Once a day from me when possible, main source: The Fiver.
The Fiver's Scottish cousin, Shortbread McFiver, hasn't been this excited since the time he was lurching down Glasgow's Buchanan Street and spotted 5p at the bottom of a puddle of vomit. Because, fresh from two straight wins, Scotland wobble atop their Euro 2008 qualifying group and the hype surrounding Walter Smith's rabble has reached Ben Nevis heights. Indeed, many Scots are heading into Saturday's clash with France in Hampden Park convinced that they're on the verge of the country's greatest victory since the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297, when William Wallace and a puny band of tartan-clad savages whupped 10,000 crack English troops who, ingeniously, had decided to attack via a bridge that they could only cross in twos. Unfortunately for Scotland, even Raymond "Scorpios can't pass" Domenech isn't that bonkers.
One Scot who hasn't let wins over Lithuania and the mighty Faroe Islands go to his head is assistant gaffer Tommy Burns, who today represented that rarest of sounds - a sober voice from the Highlands. "The nation expects us to beat the French and that's why the fans have been knocking each other over to buy tickets - there's no sense of reality attached to the national team," doused Burns before scoffing: "People have to realise we can sometimes be underdogs, even at home ... but in the eyes of the fans we should beat everybody we play."
If those words, combined with the absence through suspension of goal-crazy Kenny "four in 13 games" Miller, haven't scotched the Tartan Army's hopes, then today's news that key midfielder Nigel Quashie has been ruled out through ankle-knack might. Then again, the very fact that Quashie is a key midfielder should have prevented any hopes forming in the first place, which is possibly what master motivator Burns was driving at when he bluntly added: "We have to be aware that they're a better team than us and have better players than us." Ah yes, the famous Scottish fighting spirit
The Fiver's Scottish cousin, Shortbread McFiver, hasn't been this excited since the time he was lurching down Glasgow's Buchanan Street and spotted 5p at the bottom of a puddle of vomit. Because, fresh from two straight wins, Scotland wobble atop their Euro 2008 qualifying group and the hype surrounding Walter Smith's rabble has reached Ben Nevis heights. Indeed, many Scots are heading into Saturday's clash with France in Hampden Park convinced that they're on the verge of the country's greatest victory since the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297, when William Wallace and a puny band of tartan-clad savages whupped 10,000 crack English troops who, ingeniously, had decided to attack via a bridge that they could only cross in twos. Unfortunately for Scotland, even Raymond "Scorpios can't pass" Domenech isn't that bonkers.
One Scot who hasn't let wins over Lithuania and the mighty Faroe Islands go to his head is assistant gaffer Tommy Burns, who today represented that rarest of sounds - a sober voice from the Highlands. "The nation expects us to beat the French and that's why the fans have been knocking each other over to buy tickets - there's no sense of reality attached to the national team," doused Burns before scoffing: "People have to realise we can sometimes be underdogs, even at home ... but in the eyes of the fans we should beat everybody we play."
If those words, combined with the absence through suspension of goal-crazy Kenny "four in 13 games" Miller, haven't scotched the Tartan Army's hopes, then today's news that key midfielder Nigel Quashie has been ruled out through ankle-knack might. Then again, the very fact that Quashie is a key midfielder should have prevented any hopes forming in the first place, which is possibly what master motivator Burns was driving at when he bluntly added: "We have to be aware that they're a better team than us and have better players than us." Ah yes, the famous Scottish fighting spirit
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