Scottish Pride

The Challenge
I will be managing Scotland, a country I've never given much though about managing before. The starting goal is to get the nation back into major tournaments, something which hasn't happened since the World Cup in France back in 1998. From there I aim to take the side past the group stages. As of yet in the history of the country, they have never progressed past the first round of a major tournament, something that I hope to change!

The Manager

There's me, I'm actually 23 not 33 but I always like to use 1981 instead of the youngest, may be down to the fact I used to use 1981 when I was too young for things on the internet back in the day!

The Nation

So at the start of the game (July 2013) Scotland are currently ranked 50th in the world, something I will certainly be looking to improve.

Scotland have been as high as 13th in the Rankings back in 2007, and if you go back two years you will see their lowest point in Football, ranking 88th. As mentioned before they have never progressed past the first round in any major tournaments, whether this be the 8 times at the World Cup (last appearance 1998) or the 2 times at the EURO's (last appearance 1996).

They play out of Hampden Park, which holds a little over 52,000 spectators.



The Players

I will show off my first team selection when we play our first game, however there are some decent players within the ranks. Steven Fletcher who of course is a solid striker for Sunderland in the Premier League and Darren Fletcher, a stalwart for Manchester United. At the back there's Alan McGregor and Alan Hutton.

The Fixtures


Nice easy start to life in charge, as we travel to France to play in a friendly before meeting Belgium and Macedonia away in the qualifiers. I'll probably get a friendly after this before we entertain Serbia before finally traveling to Croatia.

World Cup Qualifying Table


This is where we stand. Not mathematically out of it yet but it is very unlikely we will qualify. I don't really want to qualify anyways as I know it won't happen but I'd rather it stay true to real life, just for this tournament before really starting fresh for EURO 2016.

Brilliant introduction mate, good luck with this!

Good luck with this mate, good a Scotland save going also!

Thanks Dan, hopefully I can stick to this now all my uni work is finished! World Cup fever has hit me and I wanted to get on board a national side!

Cheers Sean, I've always thought the Scots have looked an interesting team to manage!

----------------------------------------------------


So it was time to get the ball rolling and start life as Scotland manager with a short trip to France. France were expected to record a comfortable victory and I had a few injuries, with no Steven or Darren Fletcher available.

The Squad

So here's what I've gone with, happy enough with the choices available and I really feel that we can give the French a few problems providing we don't go behind early!

The Match

Great result I feel. Ranked 9-2 outsiders we managed to take the lead through a lovely bit of a passing, Graham Dorrans playing a great through ball into James Morrison who made no mistake in slotting the ball home. France had most of the possession but didn't really create any chances until the 66th when a corner saw Arsenal Striker Olivier Giroud slot in a simple finish from 6 yards to level it up. After that it was fairly plain sailing, neither side really creating any chances. I'll certainly take it for a first game and especially without a couple of key players! Should hopefully get the morale up as we head into qualifying against Belgium and Macedonia.

Good luck! Got a fair few Blackburn players to choose from

I know George, hoping Jordan Rhodes turns out to be a top international scouts have him as my best striker but yet to see the best out of him yet, though give it time.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


So heading into my first competitive fixture I was quietly confident, despite playing Belgium, who have some top, top quality players. I honestly felt like if we could strike early on like we did against France we would have a real chance in this match. Here's how we lined up.

The Lineup


Made a few changes with Whittaker, Charlie Adam, Robert Snodgrass and Steven Fletcher all coming in. All of those names apart from Charlie Adam have recently returned from injury. We hit a few injury problems as well, and we are still without Darren Fletcher. However we still have some strength on the bench, and hopefully Jordan Rhodes can be somewhat of an impact sub for us.

The Match


Great result, fantastic performance from the squad. We lost the lead twice before getting that elusive winner towards the end of the match. James Morrison has been outstanding in the 2 games I've managed, already netting 3 times, and Graham Dorrans has provided for 2 of these goals, one in each game. Really pleased with this, as it really gives us a sniff at qualifying, with 3 games to go we only trail Belgium by the one goal.

The Table


With us defeating Belgium, I think its safe of say that Croatia have the group all but wrapper up, though we do still have to play them. However with 2 fixtures remaining against teams below us I'm really hoping that maybe we can squeak into the playoffs and who knows from there!

Two good results to kick start this Kieran!

Great start with Scotland, Morrison looks a good player for you already. Good luck with the next two games.

Cheers Dan. Was expecting a slow start if I'm honest with you so pretty delighted with the way things are going so far!

Morrison has been a revelation for us willz. He'd already played 27 times before I took over but only netted once, not sure what I've done differently but he's clearly more suited to the style of play I'm getting the players to play!

--------------------------------------------------------------------


So heading into my second qualifier in charge and with a bit on momentum we could push on and pip Belgium into second place, and hopefully make the playoffs! We traveled to Macedonia to take on the former Yugoslav republic, with expectations of a victory.

The Squad


Only one change from the victory against Belgium, with Alan Hutton replacing Steven Whittaker at right back.

