It was supposed to be World Cup D-Day where our dreams of Qatar would finally come true.
The reality is it's another afternoon on the couch for the Tartan Army watching two other nations fight it out for the privilege with only the prospect of a Nations League clash against Armenia at Hampden to lift the gloom.
Hardly the same. But needs must and if Steve Clarke is to make good on his vow to reach Euro 2024 after our World Cup dream came up short then the work starts now.
And Hotline callers were only too keen to give the national boss a few pointers.
Gary Stevenson, Newtonhill, said: “Surely now Scotland will give youth a chance and find strikers who are not Australian or English. Young Alex Lowry must be given a chance. After another failure and with nobody treating the Nations League seriously, now is the time. Otherwise we will continue to fail. Steve Clarke said we don't want to be one hit wonders, personally I cannot think what he thinks is the one hit.”
Michael Shaddick emailed: “Let Clarke keep his job as he only has the best of rubbish to start with. What is needed is a limit to foreign players who start games for our clubs, say three per squad. Celtic, Rangers and Aberdeen all won in Europe with home based teams, so why now is there so much need for the trash that other world teams do not want? Then we may actually get back into contention for finals as we would have a larger pool of home based Scots to choose from.”
But Colin McArdle, Lanarkshire, reckons there’s no point even trying to be optimistic.
Colin groaned: “Scotland have as much chance of ever winning the World Cup as Rangers have of ever winning the Champions League - none. Had we beaten Ukraine we would have struggled to beat Wales in Cardiff. At international and club level we are light years behind the rest so let's just accept the doom and gloom and move into the real world.”
On to domestic matters now and Calvin Bassey’s impressive campaign for club and country has seen him rocket from a £230,000 compensation fee signing to a £50million asset in just two years .. according to Chris Lowe from Yoker .
Bassey won COPA90’s breakthrough player of the year award back in his homeland last week and Chris said: “Following his man of the match award in a European final Calvin Bassey has earned yet another award for his displays for Nigeria.
"The big man is earning plaudits from all angles and it’s easy to see why he’s becoming a £50 million-rated player. If only he had been scoring penalties against the Andorra under 21’s and looking good against Hamilton and the likes he might have got the huge valuation headlines others have gotten before him.”
Bluenose Alfie Mullin, London, took aim at a Hotline regular and said: “Kevin Kean claimed Connor Goldson won't see titles 56 and 57 even if he stays at Rangers until he's 40. I reckon that title 56 is on the cards for next season.”
And Gordon Ferguson, Kilwinning, said: “Celtic’s complacency has left this season’s campaign open to Rangers being able to regroup under GVB and reclaim the title. Celtic ultimately failed miserably under Angeball in Europe and only a catastrophic meltdown by Rangers gifted Celtic the title. The Celtic boss must ask GVB how to win in Europe or face a Champions League humiliation again.”
Meanwhile David Bryce, Troon , said: “I’m less than inspired regarding the players Celtic have recently been linked with. We have landed a pot of gold with the Champions League money. The supporters are entitled to ask why we are shopping in the bargain basement? We need major upgrades at centre back, left back and centre midfield . We don’t need development players who will just make up the numbers. The club need to show more ambition.”
