Too often as a nation we dwell on the negatives when it comes to our football team.
This week your glass being half empty isn’t even an option.
The progression for Scotland over the last couple of years under Steve Clarke has been tremendous.
We didn’t do as well as we would have hoped in the Euro 2020 finals and the World Cup play-off defeat to Ukraine was a bitter pill to swallow but the bigger picture has been transformed.
I couldn’t tell you the last time we had strength in depth like we do these days and so many players representing their clubs at a very high level.
The average age of the squad is very healthy too.
Historically, we’ve struggled in the third game of a triple-header but even with injuries and illness biting deep, we were able to see this one through.
There hasn’t been a single player who has let us down over the three Nations League fixtures.
Ryan Porteous is certainly one of those.
He was fantastic on Tuesday night against Ukraine.
🗣️ "Three different performances. Three great results."
Hear from Ryan Porteous and Steve Clarke after we ended our Nations League campaign with a draw against Ukraine and promotion to League A 💪#UKRSCO pic.twitter.com/uCbXo2KtD9
— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) September 28, 2022
I hope he now takes this as his opportunity to make sure the only thing people talk about when they’re discussing him is the quality of his football.
He’s one of those players who seems to attract attention for the wrong reasons but he’s at an age now when that should be stopping.
I would imagine that coming into the environment Clarke has created will have helped in that regard.
There are so many good role models with Scotland these days.
At 23, he’s at the age where he’ll be maturing as a footballer and as a man.
This could and should be the start of a really exciting next chapter in his career.
Yet again Craig Gordon was superb for his country.
It doesn’t come as a surprise – his consistency levels have been outstanding for Hearts and Scotland for a long time.
The agility that has always been his big strong point hasn’t diminished and you can see where he’s developed his game over the years as well.
Craig Gordon appreciation post 🙌🏴
These two MASSIVE stops from the @JamTarts number 1 kept Ukraine at bay on @ScotlandNT's way to #NationsLeague promotion 🏆 pic.twitter.com/QQ1uQesJv6
— Premier Sports (@PremierSportsTV) September 28, 2022
He comes off his line to block more shots with his feet than he would have done back in the day, for example.
I can definitely see him playing for Scotland for a couple more years.
We’re in great shape to qualify for Euro 2024 and Craig could well be our goalie if we do get to Germany.
Charlie Adam has had a playing career to be proud of.
Scoring huge goals, winning a trophy with Liverpool and being capped by his country – the list of achievements is an impressive one.
And he got to play for the club he supported.
We played together for Dundee in Dave Mackay’s testimonial.
He didn’t know then that he would end up moving to Dens but you could tell how much it meant to him to pull on the dark blue, as it did at Julian Speroni’s benefit game.
He gave the Dundee fans some moments to remember and helped the club back into the Premiership.
That it came to an end with relegation will be a disappointment but Charlie’s had a career in which the highs have massively outweighed the lows.
Good luck to him in his next one.
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