Good Luck McLeish & Scotland

Alex McLeish takes charge of the Scotland national team for the first time tomorrow in a competitive match when Georgia come to Hampden.

McLeish was not everyone’s ideal man to replace Walter Smith, but I would hope that even the fiercest critics of the appointment will be able to now accept it and support the Scotland team, starting with tomorrow’s crucial match.

In what is an incredibly difficult qualifying group, the Georgians are one of the lesser-known sides and their results have not been the greatest in recent times. However this should kid anyone on that they can’t play – we have to remember the standard of the opposition that they’ve struggled against. I’ve seen them play a couple of times and when these guys put their minds to it, believe me they can play!

It will be interesting to see how McLeish’s Scotland side lines up tomorrow. The general opinion is that it’s unlikely to stray too far from the sort of line-up we’d been getting used to under Smith before he jumped ship, but McLeish will be forced to make some changes due to injury and suspension.

Let’s hope he can get the balance right and we can record a morale-boosting victory tomorrow. If we can achieve that it will take us nicely into what will be a massive game against World Champions Italy on their own patch!

All the best, lads.