would get my vote before him every time !

A clean sheet and some top class saves. If it wasnt for Gordon we would of lost, Carew got the better of Weir everytime.

I thought Gary Naysmith had a superb game.

[Council Juice]

Lets face it, Carew is a top quality forward. If Weir had kept him quiet it would have been a majestic performance. Carew is however, Stronger, taller, quicker and generally a much better player of that there is no doubt and alongside him had a goal scorer of proven notoriety in Iversen who couldnt be ignored.

Naysmith was good as was Broadfoot who keeps improving.

Gordon did miss one dangerous cross with which Naysmith bailed him out but generally his saves were top class and dealt with them well. Magregor is similarly a good shot stopper and not great elsewhere. But he would have to get the top of a top class Gordon. Gordons distribution wasnt always the best. A long throw to Naysmith as opposed to a boot up the park may have helped but it wasnt our downfall.

A lack of a proven striker was our downfall. Burley must remedy that for our next home game.