It’s quite possibly the most under-appreciated position in football, the left back. The stars of the defense are much more often on the right or center, and yet, the left back must handle the attacking team’s right side, often their better one. In Scotland, we have our right back well and rightly sorted, [...]

Now that the FA Cup semifinals are over, and Cardiff have kicked out upset heroes Barnsley to reach their first final in 81 years, we can look forward to what should be a great final match between Cardiff and Portsmouth. For those of us whose first allegiance is the Scottish national side, there is [...]

For those of you who haven’t heard of him, let me assure you. Christophe Berra is the real thing. A central defender with speed, skill and aerial ability, capable of great tenacious play against international-quality offenses. Granted, the only international-quality attacks he has seen have come from Celtic and Rangers, but he [...]

Today marked the 378th Old Firm Derby, as Rangers hosted a Celtic side that desperately needed a win to right the ship of their campaign. Once again, for the fourth derby in a row, Rangers came away with a shutout win, 1-0 on Kevin Thomson’s strike late in the first half. There were [...]

Scotland and Derby County winger Stephen Pearson, who missed Wednesday’s match with Croatia due to injury, is one of several Scotland internationals at Derby, who must realize at this point that their club is going down. If last season in the Championship was a dream, punctuated by Pearson’s “60-million-pound” goal over West Brom in [...]

Lame. Scotland and Birmingham striker James McFadden is officially out of contention for Wednesday’s match with Croatia at Hampden, because of having a keyhole surgery on his knee today. He’ll miss two matches with Birmingham in addition to missing out on his 38th Scotland cap. The timing is too bad, considering his [...]

Just a short note today, and one only tangentially related to the Scotland NT. One week from the Croatian Invasion, Scotland starting right back Alan Hutton was getting a run out with Spurs against Chelsea today … still is, actually. Anyway, on the very week that Martin Taylor returns from his three-game ban [...]

Rangers and Scotland captain Barry Ferguson is off to the specialists today, after ankle problems have failed to improve, and it is now likely that he will not start, and possibly not play, against Croatia on the 26th. Rangers reported that their youngest-ever captain is going to miss tomorrow’s Scottish Cup quarterfinal with Partick [...]

Well, so much for Scotland getting in on the Barnsley bandwagon. Tykes captain Brian Howard has been mentioned as a possible winger on George Burley’s squad against Croatia on March 26th, but as of today, he is officially ineligible for Scotland. We all knew that he played for England’s U-20 side, but since [...]

(Thanks to the Manchester United Offside for catching this.)
Scotland and Man United midfielder Darren Fletcher has found himself the unfortunate victim of poor bathroom maintenance after a toilet door at Old Trafford came off its hinges and smacked him in the head in the minutes following the Lyon match last week. As funny as [...]