Scotland Stand Up And Deliver In Vienna (Sky Sports Don’t)

Date: 8th September 2021

What a difference a couple of days can make in football. 

For the Scotland national team it must have felt like they’ve been on a rollercoaster during the last international break. We were comfortably beaten by Denmark in Copenhagen. Then we struggled to see off Moldova in front of a bumper crowd at Hampden. 

Lots of Tartan Army fans and some of those in the media were getting anxious. The support for Steve Clarke had started to wane and people were questioning The SFA’s decision to give the Scotland boss a new three year contract. 

To be fair to those that doubted, you can see why as the team still had some big issues. We struggled to close down opposition players and we couldn’t convert enough of the chances that we actually created. 

We ended our international break with a tough trip away to Austria. For me, it was a must win fixture if we wanted a chance to hold our destiny in our own hands when it comes to securing that vital play-off spot via finishing in second place. 

In my last article I asked the players and management team to be brave. 

Thankfully that’s the kind of performance we got from our boys in Vienna. 

They pressed intelligently, they withstood any pressure that came there way and protected our goal brilliantly. 

The referee awarded us a penalty in the thirtieth minute, which Lyndon Dykes just managed to put away, and then the team gallantly defended that lead for the rest of the match! 

Young Billy Gilmour once again was our key man in terms of possession. He made more passes and accurate passes than anyone in our squad. He would continually find space and show for his teammates, giving them a way out of pressured situations. I am enjoying seeing him evolve too, every game sees the midfielder creeping forward more often. 

1 – Across the September international break @billygilmourrr ranked first among all Scotland players for touches (213), passes (171), successful passes (144) and possession won (23), and second for tackles (7) and chances created (4). Deft. pic.twitter.com/K8DBS2cvOO

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 7, 2021

Grant Hanley was another standout performer. He ably handled Marko Arnautovic and made sure the Austrian wasn’t much of a threat to Craig Gordon’s goal. He won three defensive headers, which was the most of any Scottish player. 

Lyndon Dykes and Che Adams linked up extremely well and deserve to go again in our next game. Dykes would often go deep, win headers and make the Austrian backline work. Adams would often go out to the wings and press on the lefthand side. 

Gordon produced a very good save as the game approached it’s end. It showed us why he should be Scotland’s number one at the moment. 

I said that this Scotland team could bring back the feel good factor if they could show us passion on the field and get a positive result. They did that and more last night and have already been rewarded as Hampden is now a sell-out for their huge encounter against Israel next month. 

I’m betting our national stadium will be jumping in October the ninth. 

………

On a negative note: Unfortunately Sky Sports failed to show the game to lots of Scottish fans who subscribe to their football channel. 

The network stated the viewers would be able to watch the Main Event channel as per usual during international weeks when Scotland games get moved to that channel. 

Then as the game kicked-off, Sky stated it was now on the red button on the Football channel. Yet still nothing and Sky’s twitter feed stated there was no fault on their end and that people should restart their box. Again no positive results. 

Sky finally admitted that the problem was indeed on their end and they were investigating the issue and trying to fix the problem. They didn’t fix it and many a Scottish supporter was left without watching that great Scotland victory! 

Sky Sports treated their Scottish supporters with disdain. I have no doubts that problem would have been resolved had it been an issue with an England game. They could have made Main Event free to Football subscribers as they’ve always done in the past, they could have always had it on the red button or they could’ve stuck on the second half directly after the England U21 game. 

It was such a shoddy service and it once again shows Sky don’t really seem to care about the Scottish viewer. 

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