Berti the Brave - - The official of John McGinlay

Berti the Brave - 15/10/2002

What a relief!

Make no mistake about it, Scotland’s win against Iceland was an exceptional performance. A great deal of people saw Scotland as the favourites for the game, but Iceland are a quality side and not many teams will come away from Reykjavik with a 2-0 win. It’s not just Eidur Gudjohnsen who can play a bit, there’s a few lads with Premiership experience and the team is very well organised.

Credit has to go to Berti Vogts, he’s taken a hell of a lot of stick and I’m really pleased that he’s finally received some reward. He’s been brave and although it’s going to take at least a couple of years to come together, he’s taken the right decision. It would have been easy to keep faith with the old guard, and I guess that he’d have improved on previous results. But he’s looking at the medium to long term and shouldn’t be criticised for doing so. If he’d taken the soft option, I’m sure that we’d be struggling to make any impact with Euro 2004 and the next World Cup. He’s given Scotland a chance…blooding the kids will pay dividends, we just have to wait for the investment to mature.

The subsequent victory over Canada rounded up a great few days and has provided the icing on the cake for Berti, it’s up the the SFA and fans to keep faith in him. Stability is needed here, and I dare say there will be a few more downs before we finally get to where we want to go – but that’s football! Let’s be aware of the size of the task and get behind the man and players.