The organisers of the Ange Postecoglou Homecoming Tour in Australia in November were given a boost with the news from Hampden that Scotland will not be participating in the Qatar World Cup after the 3-1 defeat to Ukraine this evening.
Ukraine will now play Wales in Sunday evening in a winner takes it all match with a place in the World Cup Final the prize for the winners.
For Scotland though the dream is over, despite Callum McGregor being the one stand-out performer in what was a really poor Scotland performance. The Celtic captain scored one, was extremely unlucky not to have had another goal and made an unbelievable recovery at the other end to deny Ukraine what looked like a certain goal.
With Andy Robertson culpable in two of the three goals conceded, questions might soon be getting asked as to whether McGregor should captain Scotland and Kieran Tierney should be the first pick left back.
Playing Hickey rather than Anthony Ralston – who didn’t;t even make the bench and the much hyped Billy Gilmour – based on decent games last June – rather than Stuart Armstrong or even Ryan Christie just seemed bizarre.
Steve Clarke got so much wrong this evening.
But the silver lining is for the Ange Homecoming Tour organisers who will now be seeing the likes of Callum McGregor, Greg Taylor, Anthony Ralston and David Turnbull turning out to play the two games in what is bound to be a brilliant occasion for the Celts down in Australia and the Aussie fans who will want to come along and cheer on Ange Postecoglou and his side against perhaps Inter Milan, after theRangers bottled it, a bit like Scotland this evening.
