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The weather was promising, and a whole afternoon of World Cup qualifiers involving the Home Nations was on the cards. Time for radical decisions, thought I. Sit in the house and watch the footie on the big telly, but miss out on the lovely weather (which may very well be our last opportunity before autumn), or take out the small telly, link it up to Sky and watch the games in the garden. The garden won out. First up was the much hyped (by the London-based media at least) game between Wales and England. The usual biased punditry about 'our boys' - meaning Beckham and co., while the message was being broadcast to the whole of the UK (and the last I checked, Wales was still part of the UK) only succeeded in persuading any UK neutrals to back Wales. I wasn't swayed, I would have supported Wales anyway. Well, with a name like mine, I have to, don't I? Anyway, the Wales v. England game was a bit of a damp squib, with the only exciting moment being 'Big Bad John' Hartson's point blank header being miraculously saved by the England goalkeeper. Once more, England, with all the superstars at their manager's disposal, flattered to deceive, and ran out 0-1 winners against a bunch of young lower-league players. Following the warm-up came the main event: Scotland v. Italy, live from the National Stadium in Glasgow. You may recall some month back I suggested that we (Scotland, that is) had no chance whatsoever of getting anything from this game unless the Italians fielded a team of one-legged 80 year-olds... Well, let me eat my words and take it all back, for our boys played above themselves and fought for every ball. It was such a transformation from the dark days of Bertie Vogts, and when Scotland scored in the 11th minute, my cheer could be heard at the Post Office at the end of the street. The Italians showed just how much of a class act they are in the second half as they searched for the equaliser. If my heart had not been in my mouth for the last 45 minutes of the game, I would say that the Italians were truly awesome and a joy to watch for the skill they displayed. Their equaliser was inevitable, and it came 15 minutes from the end. After that, there was only going to be one winner as the Italians camped on our 18 yard line. Nevertheless, a combination of grit, determination and luck saw us hold out until the end, and to take an unexpected point. Still, having been in the lead for so long, it still hurt a bit not to get all three points. Now it is Norway's turn to feel Scotland's wrath as we start crawling our way back up the FIFA rankings.

Scotland managed an unexpectedly good result last year too...
this time with the help of the Spanish electricity company!