David Marshall's Euro Diary Day 10 - Insert Trainspotting Quote Here (Patreon)

History was made tonight, or rather, it continued. Scotland’s dismal record at international tournaments had one more year to add to the never-ending story.

If we’re being honest, Scotland got exactly what they deserved. The first half was an utter embarrassment. In a must win game, Scotland managed an xG of 0.00 coming from exactly 0 shots on goal.

The set up from Steve Clarke was all wrong and he has looked every bit the Kilmarnock manager he is at the two tournaments he has led Scotland at. The players were an absolute disgrace too, not one with the balls to try something, to take the game by the scruff of the neck and just fucking do something.

What was more concerning was that Hungary seemed to feel us out in the first half hour, realise there was nothing there and started to go for it more.

As it was, the game was still level at the break and it was there for the taking if Scotland could just show something! Did they? Not really, no.

A horrible moment in the second half when Barnabas Varga collided with Angus Gunn. Thankfully, he has been reported to be in a stable condition and hopefully, he’ll be okay. In the midst of all that, there was a penalty check. We only saw one replay, for obvious reasons, but I thought there might have been a tug by Scott McTominay. No penalty was the decision.

A far more contentious penalty decision would come later in the game. Stuart Armstrong was brought down from the back and to me it looked like a stonewaller but the referee waved played on. I wasn’t convinced otherwise when the VAR review was in process. To me, Armstrong is trying to get to the ball when it’s taken an awkward bounce and the Hungarian defender is caught totally out of position and takes him out. I’m not sure if Armstrong was onside or not because that never got cleared up, but to me that’s a foul all day long. Put it this way, if that happens to Rangers then I’m spewing about that for weeks.

Whatever injustice Scotland might feel the truth of the matter is they simply weren’t good enough. When you have one shot on target in 100 minutes of football you deserve to take nothing from it. Hungary, although certainly nothing special by any means, looked like the team that wanted the win more and they got what they deserved.

From six tournament games under Clarke, Scotland have two points and no wins. That’s not good enough! It’s all very well saying he got us to these tournaments but if the best you can hope for is stagnation then that’s no plan at all. He’s done relatively well, but if we are looking to progress it’s time for a new man to be given a chance.

One more thing, the phrase “glorious failure” should be banned from the Scottish lexicon for the next week. There was nothing glorious about this tournament, just complete and utter failure.

Anyway, have you seen the fire in Linwood! I was sitting watching the game and could hear the explosions outside and thought it was people bringing their bins in. I’ve gone out for a wee look and aye that’s a bit mental out there. The good news is though, I am safe and my windows are all closed so I won’t be inhaling any lithium battery fumes. Also, Linwood has it’s very own tyre fire now!