A chance gone

BILL LECKIE

FOR A thrilling few seconds, we thought our moment had come.

James Forrest was clear down the right side of the box. Jordan Rhodes was busting a gut to get across and feed on any scraps.

The shot pinged. The keeper spilled. We willed the ball to fall to The Kid Who Can’t Miss.

But it didn’t. He was half a step away as a Serbian boot hoofed it to safety.

And so, like everything else we did yesterday, it all petered away to nothing.

The clock ran down, our hopes ran out. As the players took a weary bow, the tannoy boomed Dignity to cover up the depressing sound of muted boos and half-hearted applause.

Dignity won’t get us to Rio, though. Only goals and wins will.

Which is why, whoever else plays against Macedonia on Tuesday night, Rhodes MUST start. Play him up there on his own. Play him in a front two. But just PLAY him, Craig.

The Tartan Army had been bawling his name for 15 minutes before he finally got on with ten to go.

The reaction when the sprinted out there said everything about the talismanic effect he’s having on the nation.

Jamie Mackie, brought on at the same time, got a decent ripple. Rhodes was greeted like it was his 100th cap and he was sniffing for his 200th goal.

In short, he’s the boy the punters crave — and after this utterly frustrating 90 minutes, he’s what this Scotland team needs. That’s no slight on Kenny Miller, an all-time favourite who worked his corner like a demon the way he always has.

But when the crosses dropped, he jumped under them or they bounced off his napper.

When our midfield burst away from and looked up for the run off the last defender’s shoulder, he wasn’t making it.

And by 55 minutes, the 32-year-old’s race was run.

From what he said afterwards, Craig Levein was plainly tormenting himself from that early over making changes.

The arguments will rage long over why he waited so long to make them and who came off when.

Would Rhodes and Forrest have made a difference had they played even from half-time? Who knows.

Maybe they wouldn’t have been streetwise or strong enough to hassle the Serbs the way Miller and Robert Snodgrass did. The team Levein picked for the game was clearly one based on that street-wisdom and that we matched the Serbs physically isn’t up for debate.

Where we fell short was in turning all of our possession and set-pieces into three points.

The team Levein picks for Tuesday evening simply must be based on not falling short again. Seems bizarre to be talking about must-win games 90 minutes into a campaign. But for this manager and this team, that’s the way it is.

We’ve been in this movie before under Berti and Burley, our dreams all but dead because we didn’t do well enough in opening double-headers.

They too had days and nights like this one, big occasions that began with fireworks and raw patriotism and ended with moans and groans. And they too have spoken of the narrow margins between success and failure.

Where are they now?

We all know plenty have had the knives out for Levein ever since THAT night in Prague.

Plenty more have been hedging their bets until these two games are over, but are itching to give him a doing. He might not care about what they say — no, strike that, he DOESN’T care — but the Blazers do.

If we don’t beat the Macedonians, they’ll be under pressure and their record on withstanding it isn’t great.

Yes, Levein came away from this one listing all of positives and there’s nothing wrong with that, because there were plenty of them.

Keeper Allan McGregor made terrific saves early and late on. Paul Dixon had an excellent debut at left-back, both defensively and in his delivery.

Gary Caldwell looked like he had been playing as a midfield anchor all his life. Snodgrass was a menace to the Serbs down our right and put in a really great shift covering for Alan Hutton’s flakiness.

And Charlie Adam picked some excellent passes, both long and short. All three subs helped bring a dying atmosphere back to life.

We made the Serb defence panic time and again, forced corner after corner, free-kick after free-kick.

And for all that our back four is miles short of world-class, they kept their shape and fought their corner.

But yet something was missing. Something that puts us on the back foot in the group already, because when you’re at home and you’re on the front foot, you MUST make it count. Yesterday, we didn’t. For all those corners and free-kicks, we rarely threatened. We worked so hard to win the ball, but made so little clinical use of it.

When we DID see the whites of the keeper’s eyes, we lacked that instinct you need to turn draws into vital wins.

Stevie Naismith’s second half one-on-one was a perfect example. We worked the move beautifully, he accelerated away from his man superbly, opened his body up for the shot expertly.

Yet the finish was so cock-eyed the only way the ball could possibly have gone in was if it had bounced off a defender sliding towards his own line.

That was the story of the day we hit the World Cup trail.

As Roy Walker might have said, it was good... but it wasn’t quite right.

But let’s hope that’s not to be the catchphrase of this wholecampaign.