SpitballingPod is a weekly podcast dedicated to discussing the hottest topics and the biggest debates in all of sport. Hosted by Luke Byron and joined by a combination of Tom Kennett, Troy Weaver, Alex Jones, Jack Harper, Rory Ford, Sean Shute and Connor Harmer
All tagged Scotland
Friday Night Lights followed by a bit of Monday Night Football. That's what lies in store for Scotland this weekend as the qualifying campaign for Euro 2020 reaches its halfway point then turns for the home straight. Whether or not Scotland will have control of their own destiny in the final few furlongs depends on what happens during the next two matches.
The waiting is almost over. We can almost reach out and touch the beginning of the SPFL season. The upcoming ten months of football will be filled with controversy, debate, surprises and hopefully some emerging stars.
It's almost time to get up and running again. After a summer break which feels like it gets shorter each year the SPFL campaign kicks off this coming weekend. The 42 clubs across all four divisions will very soon be finding out if their hopes and dreams for the new season were well placed or if their worst fears were closer to reality all along.
Things went pretty much as expected. Scotland's latest Euro 2020 qualifying fixtures have now been completed and the record books will show a home victory over Cyprus followed by defeat in Belgium. While these results were expected by the majority of observers the two fixtures allowed new Scotland manager Steve Clarke to work with his squad for the first time and gave fans an opening glimpse of what to expect under Clarke moving forward.
Scotland's Euro 2020 qualifying campaign got off to a disastrous start in March with defeat in Kazakhstan. That was followed up by a far from convincing win over minnows San Marino. For Scotland fans performances like this are nothing unusual.
Celtic Football Club are currently dominating Scottish football; They recently secured the Premiership title - their eighth in a row - and won the League Cup in December. Victory against Hearts in the Scottish Cup Final on May 25 will deliver a third consecutive domestic treble for the men from Glasgow's East End.
It's that time of year when most of the domestic football leagues around Europe are finishing - winners and losers are being decided everywhere and the efforts of many over the long season can now be properly judged by media and fans. In Scotland the four leagues which make up the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) are at this stage. This then makes it the perfect time to reflect on what we have witnessed while looking ahead to what is still to come - namely the end of season playoffs.
We've been here before as Scotland fans. The beginning of a new qualifying campaign for an upcoming World Cup or European Championships and the initial optimism that this could be the tournament we qualify for is quickly eroded after a dose of reality hits during the opening fixtures. In this case Scotland's attempt to qualify for Euro 2020 appears to be completely derailed after a disastrous 3-0 defeat to lowly ranked Kazakhstan.