The Match


Was a comfortable victory in the end, made even more so by a brilliant first half. We slowed down in the second half but still created chances. Defence Christophe Berra opened the scoring with a bullet of a header from a corner, before Steven Fletcher scored a majestic lob just after the 30 minute mark. And who else but James Morrison scoring right on the stroke of half time to give us a commanding 3-0 lead. Macedonia pulled one back at the 55 minute mark with the result was never really in doubt.

The Table


So that victory has tied us on points with Belgium for second with 14 points. They have a slightly better goal difference however. The advantage we have is the fact that they also have to play group leaders Croatia, as well as Wales. So providing I can get some sort of result against the Croatians we should feel confident of getting through. We next have Serbia at home with an away trip to Croatia to finish.

World Rankings


Moving in the right direction in terms of world rankings as we jump up to 39th in the World, overtaking nations like Tunisia, Paraguay and Hungary. England are 9th, Republic of Ireland are 56th, Wales 64th and Northern Ireland sit in 105th.

FIFA World Cup Qualifying Group 1

So it all comes down to this. 2 more games, one we should win, one we probably won't, but the important thing is what Belgium can do against Croatia. A victory for Belgium will virtually seal my fate as it will then come down to how well we do against Croatia compared to Belgium against Wales. However to at least get it that far we have a small task of defeating Serbia at Hampden Park, marking my first home game as Scotland Manager.

Scotland vs Serbia
Matchday 9

Turned out to be a very heated affair, and one we almost let slip. We started brightly, scoring twice in 2 minutes just after the 10 minute mark, with Steven Fletcher scoring his second in two games and once again James Morrison finding the back of the net. He's been poor for his club as of late and pundits were questioning his inclusion, but I'm sorry, the lad has scored 5 times in 4 games now for me, he's playing! Lekic pulled one back for the Serbs 10 minutes later to take the score to 2-1 at half time. Second half was just as edgy as the first, made even better for us when Charlie Adam picked up a second yellow card, reducing us to 10 men. Serbia took advantage of this and Lekic brought the score level. However we dug deep and substitute Jordan Rhodes scored the winner at the 83 minute mark, giving us a fantastic result, edging us ever closer to sneaking into a playoff spot.

However...

Belgium battered Croatia 4-2 at home, pretty much condemning us to third in the group. What a shame, however we would still give it our all in Croatia, maybe the Welsh could help us out?

Croatia vs Scotland
Matchday 10


Gutted. To be fair it was always going to happen, but conceding in the 89th minute was a bitter pill to swallow, but it was always going to happen. We got dominated for the most part and things didn't help when Grant Hanley received a straight red for a violent tackle. The Belgium/Wales game didn't matter in the end, as we just missed out of the playoffs.

The Table


So there's the final standings, we missed out by just the 3 points but it was a really positive end to the campaign, one in which I wonder what would have been if I can have a full qualifying campaign with the squad. I think we can really look ahead to the Euro 2016 Qualifiers and have a sniff at getting through!

Before all that though will be plenty of friendly fixtures, our first two against Finland and Denmark.

After just missing out on the World Cup Playoffs, we had two more friendlies to end 2013. Both home fixtures against Denmark and Finland.



Not a great end to the year. Darren Fletcher came back into the side as captain and was poor in both games, I actually think it upset the rhythm the squad had built. He ultimately decided to retire from international football after the shock defeat to Finland, more of that later...

Scotland vs Denmark


In all honesty I think this was a fair result. Denmark led twice through the game, with Arsenal striker Niklas Bendtner scoring both goals. Robert Snodgrass & Jordan Rhodes got the equalizers for us.

Scotland vs Finland


3-0... And we ****** it up! Horror show really after totally dominating the first 35 minutes of the game. Berra scored again for us from a corner and Blackburn striker Jordan Rhodes continued his impressive run by adding another 2 goals to his international tally before the wheels came off. Finland pulled one back before half time and battered us in the second half, couldn't do anything to resist it. Topped off with a 88th minute winner after a long free kick caused us all sorts of problems.

World Ranking


So we dropped the 3 places in the rankings to 38th in the world, surprised it wasn't more to be honest but happy enough, I feel looking at the teams around us in the rankings we are in about the right spot at the moment, hopefully in 2014 we can push on however.

Shame about the Finland result but its been very good so far! keep it up!

Cheers Dan, I can't complain with how things are going. 8 games, 4 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses, I'll take it!

------------------------------------------

Not an update as such but was going through my inbox and this appeared, quite a staggering image coming up, something I've certainly never seen in FM before!



1 point in 30 games, didn't win a single games all season! Only scored 8 goals while conceding 108, giving them a woeful goal difference of -100! Unbelievable!

Wow what a horror season they had! what was their biggest defeat?

7-0 away to Braga was their worst result, had about 4 5-0 defeats, even more 4-0 defeats! Shocking!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Speaking of shocking...



Whey! England lift the World Cup of 2014, defeating the previous holders Spain in extra time, thanks to a 115th minute winner from Danny Welbeck.

good work with Scotland so far mate! Unlucky on not qualifying! Ha ha Welbeck winner in the World Cup final very unlikely!