Weekend Club Report

In an effort to give me more to talk about during the painfully long breaks between Scotland match days, I’m starting a new column here at the Scotland World Cup Blog, the Weekend Club Report. Each week, I’ll take a look at how Scottish internationals fared in their various club duties, as a guide to their form, and perhaps, to their chances for a call up to George Burley’s first squad against Croatia next month.

Keepers
Craig Gordon is in no danger of losing his place as Scotland #1, but he sat idle with Sunderland through the FA Cup weekend, as did third-ranked keeper David Marshall of Norwich. Allan McGregor was the only Scotland keeper who saw action this week, and he saw plenty. Wednesday, he may have saved the draw and Rangers’ chances of advancing in the UEFA Cup with a brilliant double-save on Panathinaikos’ Dame Ndoye. On Sunday, he kept another clean sheet (#22 of the season in all competitions) away to Kilmarnock, but was never severely tested.

Defenders
Rangers’ David Weir continued his brilliant defensive partnership with Carlos Cuellar, playing 180 minutes of clean sheet football this week. Gary Caldwell and Stephen McManus likewise held tight at the back for Celtic in their 3-0 home win over Hearts, with McManus’ block of a Velicka shot probably the most influential play in saving the shutout. Gary Naysmith played well in Sheffield United’s 0-0 FA Cup draw with Middlesbrough.

Midfielders
The star Scotland performance of the club weekend, already mentioned on this blog once, was Darren Fletcher’s for Manchester United against Arsenal. Fletch scored a brace in the 4-0 FA Cup win. Scott Brown played well, but hardly brilliantly for Celtic, getting a good early ball in to striker Jan Vennegor of Hesselink, but not producing a lot else all match. Barry Robson came on the 77th minute for Celtic, but was unable to repeat last week’s first-touch scoring performance. Scotland and Rangers captain Barry Ferguson was relatively anonymous all week, not really contributing a lot to either the Killie or Panathinaikos matches.

Forwards
Like Robson for Celtic, Steven Naismith came on late for Rangers, and was unable to do a lot in his 15 minutes on the pitch. Kris Boyd, who is fighting for every second he can get on a Rangers pitch these days, was left on the bench Wednesday against Pana, but played a full match on Sunday and even got himself a goal in the form of a 63rd-minute penalty. Since most of our strikers play for English sides already eliminated from the FA Cup, that’s pretty much all there is to say about the position.

So overall, not a bad week for the boys at their day job. Man of the Week certainly goes to Fletcher, and though I reserve the right to pick out a Worst Performance awardee in future weeks, no one sticks out as particularly terrible. If Nacho Novo was a Scot, he’d be my pick. Most importantly – no major injuries. Keep it up, Scots.