Seven-nil. 7-0. 3-0. 4-0 and now 6-1. Gibraltar’s introduction to competitive international football has been a painful one so far, but their historic goal at Hampden yesterday represented another step forward.
Scotland set out on this campaign hoping to get back to a major tournament finals. Gibraltar’s sights are somewhat lower. They just want to be competitive and improve.
One look at the men who make up the European championship’s newcomers highlights just how large a gulf exists between the tiny nation and the established order.
If you wanted to write a textbook on how to make life as tough as possible in international football, then look no further than Gibraltar.
For starters, they boast a population of 30,000, 2,000 less than San Marino. They have only 600 registered footballers and home matches are played in the Algarve in Portugal.
They boast just one senior professional, Preston North End defender Scott Wiseman.
The next highest ranked players are two players from English non-league football, midfielder Jake Gosling, of Bristol Rovers, and Farsley attacker Adam Priestley.
But once you get past the three leading players, the remaining members of the squad play football for the love of the game.
Forging a professional career in the sport is not even being considered.
Take goalkeeper Jamie Robba, a first year professional, who a year ago was managing his father’s sports bar, or substitute goalkeeper Jordan Perez, a fireman by trade.
Then there are the Chipolina brothers. Joseph is an admin clerk while Ryan works as a customs office.
Two of the Casciaro brothers, Ryan and Lee, work as police officers while the third, Kyle, is a shipping agent.
Crewe Alexandra’s academy operations manager David Artell plays for Bala Town in the Welsh Premier League, while Rafael Bado is a storeman.
The list goes on and so too does the varied assortment of jobs these international players do to earn a crust.
Football, for these men, is about old fashioned national pride, nothing else.
To no surprise whatsoever, Gibraltar’s first trip to Hampden ended in defeat, but was there progress made?
A first goal of the campaign would suggest another step in the right direction has been taken.
Goalscorer Lee Casciaro, at the age of 33, is living the dream of being an international footballer and with world champions Germany next up in June he is loving every moment. The policeman said: “Everything has progressed so quickly since we were made members of Uefa.
“This is the first year we have been playing on a full size football pitch.
“I’ve spent the whole of my life training on the road and training on seven-a-side pitches for an hour-and-a-half a week. Now we are training in Spain and playing international football against the big countries.
“It is all moving so quickly and for a man of my age. At this stage in my career it is fantastic.
“I’d dreamed of this moment and it is a wonderful feeling, but it is not my goal, it was a team effort. We scored the first goal for Gibraltar, not me.
“It feels great to score the first goal for our nation, but we still lost. Scoring was an achievement and for me it was a very good feeling. Hopefully there will be more goals to come. It was a great reaction for us to going a goal down, but it was always going to be hard for us in trying to keep Scotland out.
“We’re disappointed with the final score as we felt we played well, but it is another step in the right direction for us and if we can keep doing that we will be very happy.”