Perhaps the ground staff can be given a couple of extra days off until after the Spaniards have come and gone on Tuesday night.īecause if Scotland’s players didn’t enjoy wading through it against Cyprus then just imagine what Rodri, Gavi and Dani Olmo will make of it when they’re trying to tiki-taka their way to six points out of six in Group A after an unconvincing opening night victory over Norway in Malaga. OK, so maybe the pitch does not need to be knocked into a more pristine shape just yet. So while nailing Clarke down on a long term deal seems like a smart move by the man at the top of the sixth floor, there are other issues which need to be addressed as a matter of some urgency. When winning games is no longer deemed satisfactory for a team in dark blue shirts then it’s a sure sign that someone somewhere is doing his job correctly and, let’s face it, Maxwell needs all the capable, competent operators he can get his hands on these days. If that doesn’t point to the progress that Clarke has made with this group then nothing does. So much so, in fact, that these players sloped off that glue pot of a surface at tea time on Saturday kicking themselves for not putting on a more convincing show for a sell-out crowd despite romping to a fairly emphatic victory in the end. And even though it has been argued that Maxwell didn’t have to tie him down on a new deal which will span the next two qualification attempts, the contractual certainty around Clarke’s long term position helps to add to the sense of stability around a squad which is blossoming under his guidance. The man at the top of the staircase may not have his troubles to seek but the man he installed as manager is most certainly not one of them. That substitute Scott McTominay added a bit of gloss with a late double just to seal the deal, was no more than Clarke deserved. John McGinn understands Celtic and Rangers Hampden pitch complaints after similar surface woes against Cyprus.Will Scotland get a result against Spain and where would victory rank in great Hampden moments? Monday Jury.Mercifully, Maxwell was spared from such an uncomfortable post-mortem because McGinn’s goal was cleared by the Croats who were manning the control room and Scotland went on to record an opening win in a Euro campaign for the first time in 17 years. The chances are, if they had been, John McGinn’s opener would have been wrongly chopped off and Maxwell might still be trying to explain this morning why he handed a new long term contract to manager Steve Clarke before a ball had been kicked in the campaign. It was probably a source of some considerable relief to the CEO that Crawford Allan and his chuckle brothers weren’t still in charge of the remote control on Saturday when Scotland opened up their latest qualification campaign with a 3-0 win over Cyprus.
To be fair, Maxwell was honest enough to admit our national game was hurtling towards a VAR crash even before his officials got their hands on the shiny new tech, the operation of which still seems beyond their comprehension. There's a great deal of remedial work needing done around Hampden these days.įrom a playing surface which is not even remotely close to being fit for purpose to a refereeing department which is in even worse nick, chief executive Ian Maxwell has his work cut out just trying to keep a straight face while fronting up the SFA’s comedy club.
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