Attendance 12,189
Scotland slumped to yet another abysmal defeat at the
hands of Austria tonight, suffering a 0-2 defeat at
Hampden Park a result that to be blunt greatly
flatters the home side.
This evening¹s performance no to mention the
attendance underlines the poverty of the Scottish
International team under Berti Vogts. Indeed it is no
exageration to state that the Scots have gone downhill
rapidly under the German Coach.
Forty years ago a crowd of 90,000 watched Scotland
overwhelm Austria 4-1, yet tonight at the same venue
scarcely one-eighth of that attendance could bother to
stir themselves to be present.
Scotland¹s line-up had just the one Ranger (Steven
Thompson) and no Celts, although Bob Malcolm, Maurice
Ross and Jamie Smith were substitutes.
The Austrians were the first to settle, Roland
Kirchler volleying a Michael Wagner cutback just over.
Three minutes later the Scots threatened when
Christian Dailly¹s header from Jamie McFadden¹s corner
was well held by goalkeeper Thomas Mandl.
Austria nevertheless looked by far the more
accomplished side and the home defence was split
open in 23 minutes when a Mario Haas dummy released
Wagner whose low twenty-yard drive was held by Paul
Gallacher.
There was almost an inevitability about the opening
goal four minutes later - Kirchler stretching to stab
home Wagner¹s cross.
Four minutes later the roof fell in on Gallacher when,
fielding a Lee Wilkie pass-back, he allowed himself to
be dispossessed by Haas who had all the time in the
world to net the second goal.
Scotland were pathetic, with the Austrians almost
infinitely superior, creating chance after chance down
their left, and it was no surprise that the half-time
whistle brought a crescendo of booing from the sparse
crowd, whose number appeared much, much fewer than the
official attendance.
With both Stephen Crawford and Scot Gemmill on as
second-half substitutes, replacing Steven Thompson and
Christian Dailly, Scotland did at least make a
slightly better showing on the restart. Gary Naysmith
came close with a snapshot in 58 minutes following Don
Hutchison¹s lay-off, then midway through the
second-half substitute Kenny Miller combined with
Naysmith and Crawford to carve out the Scots¹ best
chance of the night only for Mandl to divert the ball
wide.
The Austrians were seldom troubled however and
indeed might have doubled their advantage in the
closing five minutes, firstly when Markus Schopp¹s
diagonal ball found Ronald Brunmayr in space only for
the substitute to slice his effort over the bar, then
right on time the same player shot wide from a Wagner
cross, the latter player being by a distance the
outstanding player afield.
At an embarrassing Press Conference Berti Vogts
stumbled his way through a barrage of questions,
leaving the distinct impression that he has not got a
clue where to go from here.
³I was very disappointed with both the result and
performance. We had no fight in the first-half, the
players looked tired, yet I can take things from the
game. My experience can help Scottish football. I have
been criticised for fielding young players, now I am
criticised for fielding experienced ones.²
SCOTLAND Gallacher; Wilkie, Webster; Dailly (Gemmill
45), Pressley, Burley (Cameron 63); Devlin (Smith 83),
Hutchison (Miller 61), Thompson (Crawford 45),
McFadden, Naysmith
UNUSED SUBS N. Alexander, G. Alexander, Malcolm, Ross,
Arthur
AUSTRIA Mandl; Scharner, Ehmann; Stranzl, Dospel,
Aufhauser; Schopp, Flogel (Hieblinger 90), Haas
(Brunmayr 63), Wagner, Kirchler (Herzog 83)
UNUSED SUBS Payer, Pogatetz, Holler, Wallner
REFEREE Nicolai Vollquartz