Scots miss enough openings to win group not just the match

BUT in the end we're just a bunch of chancers.

SOMETIMES the longest journeys start off with the smallest steps.

Trouble with that? It leaves you needing some giant strides to make up the ground.

Yesterday Scotland inched their way off the line on the 5960-mile Road to Rio.

Football’s record books will show the jaw-clenching goalless draw with the Serbs as a point gained – but for all the world it felt like two dropped.

There was no burning sense of injustice at the end, no gut feeling that we really deserved better than we got.

Just frustration at a movie we’ve been in so often before.

In a group where everyone is supposed to be capable of beating everyone else, a home draw certainly isn’t a group-ending disaster.

But somewhere down the way, it will need to be made up for with a result this team is not supposed to get.

Scotland had their chances – and enough set-pieces to last them a group, far less a game. And defensively they more than earned their clean sheet.

The bottom line, though, is that they didn’t exploit the weaknesses of a team they knew were there for the taking.

And it now makes Tuesday night’s match with Macedonia a must-win affair.

Scotland coach Craig Levein Scotland coach Craig Levein

That could well see Craig Levein adjust his starting line-up accordingly – but yesterday he didn’t pull any rabbits from hats, his 4-1-4-1 formation having been largely anticipated and widely debated by fans and media.

With Gary Caldwell given the armband on the day he entered the Hall of Fame with cap No.50, Alan Hutton and Andy Webster earned silver medals for 25 appearances apiece.

Only rookie Paul Dixon – a clear man of the match on the front and back foot – and Robert Snodgrass on his first competitive start were a departure from the tried and trusted, despite the pleas for young Jordan Rhodes to be given an opportunity up front.

The manager said before the game his job wasn’t to be popular - it was to win.

And he certainly could have if his team had performed to its potential – but too many didn’t.

The Serbs had the first serious chance of the game thanks to a dangerously naive shirt tug from Christophe Berra on the edge of the box.

Manchester City’s Aleksandar Kolarov tried to sneak the dead ball in at Allan McGregor’s near post but the keeper was alive to the danger and squeezed his body behind it.

Their 3-4-3 kept us busy in certain areas but it did give us a bit of breathing space in behind at times.

Dixon in particular was given room to exploit, forcing three corner kicks in quick succession, one of his crosses in particular forcing a desperate chested clearance by Kolarov at the back post. The tempo was missing, though.

The midfield four rarely pressed, and the gap between them and the man they were supposed to be supporting was a chasm at times.

Still, there WERE opportunities.

A sharp Caldwell free-kick gave Snodgrass a tight one on one with Vladimir Stojkovic and the Partizan keeper did well to stay big and deflect the ball wide off his chest.

And Miller should have made him work harder than he did after racing on to a threaded Adam pass.

It needed a touch on the 18-yard line but instead he let the ball run and by the time he tried the chip, it was pretty much mission impossible.

Sinisa Mihajlovic’s side were far from intimidating – they bordered on chaotic at the back at times - but they did have their moments.

And the room Red Star Belgrade’s Darko Lazovic was given at the edge of the box to have a crack at McGregor just before the break was evidence enough.

Thankfully the Besiktas keeper was a match for his effort.

It’s hard to imagine the manager wasn’t as frustrated as the other 50,000 people inside the ground at the interval but, despite having half-a-dozen legitimate game-changers sitting on the bench, he kept faith with the players who had started.

Again they had their chances – and again they came from a glut of corners.

Morrison twice fed Miller with nice balls over the top from deep dead balls. The first saw the striker denied by a great piece of goalkeeping.

But the second saw him head fresh air with the goal gaping.

Scotland's Steven Naismith (right) watches his effort go wide Scotland's Steven Naismith (right) watches his effort go wide

Stevie Naismith also spurned a great opportunity, chasing a Caldwell through ball then poking his effort wide.

Danger still lurked, though, and Lazovic and Kolarov flashed shots across goal.

With 25 minutes left, a huge chant for Rhodes echoed around the ground. A change was needed but it came in the shape of winger James Forrest for Snodgrass.

It needed something special from the Celtic ace but his introduction coincided with a 10-minute spell in which we barely saw the ball.

Eventually with 80 minutes on the clock, the manager introduced Rhodes and Jamie Mackie for Morrison and Miller.

It seemed too late to give them a run at it - and so it proved.

And in the 90th minute it needed a superb stop from McGregor to preserve his clean sheet.

In fairness, Scotland had a chance that was its equal in injury time as Forrest saw his shot well saved. In the seven failed campaigns since Scotland last graced a major finals, we’ve only twice won the opening qualifier – away to Latvia on the trail of Japan and Korea 2002 and at home to the Faroes for Euro 2008.

The omens are not good.

But, of course, history is made to be rewritten.

Taken from the Daily Record