Thought I'd start a football blog, we might keep this going until 2010.....England doing well....did not see the match or even the goals....I'd like Michael owen back in the squad though....and I think Peter Crouch would make a very good substitute...remember against Argentina in Geneva a few years ago....with Michael Owen and some very good movements on and off the ball...they caused havoc.....did see Scotland's missed chance....that could be very costly losing those 2 points !.

marni, please don't take this personally, but you clearly know f*ck all about anything, so why do you post at all?

lol...so many things to respond to that marni...iraq...world champions in flip flop throwing :-)

England played pretty well against the 3rd rated team in the World and probably shaded the game overall. Two stupid errors in the first half deservedly punished by Holland, but even so England didn't seem overly fazed by finding themselves 2-0 down.

Main plus point for me was the performance of Carlton Cole in the second half who surely must displace Emile Heskey. Cole brought the rest of the team into play with superb old fashioned centre forward play and gave the Dutch defence a torrid time.

Negatives were Glen Johnson and Wrght-Philips, neither of whom can perform at this level on a consistent basis.

pt...did not know england were playing tonight as it was a friendly....a 2-2 draw over there is a great result...it pains me to say it but holland and england are the two best teams in europe just now.

i am a massive scotland fan and was not in norway tonight only because my son was born recently.....watching the disaster tonight was horrible and we will now not be in the world cup again which is hard to take...we have gone from competing with italy and france to getting beat by macedonia and norway in the space of 2 years.........bizzarely it is why international football still resnonates with me...no one can buy their way out of it.

alex ferguson for next manager of scotland (ok i will take him part time)

back to the beer and depression!

come on marni....do your worst.......

Trebs

It's a real shame Scotland are unable to compete at the higher levels of international football. With the exception of a few blemishes at club level (Manchester for one) their supporters have always been a great addition to the World Cup competition. I'd love to go to South Africa this year, but it won't be possible :(

pt....manchester was an embarassment...it was rangers fans..unforgivable

despite the tabloid press not many scots really want england to do badly...ok it is great banter and that is part of the whole thing if your team does feck up.

all the best.. however if you ever do win the world cup i will move to a desert island.

take it easy...bed time

Trigcongratulations on your baby sonand may he pull on a blue shirt one day
The two matches last night proved a point that I have discussed with you beforethe Scottish league is not competitive your three or four best teams win many league matches without braking sweetthey have an easy life!!when they play in Europe or International matchesthe tempoconcentrationand discipline levels neededbecomes a shock that most players have difficulty coping withthats before we mention qualitytop Managers talk about a 1 or 2% edge needed to win top matchescombined with the mental strength of a Lionwillingness is not enoughpretty much explains the way of normal life
If you watched England last night you would have seen the movement of MilnerDefoeand Colestretching a very good sidethese English players are use to being behind to quality teams in the Premier league on a regular basisand know whats needed they maintain disciplineand a winning expectation
When Scotland get in front or behindthe body language from the team suggests they expect the inevitableand only they can tell you what the inevitable isit certainly means something different to GermanyFranceItaly...and dare I say England.to name but a few
A British premier league may only see two or three Scottish teams capable of competingbut we are talking about the strongest league in the Worldit has to be good for your National Teamand it will enhance the league with interest quality and passionI for one would welcome it

TrigI cant read Mr. Potty filteredso my post????

Well Defoe got 2 goals and England at the end were well on top....never thought that they would turn it around at half time, so I have to give them some credit...about Scotland ?...what can you say...saw 10mn of the game...terrible performance !.

tabs...yeah i take on baord what you are saying...the real problem is scotland is just not producing good footballers.....the current squad compared to the past when we had souness, dalgliesh etc is terrible.

we have got by in the past few years with team work and passion...even that is missing under Burley..he has to go

Simple passing was needed and there was none or precious little, just bodies overrunning with the ball and banging into Norwegians and then losing it, from what I saw (in the 10 mn); I (with 3 months training) could have done better than that !...so that's saying how poor Scotland were....Dennis Law and sorts must be having nightmares...

RFdid Denis Law as a Scottish legend ever play for a Scottish football team?I would say the management teamsthe quality players he played with and againstand regularly playing at the highest standard necessary for successwas the combination that matured Law into World Classalthough a bit before my time Trig mentioned Souness Dalgliesh.no denying they were quality at the highest level..remind me what team moulded them into Scottish heroes?
It all rather has the same ring about it

If that post has come over anti-ScottishI can assure you it was not meant
All I am trying to do is establish why such a passionate footballing nation has such a poor national side

tabby...dennis law is the all time top scorer for the national team, he did not play in scotland like souness until he came to rangers late on

we have a poor national side for may reasons.....some obvious some not so.

we dont have many kinds playing football in soctland now and the ones that do come through are not taught the basics of control, passing etc

our club football is of a poor standard and the people who run our game are akin to amatuers.

add that to the fact the irish keep stealing our best prospects by offering trips and other goodie to the boys families means we are rubbish.

Dennis Law was a great player....I think he was in the 1967 Scottish side that beat newly crowned world champs England at Wembley that year......it does seem that a lot of players are lacking basics .......one thing I hate is the big kick upfield by a goalkeeper...most of the time it ends with the opposition, you do have to be more precise when playing route 1 soccer.

i read that lot of people dont want to play for scotland team. read that ferguson wasnt watching game and he is guy that spends most of time not playing for scotland when selected. also read that lot of rangers players not playing for scotland.
celtic as i said appear to be foreigners apart from 2 players who happen to play for scotland.....it appears the players on pitch play lower league in england and it must show as i read that norway could have won 10-0 as they scored a goal that wasnt given and had a penalty not given.

marni for someone not interested in football you spend a lot of time researching and reading about scottish football...is the taxiing business slow at the moment?

i only read bbc sport websites or google football in your country but there seems a lot of discontent in your country as scotland it seems can only get inferior people to play for them as quite a few of the good players wont play.

are there not good scottish players in other foreign countries?

congrats on good news with ur son

I think Asterix Arsene Wenger's magic potion is working again because the Gunners detroyed the Toffees...what a scoreline ! 1-6 away...!.

Spurs and the Gunners have pulled a double over the liver birds....I can't remember when that last happened....