Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium, Larnaca, 11/11/11

This looked pretty uninspiring in the first half with Cyprus getting in amongst our back four too often for comfort and only a great tip onto the bar by Allan McGregor preventing us going behind. That was before Kenny Miller struck with a goal that, had it been struck by a Brazilian or a Spaniard we would never hear the end of. Just after, Cyprus hit the woodwork again.

Jamie Mackie looked lively but tended to take wrong options until he wormed his way into the box in the second half and scored a beautifully engineered and taken individual goal. Shortly thereafter the defensive frailties showed themselves again as poor covering by Phil Bardsley allowed Christofi in to pull one back.

Scotland missed Darren Fletcher when he was substituted. The play wasn’t as fluid after he went off; but we seem to have a lot of options up front now.

And an away win is nothing to sneeze at.

Mind you, Cyprus are 120^th in the FIFA rankings; 69 below us.

José Rico Pérez Stadium, Alicante. 11/10/11

I didn’t see all this. I watched the early parts of the game in a pub in Cambridge and soon remarked to the good lady, “The game’s two minutes in and Scotland haven’t touched the ball yet.” It’s difficult to do well in a game when the opposition won’t let you near the ball. Spain’s touch and movement are simply superb.

The first goal was like water running through a grating; very little resistance. I missed the second as I was travelling back to the hotel. The third looked like curtains.

Still, the penalty animated the corpse a bit. David Goodwillie’s striker’s instincts (always go for goal) meant the possibility of 3-2 was spurned. But that would have been an injustice. Scotland were right royally humped. No disgrace when it’s by the best team in the world, though.

Euro 2012 Qualifying round, Rheinpark Stadion, Vaduz. 8/10/11

I missed most of the first half of this as I was travelling back from Dundee. By the commentary on Radio Scotland it sounded like we were scorning innumerable chances. It was 0-0 when I arrived home. Imagine my surprise when, two minutes later, I turned on the TV and saw we had scored. Chris McKail-Smith, the first double-barrelled surname player ever to start a game for Scotland, took it well.

The second half was a snooze fest – with Liechtenstein shading the mid part of the half – up until the last ten minutes when Peter Jehle in the home goal had to make two great saves in a minute.

So. Only Spain to beat now.

Onwards and upwards to the play-offs.

(No. Me neither.)

Euro 2012, Hampden Park, 6/9/11

Well; a win, but again from the highlights this is one that could have had a different outcome. Lithuania had some chances too.

Scotland should have had it won early, and not just with the penalty that Darren Fletcher didn’t score. Barry Bannan impressed in midfield, though.

So as usual we’re not to be put out of our uncertainty till the last.

We ought to beat Liechtenstein. (We ought to.)

Can’t see it against Spain, though. Can you?

Euro 2012, Hampden Park, 3/9/11

Judging by the television highlights this was 2-2 going on a doing from the Czech Republic. But under the laws of the game Scotland ought to have won.

There is no doubt that the Czech penalty came from a dive by their player, who ought to have been booked, and the penalty not awarded.

Equally Scotland ought to have had a penalty moments later as Christophe Berra’s foot was clearly stood on and his leg clipped. Yet this time there was no penalty and Berra was booked.

It is entirely correct to say that the Czechs desevred at least a draw as they seemed to have the lion’s share of possession and generally looked a cut above the Scots.

Yet how many games have there been where one team dominated play and yet the other came away with a win? The object of the game is to score and Scotland scored two legitimately and the Czechs’ second equaliser was obtained by – let’s not mince words – cheating.

But there is no need to kid ourselves. Joe Jordan did something similar in a World Cup qualifier against Wales many years ago.

In any case it is probably a blessing that Scotland will not now qualify for the tournament proper as a series of horsings would no doubt ensue there.

Maybe by the time the 2014 World Cup qualifiers come round…

Carling Nations Cup, Aviva Stadium, Dublin, 29/5/11

It was almost inevitable the Republic would win this. They were at home after all.

Again I’ve missed the goal, but I’ve heard this game was dire – not even a patch on the English League 1 play-off between Peterborough and Huddersfield. People just lumping the ball forward; no passing, no Barcelona style passing anyway.

In that case neither of these two sides will trouble the 2012 European Championships.

Carling Nations Cup, Aviva Stadium, Dublin, 25/5/11.

You could be forgiven for not knowing this match had taken place. I didn’t even see the goals on the news – mainly because I missed the news last evening. The good lady and I went out for a meal last night; at the Annapurna, a very nice Nepalese restaurant. But I digress.

By all accounts the crowd was woeful; not surprisng for a game between Wales and Scotland held in Dublin when the Irish Republic is in the middle of a hellish economic time the night after the Republic themselves had had a game.

It sets up Sunday’s (it is Sunday, isn’t it?) game nicely but the Wales – Northern Ireland game tonight won’t be much of an attraction I’d have thought.

I’ve been puzzling over the quite stunning result of the Scottish Parliamentary Election yesterday. How to explain the sudden deluge of votes for the SNP? An overall majority which the structure of the parliament was expressly designed to forestall?

Partly of course it’s the uninspiring nature of Labour’s Scotish leader, Iain Gray, a man with little charisma or presence. Also the lack of big Labour names on the ballot papers – though this did not prevent them taking the usual swathe of seats at the last such election four years ago. There may too this time have been a feeling that Labour took its vote for granted. The minority SNP administration also made a reasonable fist of its past four years in power, with not too many cock-ups.

The major difference, though, might, for the first Election since the Scottish Parliament was set up, be the fact of a Conservative led government at Westminster (which Scots by and large voted against – as did most of the rest of the UK, to be fair.) The Labour vote in Scotland at the UK General Election last year, as in all General Elections since the 1970s, was about attempting to protect Scotland from the effect of Tory depredations. In this it signally failed – as did the “safe” option of voting Lib-Dem – whose MSPs (and English local councillors) paid the first price for the deal with the devil their UK Parliamentary Party made on going into coalition with those loathed Tories.

At least until the next UK General Election (due in 2015) Labour will be unable to fulfill that protecting role as their UK Parliamentary presence is an irrelevance; and so too could their Scottish hegemony be ignored.

An SNP majority in the Scottish Parliament, an unfettered SNP administration, is a statement of another kind. The calculation may have been that the SNP will fight for Scotland more, or better, than Labour – or that it will be able to secure more concessions from the Westminster coalition than Labour could ever hope to achieve.

Whatever else the vote was, it wasn’t a vote for independence. Most Scots do not wish to be separated from their neighbours and friends – in many cases families – and are happy to remain part of the UK so long as said friends and neighbours don’t shaft us too much.

There is a warning there for the Westminster coalition – but also for the new Scottish Government.

Emirates Stadium, 27/3/11

This was 2-0 going on a doing. Brazil were, as expected, superior in every department.

What was especially noticeable was that every time they lost the ball they swarmed round the Scotland players and as a result got it back very quickly. Their speed of thought and movement were a cut above. Plus their virtuosity was sublime. Only the odd misplaced pass and then working like beavers to get the ball back.

Scotland’s players looked pedestrian.

We’re kidding ourselves if we think we can ever get near them.

Carling Nations Cup, Aviva Stadium, Dublin, 9/2/11.

A comprehensive win it seems, most unlike recent Scotland performances.

There were no extended highlights on television, however, just the goals* on the news, so I’ve no idea whether we were any good or not.

*Fluky second goal perchance.

The Norn Irish were missing a few players.

Mustn’t sniff at a 3-0 win though.