Well thank fuck they won't be showing highlights from this match in 30 years. I love Gazza's wonder goal...every footie fan has to love that goal. But it was a hammer blow at the time and an existential gut punch over time. For the neutral last night wasn't a great match. But for a Scot, it was important to not lose. It's not even about pride. It's about something much deeper. I'm feeling a huge collective sigh. When i was walking home yesterday evening about 7:45pm i noticed more Scotland flags hanging out of windows and cars with saltires and rampant lions than I'd ever seen before. I don't want my people to get another kick in the teeth, we don't need it, and we really don't need it from the English. Couldnae care less if we get humped by Croatia.
Moving forwards, i don't mind if England go on and win the thing. (They won't.) My maw's English after all. But for all the Scots in England; Monday at work won't be a banter session at their expense.
Billy Gilmour is getting a lot of love on Scottish Twitter. It's naturally a bit OTT, but through the Buckfast haze, i think most Scots can see that there's the makings of a Top Top Player and that's great for us, and the wee bairns watching at hame...something to be inspired by.
Thank fuck it's over. I hate it when we play England. One day we'll not be so defined by our relationship to a country with ten times the population. One day we'll not be ruled by Tory cnuts.
My best friend growing up on Lewis is the same age as me, we landed up going to the University of Aberdeen as well. We haven't really stayed in contact that much but over the last year or so we've regularly exchanged emails. Sandy and I grew up on a steady diet of Scotand qualifying for World Cups , European Championships etc. It was literally our birth right to watch Scotland play every two years. It was also our birth right to watch the glorious failures, beating teams we had no right to be beating, losing to teams we shoud be humping. It was our national identity, it was in our DNA. How can Scotland self sabotage our tournament this time etc. What really brings it home to me is Sandy has a son, 22 years old, he's never seen Scotland play at a major tournament. He knows nothing other than failure.
I was dreading playing England, so was Sandy. His son isn't that bothered, England are just another team to lose to. So although he's never experienced Scotland playing at a major final, he's been immune to the wee man syndrome, our irrational hatred of losing to the English team. Logically, we know England have a good bunch of lads, the players are good friends and team mates at the domestic leagues. But, we absolutely can't stand getting beaten by them. I'm different to you, you don't care if England go on to win it all ( nae chance with that team and manager), me? I'm always "anyone but England", I want to see them fail at every sport. On the face of it, it really makes no sense.
Most of my comments in these threads are pretty negative about Scotland's chances, there's a sense of impending doom. " This will be more like Culloden than Banockburn" , " they are standing too far back off the ball, only a matter of time". I've been scarred for life, yet I also never had it so good compared to any Scot who is 22-23 years old or younger. In a sense, I've actually been spoiled. Spoiled by the history of glorious failures, feeling gutted, feeling numb...