Stevie the Supporter

Steve Clarke has done a magnificent job with his coaching staff and players to get ourselves into this position. He will have the full support of all the Dunfermline team hoping that they can progress and play in the finals of a major tournament again.

As Scotland travel to Serbia for their UEFA EURO 2020 Play-Off Final in the Belgrade’s Stadion Rajko Mitic on Thursday night, Stevie Crawford recalled just how bad it feels to lose a Euro play off.

The Dunfermline manager won 25 Scottish caps and played in the Euro 2004 play off against Holland in November 2003. With Scotland not having qualified for a major tournament since 1998 Stevie reflected:-

“It has been a long time but there is an excitement. The run that the Scottish squad have put together at the moment has them very much together. Steve Clarke had a terrific spell at Kilmarnock and he seems to have brought that now to the national squad which is really really pleasing.

“Like everyone else in the country I will be supporting the national team. It is great that we are getting the chance to talk about it with it being 1998 when we last qualified for a major finals. Steve Clarke has done a magnificent job with his coaching staff and players to get ourselves into this position. He will have the full support of all the Dunfermline team hoping that they can progress and play in the finals of a major tournament again.

“There will not be a manager working at a Scottish team that wouldn’t want Scotland to qualify for a major tournament. It is so difficult because smaller nations have improved unbelievably in the last 25 years. It is not just a case of what we have not been doing as a country. Other teams have developed and caught up so it is far more difficult now to progress in tournaments.

“If you look at results since Steve Clarke went in he has definitely turned the mentality of a group that is now looking forward and fingers crossed we qualify for this campaign.”

Stevie played in Berti Vogts 2003 Scotland campaign, featuring twice against Iceland, Lithuania and the Faroe Islands and once against Germany at Hampden Park. Scotland finished second in group five and faced Holland in a European Championship qualifier to see who would go to Euro 2004 in Portugal.

James McFadden combined well with Darren Fletcher to fire Scotland to a memorable Hampden win against Dick Advocaat’s side in the first leg of the play off. The Dutch however romped home 6-0 in Amsterdam four days later though with Ruud Van Nistelrooy grabbing a hat-trick and former Rangers defender Frank De Boer also on target. Stevie described what went wrong:-

“Obviously James McFadden scoring the winner at Hampden and the elation from that. Holland were a wounded animal and when I look back at the team, never mind the starting eleven. That squad that the Dutch had, it was a fantastic achievement to win the first game but because it as a two leg play off to go out in the manner that we did was tough to take.

“The one thing that I did not do at the time, and as a player sometimes you don’t, it is like big Owain (Fôn Williams) going away with his national squad and Lewis Mayo, you get caught up in the moment and you don’t actually enjoy it in the way that you should.

“It was not a nice experience for Holland to beat us the way they did. When you look back at the game, some of the goals that night and some of their attacking play was ridiculous. They had boys who were really going for the jugular. Scotland will face that but they will have togetherness, their drive and their commitment. Steve Clarke will have them well organised and hopefully that gets us across the finishing line.”

Serbia v Scotland is live and free-to-air on Sky Pick, kick off 7.45pm UK time, Thursday 12th November.

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