Scotland 2 Denmark 1

August 11th, 2011 | by: Lewis Orr | Comments Off

An own goal and a Robert Snodgrass diving header was enough to secure our first victory over Denmark since 1975 in the pouring rain at Hampden.

The Scotland team lined up as followed

McGregor; Bardsley, Caldwell, Wilson, Crainey; Morrison (Bannan 67), Brown (Cowie 22), Adam (Dorrans 55), Snodgrass (Hanley 88), Naismith (Forrest 75), Miller (Mackail-Smith 58)

Craig Levein will have learned a lot from this friendly match. I think first of all, Crainey should only be played at left back as a very last resort. Both Phil Bardsley and Lee Wallace should be ahead of him in the pecking order.

Last night he was consisently being sucked in, almost as a centre half and neglected his man quite a few times.

It’s a shame Alan Hutton was injured as he is a great asset to the national team although Phil Bardsley is versatile enough to cover right and left fullback, hence why Crainey was playing.

I fail to see why Darren Fletcher should automatically be brought back into the starting XI. Our three best players under Levein have been Charlie Adam, James Morrison and Stevie Naismith, who all play in midfield. Throw in Robert Snodgrass and Kris Commons who have done well on the wings, plus Scott Brown who sadly took an early knock and I fail to see how he should be brought in just because he plays for Manchester United.

However it is unlikely that he shall be available for the two games in September at home to Czech Republic on the 3rd and at home to Lithuania on the 6th.

I’ve also kept an eye on our future opponents. I am delighted that Norway defeated Czech Republic 3-0 last night. Even if it wasn’t the Czechs strongest team, although they did have Petr Cech playing, it will still have an impact on their morale.

Lithuania did defeat minnows Armenia 3-0 although I’m not panicking about them to be honest.

Liechenstein were impressive and only lost 2-1 at home to Switzerland so it could very well be a potential banana skin playing them in October.

Our future opponents for World Cup 2014 qualifying were also in action, Macedonia winning 1-0 away to Azerbaijan, Serbia lost away 1-0 to Russia, Wales lost 2-1 at home to Australia and Croatia drew 0-0 away to Ireland. Belgium weren’t in action.

A good game, a fairly good win barring a poor second half and a good boost for the Scotland players.

August 2011

Lewis Orr