Scotland NT face uphill battle after injuries

By: Ian Rose | May 28th, 2007

SPL 2006-07 is over, and it’s time to get back to one of my true loves, the Scottish national side. After a few months off, the 14th-ranked team in the world is back in action on Wednesday in a friendly against Austria, and then has its first meaningful game back against Faroe Islands in a Euro 2008 qualifier next week. Scotland boss Alex McLeish has got to be thankful that its the Faroes and not France or Italy coming up, with all the injuries that have plagued his team in the past few weeks. News just came down the pipes that the team’s two Celtic strikers, Kenny Miller and Craig Beattie, are both going to miss the two matches, and Celtic super-signing Scott Brown will miss at least the Austria game.

Now, I’ve made no secret of the fact that I don’t believe Kenny Miller is the right choice for Scotland striker, but I hate to lose Brownie. I’d love to see a good result in the Austria match, and I think it’s important for morale going into a tough Euro qualifying season, but it’s the qualifiers themselves that worry me. We can only hope that Brownie can make it back in time for the really important matches in September. For now, I think the injuries to Beattie and Miller are an opportunity for Kris Boyd to truly make the starting striker position his own.

In other injury news, apparently defender Steven Pressley is out for the upcoming matches as well … I’m not loving this pattern. Four Celtic stars out for the NT … luckily, it’s just Faroes coming up, because the state we’re in, even Georgia or Lithuania would be a big challenge.






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  • Spooner |  May 28th, 2007 at 12:43 pm

    cornercorner

    This proberly be a post on its own but…GIVE A CAP TO NAISMITH. Surly the boy deserves a crack against the Faroes, there isnt a better opportunity to ease him into the team.

    Posted from United Kingdom United Kingdom

    cornercorner
  • Laurie |  May 28th, 2007 at 4:22 pm

    cornercorner

    Personally? I’d be okay if the Faroe’s first and only win was next week. But that’s just me. :-) Although I’ll be happy to root for Scotland if you could just knock Italy and Ukraine out of the competition for me. Thank you.

    I found the France-Austria friendly in March interesting. We played all of our new and younger players (every single “next Zidane” currently in existence on the planet, with the exception of Gourcuff.) We only won 1-0, but France dominated. You shouldn’t have much problem in either game, even with injuries.

    Posted from United States United States

    cornercorner
  • Ian |  May 28th, 2007 at 10:25 pm

    cornercorner

    Okay, tell you what, Laurie. I’ll do my best voodoo-doll routine on Italy if you agree to draw with Ukraine on the 2nd. It would really be best for everyone. Well, mostly Scotland. If Scotland and France work together, we can get through. Think about how much we have in common … neither of us are that fond of the English, after all.

    Oh, and Spooner’s right – Naismith definitely deserves a cap. More on that later.

    Posted from United States United States

    cornercorner

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