Ali Douglas calls on everybody in Scotland to pull in one direction behind manager George Burley...
Mistakes were made, it's a time for honesty says Ali
Gutted. How else do you describe the feeling after Wednesday's defeat to Holland?
Scotland played well and showed all the hunger and desire you would want from a Scotland side, but unfortunately we've not qualified due to previous poor results. We dropped crucial points against 'lesser' nations and that is our reason for failure, not because we lost 1-0 to a very good Holland side.
It's not the first time we've done this. During our last qualifying campaign we beat France home and away, which was incredible, but we let ourselves down against other nations and all you can say is that it is hugely disappointing to once again fail to qualify for a World Cup.
There were some great individual performances at Hampden, David Marshall in goal did a fantastic job under immense pressure - he knew he wasn't the first-choice keeper but he stood up and did an excellent job.
Kenny Miller, despite the missed chances, gave his usual hands-to-the-pump kind of performance up front, he occupied Holland's defenders all night and was so unlucky to hit the bar - on another day that goes in and we qualify. That's the problem with losing away at teams like Macedonia, you end up with everything riding on one huge game, and the width of a crossbar can be the difference between a ticket to South Africa and a summer holiday at Butlins watching the World Cup on TV.
Time for honesty
Everybody now needs to look at themselves and, rather than pointing the finger of blame, admit that things could have been done better. This is yet another World Cup without Scotland involved, and a whole generation of children are growing up thinking 'oh, that's the World Cup, that's the competition we don't enter'. It's gutting, and the pain is felt right across the country.
The fact is, everybody must look at themselves. The SFA must ask themselves if their scheduling of fixtures helped George Burley as much as it possibly could, players have to ask themselves if they could have done better, there's the Barry Ferguson and Allan McGregor incident, there's Kris Boyd's decision to retire...all of this makes life more difficult for Scotland.
The loss of Barry Ferguson was huge. He is such a big influence on the Scotland team as a leader on and off the field. Then you look at Kris Boyd - we could have done with his goalscoring instincts last night! I'm sure he had very good reasons for quitting the international game, but when it comes to your country surely personal differences could have been papered over...he's such a fine goalscorer and you just could not help wondering what might have been if he had been playing last night.
I'm not pinpointing one of these factors, I'm saying all of them only made the task of qualifying more difficult.
Burley must stay
I hope George Burley stays, and I hope we do everything in our power to learn how we can help him in the future.
Think about it, there are very few people who would want to take this job nowadays. You're in and then you're out, yet you've only got a limited about of players to work with. Alex McLeish did a brilliant job, as did Walter Smith, yet they both left the post for jobs with Birmingham and Rangers respectively. We need to find out how we can make the Scotland post a more attractive prospect.
I don't blame Smith or McLeish for leaving; they've both taken fantastic roles and done superbly for their respective clubs. But these were two brilliant Scotland managers, so we need to look at why the plum job as manager of Scotland isn't enough to stop these guys walking away.
Can the SFA improve the scheduling? Can we improve at grass roots? I would love to see the SFA have a candid chat with Smith, McLeish and Burley and find out how they can help the Scotland manager more in the future. It would be crazy to get rid of Burley, did we fail to qualify because of Burley? I don't think so. If Miller scores from that rebound and we win 1-0, Burley is a tactical genius.
Motherwell v Rangers
This should be a fantastic game, made better by the fact I don't think any international players picked up any injuries, although doubts remain over the return of Kyle Lafferty for Rangers. We've got two unbeaten sides, which guarantees a bubbling atmosphere at Fir Park, we'll be there with the legend that is Gary McAllister to chew over all the major talking points, and we expect a cracker.
One to look for is definitely Ross Forbes, Motherwell's prodigious 20-year-old midfielder who has just signed a new contract at the club. He will go into this one brimming with confidence after receiving the club's backing in the shape of a new deal, he scored a cracker against St Johnstone, and he'll be dying to put on a show against one of the Old Firm, where eyes will inevitably be on him.
Celtic v Dundee United
This is about as huge as games come this early in the season, once again two unbeaten sides but Dundee United really are on form. They have got a real chance of upsetting the big two this year, they've only conceded once in four games (including the cup) so Celtic's attack will have their work cut out. You've also got the fact that Celtic will know Rangers' result before they kick off, which I always think adds an extra dynamic...an extra bit of pressure...to the afternoon.
You might think the international players will be on a come-down, but I don't think they'll have any troubles refocusing this weekend. In fact, having spoken to hundreds of players down the years, if you ask some Scottish players if they would rather win a game for their country or win the SPL title, you get a real 50-50 split. The Scottish Premier League means so much up here so the challenge of a big league game is the perfect tonic for what happened at Hampden.
Strugglers
It's worth keeping an eye on Hearts this weekend, they host Kilmarnock at Tynecastle looking for their first win of the season. Csaba Laszlo will probably be reminding his squad that Manchester United didn't get off to a flyer last season yet they ended up winning the league, but the sooner they can get the monkey off their back and pick up their first win - it will be crucial for confidence. Hearts are a massive club so expectations will demand a victory this weekend.
And Hamilton will also be desperate for at least a point against Hibernian after losing all three of their league games by a three-goal margin so far. They're one of the only clubs to spend significant money in the SPL this summer, spending in the region of £180,000, which is big money for them. They've brought in a couple of new faces recently in Mickael Antoine-Curier and Richard Hastings, hopefully some new arrivals will shake things up a little for them because you don't want to be cast adrift early.
So all in all it's a weekend to look forward to, which is desperately needed after the tartan scarf was put back in the drawer last night.
