Scotland are frustrated by Serbia to turn up heat on Craig Levein

Scotland 0-0 Serbia

Ewan Murray at Hampden Park
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 8 September 2012 17.29 BST

This was a worryingly familiar tale for Craig Levein. Scotland opened their failed Euro 2012 qualifying campaign with a scoreless draw in Lithuania, a result that appeared increasingly damaging as the section moved on. In eight matches of that group, the Scots notched a mere nine goals.

Bluntness was again the key Scottish failing as they began their bid to make it to the World Cup in 2014. Levein's popularity suffered another blow on account of Scotland's glaring lack of punch against Serbia. The manager has never been fully embraced by a section of fans; the boos that echoed around Hampden Park at full time illustrated the growing levels of discontent.

Serbia should not be dismissed as international no-marks but this was uninspiring stuff for Scottish supporters. The other teams looking to progress from Group A – namely Croatia, Wales and Belgium – had cause for more positive emotion as two of their rivals immediately dropped points.

Levein is, in fact, in danger of being undone by his own words. The manager has been gushing in his praise of Scotland's players and their collective talent. On Friday, Levein even claimed his team was capable of winning all of their World Cup qualification matches.

Evidence, and blunt reality, suggests otherwise, as was proven within 24 hours of that statement. Failure to beat Serbia at home represents a clear setback with pressure now intense, not least on Levein himself, ahead of Macedonia's visit to Glasgow on Tuesday evening. If Scotland stumble again in that encounter, their hopes of turning out in Brazil will look fanciful; Macedonia's showing in their 1-0 defeat away to Croatia on Friday night was sufficient to show their potential menace.

"I am disappointed but more about the fact we had opportunities and didn't take them," Levein said after this scoreless draw. "We did enough to win the game. We just couldn't score goals. I am disappointed but not down about it. I thought the lads put on a decent show.

"I know we can play better. We did a lot of good things, but if two or three of our normally more creative players had just found that final pass, we would have been walking away with a win. We got into the areas we needed to get into, but we didn't quite manage to force the ball home."

Scotland's finest performers were in defensive positions; Allan McGregor in goal, Andy Webster and the debutant Paul Dixon. That in itself represents manna from heaven for those among Levein's detractors who continually highlight the manager's failure to reintroduce Sunderland's striker Steven Fletcher into the international scene. Kenny Miller, the lone Scotland forward here, toiled badly.

A tight, edgy and nervous first half featured just a single clear-cut chance. The hosts' Robert Snodgrass had it, but watched Vladimir Stojkovic save with his chest. At the opposite end, McGregor smartly halted a Darko Lazovic shot.

Television pictures highlighted Steven Naismith catching Srdan Mijailovic with a stray elbow. There remains the outside possibility of retrospective punishment for the Scotland player, given that the referee, Jonas Eriksson of Sweden, missed the incident completely.

After 20 minutes of the second period the Scotland support sang the name of Jordan Rhodes, the £8m forward initially left among Levein's substitutes. By that point, Miller had failed to convert two James Morrison passes and headed a third opportunity away from the Serbia goal.

The finest chance of the game was still to come. Gary Caldwell, winning his 50th cap, sent Naismith clean through on goal but the Everton man rather summed up his dismal afternoon by shooting wide.

Levein reverted to a 4-4-2 set-up with the introduction of Rhodes and Jamie Mackie. Another Scotland substitute, James Forrest, came close to snatching victory in the dying seconds but Serbia were also denied as McGregor halted Dusan Tadic.

"We got out of this game with a draw. It's not what we wanted, but it's certainly not a disaster," Levein said. "We were hoping to win the match, but these things happen and overall we played very well, there's been a definite progression." That "p" word is yet to be endorsed by results.

Taken from the Guardian/Observer