TALKING SCOTLAND
ASHELL-shocked Stuart Armstrong was still agonising last night over his part in the late Harry Kane goal which deprived Scotland of one of their most famous victories.
A number of errors conspired to give England their stoppage time equaliser – Charlie Mulgrew lost the England striker entirely from Raheem Sterling’s cross and Craig Gordon could have been more decisive in coming from his line.
However, the Celtic midfielder needed little reminding that the attacking position would never have come about had he fed the ball to the breaking Chris Martin on his left rather than Leigh Griffiths on his right, or alternatively simply punted the ball high into the stands.
“Yeah, I know,” said Armstrong. “You make decisions in a game. It was really late on and, honestly, tiredness comes into play.
“I’ve seen Griff make a run – and it was a poor pass,” he conceded. “In hindsight, I should probably just have shelled it into row Z.
“A number of things have to happen for a goal – you can never tell what phase of play is going to lead to what – but I probably should have just cleared the ball. It’s just one of those things.
“When I saw the ball hit the net, my feelings were just total disappointment. We were so close to three points. To end up with one is just hard to take.
“The emotions of the game, being 1-0 down and Griff hitting two unbelievable goals to get us back in the lead with so little time remaining … it’s hard to know what to say. To concede is disappointing, to say the least.”
Armstrong deserves a better fate than for his break-out season at Celtic, which harvested 17 goals, numerous assists and an invincible domestic Treble, to be remembered for one poor decision with his very last kick of the campaign.
No Scottish player has covered more ground this season and, when the disappointment has subsided, there will be plenty for him to be proud of from this display.
FOUR wins – away to Lithuania, at home to Malta, at home to Slovakia, and away to Slovenia – could yet be enough for second place and a play-off place, even if we now require England to do us a favour or two along the way.
“It was still a draw with a good team,” said Armstrong. “It says a lot about where we are, how far we’ve come, that we were disappointed with a point against England.
“There is certainly a lot to build on and a lot of confidence to take into the next game. Can we win the next four? I don’t see why not. We’ve hopefully given the fans that belief that we can do it. It gives us the extra impetus to take something from the game.”
After 12 matches without an international goal, Armstrong’s club team-mate Leigh Griffiths broke his duck in style. The midfielder was also standing over both free kicks, not that the right-footer ever had any chance of persuading Griffiths to let him take them, particularly the second. “I certainly wasn’t surprised by Leigh’s goals,” said Armstrong. “I think everyone in Scotland has seen his finishing ability and his skill with the dead ball, as well. I was stood right with him for the free-kicks, so I had the perfect view of both goals.
“They were two excellent finishes,” he added. “More impressive is the fact that they came in a really high-pressure situation, in a really high-pressure game. For the second, I knew he was going to stick it to the other side of Joe Hart. I knew his confidence was going to be so high after the first one that I wasn’t even going to offer to take it. He should be proud of himself.”
IN ADDITION to predicting that Griffiths will now kick on as a regular scorer at international level, Armstrong praised his clubmate for his all-round game. The striker linked play well and came back to help out his defence with a series of crucial blocks.
Armstrong added: “It was always only a matter of time before he scored his first Scotland goals. Now that he has his first two, he’ll kick on. But he did really well even apart from his goals. He provided a lot of help to the midfield, coming back and making interceptions, winning fouls and giving us a breather. His all-round play was terrific.”
The draw was thoroughly merited on the run of a match where Scotland made enterprising starts to both halves, and in particular shaded the second period.
But it was gruelling work even for fit players like Armstrong. “The first half was difficult, no doubt,” said Armstrong. “They had a lot of possession in both halves, so there was a lot of work put in just closing down space and helping each other out.
“But it worked for a long time. We denied them space, we kept them out. Chris Martin coming on made a difference – but it just wasn’t to be.” the course of the game – that’s fine, I like referees who let things go – but he seemed to be penalising us a great deal.”
Ireland remain joint top of Group D, level on points with Serbia who drew 1-1 with Wales in Belgrade.
Chris Coleman’s side led through a first-half Panenka-style penalty from Aaron Ramsey, but the hosts fought back to level through Newcastle forward Aleksandar Mitrovic with 17 minutes left.
The results of the matches in Dublin and Belgrade mean Serbia and Ireland remain four points ahead of Wales and Austria, who are tied on eight points.