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SCOTLAND - Glass Half full or half empty??
In recent months I have returned to the fold as a Scotland fan having attended most of Berti Vogts home games since he took over. While some of his selections have been weird and the performances abject, particularly in Hampden friendlies, is all the criticism from some quarters really fair?
On the way home from the Iceland game I heard some strange criticism from Jim Traynor and some of the Scotland fans. The crowd was too small, the players aren't good enough, the atmosphere is poor etc etc.
I have been going to Scotland games for over 30 years and I think some people forget how bad we have been in the past and how low some crowds have been. I am sure if you look back you'll find that close on 40,000 for some one like Iceland isn't actually too bad!
I also hear many people come up with so many excuses for why they don't go to Internationals any more, the view at Hampden isn't very good, the pricing is wrong etc. I find the view at Hampden as good as any of the grounds in Scotland, even Ibrox and Parkhead, where the visitors sections are poor.
The pricing couldn't be more competitive if you try, with the prices for games at Hampden cheaper than at many games in the SPL. I paid £12 to sit behind the goals for Iceland game, and it was only £8 and £4 for the family section. For friendlies the prices are even a couple of pounds cheaper.
While the crowd has a different demographic from the days when I first started going with a higher percentage of women and families than in the 70s. This means that the "roar" is now possibly a high pitched scream but is there anything wrong with that as the foundations are laid for a fan base of the future. Full credit should be given to the SFA for this.
Then you move on to the team itself and while we don't have the qualities of the Dalglish, Souness, Hansen etc, what we have is a squad who are now working as a unit to ensure we qualify for Portugal. They have beaten Iceland twice, is that such a great achievement, well you can only beat the teams put in front of you and they have done that! Remember that this is a side that has more Premiership players than we do and are currently rated higher than us in the FIFA rankings. Some of our pundits seem to think that we should blow these teams away but times have moved on and we are not as "great" as we one were.
One irritating thing at Hampden is the "Tartan Army", some of whom around me were more concerned about being part of the Tartan Army rather than watching the game! They almost want to sing more about themselves than they do about the team itself. Also in the Rangers end they wouldn't sit down and I was forced to stand for the ninety minutes.
Graham Barnstaple
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