picking up a point against
their rivals for 2nd/3rd was
a positive result.
Scotland 1-0 Republic
of Ireland
This time at Celtic Park,
Scotland faced the
Republic of Ireland in a
cagey and nervous affair.
Charlie Mulgrew put in
his best performance in a
Scotland shirt alongside
his club teammate Scott
Brown, and they both
stifled the majority of
counter attacks from the
Irish as Scotland pressed
for the opener.
A set piece moment of
magic from Maloney gave
the Scots that all-important
winner with time running
out, and it was a deserved
victory as they outpassed
the Irish who took a more
physical approach.
Scotland 6-1 Gibraltar
Everyone expected
Scotland to turn up
and batter Gibraltar,
as they ultimately did,
but they were given a
scare in the first half as
the visitors scored their
first competitive goal to
equalise after Maloney’s
penalty.
It wouldn’t last long though
as Scotland eased five more
goals past to comfortably
pick up the win, with Steven
Fletcher grabbing a hattrick.
Georgia 1-0 Scotland
Until this match took place.
Surely we couldn’t mess
the campaign up in Georgia
again? (like when we lost
2-0 in 2007 to mean we
had to beat Italy in the final
Republic of Ireland 1-1 game to progress rather
than just draw).
Scotland
Although Scotland weren’t
Taking place in June, this
match was a strange one to at their best in the previous
match, they were still
call after many players on
confident of an expected
both sides hadn’t featured
win here – although there
for weeks.
were a lot of pre-match
nerves. Everyone expected
Scotland started sluggishly
it to be tight, but the 1-0
and found themselves a
win to Scotland was the far
goal behind when Walters,
more likely score.
in an offside position,
Instead, Scotland didn’t
netted from close range
get going at all as Georgia
from a corner. The Scots
fired in a goal from the
dug deep and managed to
edge of the area and shut
find a leveller – Maloney
up shop. The Scots probed
once again sending a shot
into the net via a deflection. but didn’t even have a shot
on target, with the best
Having already beaten
Republic of Ireland at home, they could muster being
a cross from Robertson
Scotland had the head-tothat evaded Fletcher by an
head advantage wrapped
up and seemed to settle for inch. Suddenly, Scotland’s
advantage over Republic
the draw without pushing
of Ireland had evaporated
too hard for the winner.
and we were in danger of
They seemed to have the
missing out.
advantage now.
Strachan lined up with just
one centre-half between
his two full-backs and
when they pushed up,
there was just too much
space for Russell Martin to
cover and Gibraltar sliced
their way through.
THE STUDENT VOICE: AUTUMN 2015
25