Over and Out

I don't really have the enthusiasm or desire to pick over the bones of Scotland's defeat or Israel's victory at the weekend - countless pages of newsprint have been devoted to both over the past two days, penned by wordsmiths better qualified and better paid than I am.

All I will say is that the defeat seems all the more bitter in that it came in the final match of the qualifying campaign, when we still had an outside chance of reaching the European Championships finals.

The campaign has, despite its unhappy ending, been a success - finishing in third place was more than we'd have expected when the group was drawn, and we were still in with a chance of winning it up until around 6:43pm on Saturday. The great strides taken by Scott Brown, Allan Hutton and Kris Boyd in particular have been heartening, and it's now inconceivable that a Scotland squad would be missing any of them.

So, in the aftermath of the match, the positives we can take are that we defeated France at home and away, skelped Ukraine at Hampden and went toe-to-toe with the world champions for 88 minutes, looking like the better side for much of it. And our performances in this campaign are that we exorcised the ghosts of Berti Vogts' reign, whilst also ensuring we won't be drawn in as tough a group again.

As for England - I'm currently on the lookout for a Croatia top going cheap.....