The opening matches of the Carling Nations Cup this week provided a welcome distraction from our perilous league position. Wednesday evening saw me heading down to my local for an experience to which I have long been accustomed - watching Scotland games in an otherwise England-supporting pub. (The Tartan Army contingent in South West London is not the largest.) Our game was being shown on the world's smallest TV screen, situated immediately beside the unreasonably large Denmark-England screen.
One experience to which I am not quite so accustomed, however, is watching Scotland coast to victory quite so comfortably - yet there it was! Clearly there will be tougher tests ahead, but the magnitude of the victory - and the manner in which it was achieved - can only serve to boost the players' confidence.
What I cannot understand, however, is the ongoing process of 'researching whether Gary Hooper has a Scottish grandfather,' with which Craig Levein is reported to be busying himself. Surely such a protracted period of research should not be necessary. Mr Hooper either has a Scottish grandfather, or he does not; wouldn't it be easier just to ask him?
