Plenty of teams around Europe have tried and failed to turn back this Scotland side’s rising tide. Now the elements have had a crack too.
Nope, sorry. It’ll take more than that.
The measure of this squad’s contribution to the country was perhaps most visible, strangely, in the 90 minutes they were not playing rather than those they were.
It is not that long since those few naive enough to buy tickets to Hampden would soon see the error of their ways and be longing for a groundsman forking the pitch to break the monotony of having to watch the team.
Last night, the Tartan Army’s enthusiasm for the squeegee wielders was in their capacity to return their new heroes to the field, and the reciprocal round of applause between team and fans upon the successful completion of the mop-up operation was genuine excitement that the writing of the story’s next chapter would be delayed no longer.
Though bizarre in circumstances, from the moment Andy Robertson roared back on to the pitch celebrating the confirmation of the resumption it seemed inevitable that his side would convert the victory. For a support so used to fearing ridiculous calamity, how times have changed.
To be eight points clear entering the summer – yes, say it again, eight points clear – is certainly ridiculous, but it would surely take the calamity of all calamities to prevent Scotland from marching into the finals from here.
Were we talking about any country other than one with such propensity for sporting accident, we would already be pencilling its name into the Euro 2024 wallchart.
Scotland will take no such liberty until the last necessary point is collected, but that is not to say we will not enjoy it in the meantime. Soak it all up folks.
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