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I agree with most of what you usually say Joe, but not over this. That said, I would not have started Miller for the reasons you state ie. too much at stake. However at some point late on in the game, we could debate the precise time, when it was clear to all and sundry that we weren't going to win or even draw the tie. Miller should have been introduced and given his first cap. Just 5 or 10 minutes. His first chance to play for the full team, play at a Hampden international, get used to the international stage, whatever. The lad could have beee told something along the lines of "The ties lost, just go out and savour the occasion." However that opportunity was missed due to a safety first risk averse manager. Thats one of the reasons we haven't progressed at international level for decades and won't do so for years to come. Our youths are being mismanaged.

Indeed

Here is hoping 3 points for the Well 🤞

Wilson got that opportunity which was probably a more sensible change at the time.

This is the key point - the one area Scotland are relatively strong is midfield. Had Miller been a promising defender/striker I suspect he'd have been given his chance irrespective of age/who he plays for. Overall fabulous for him to be called up to the first squad at 18.

Clarke has previous for filling squads with players he has no intention of giving any game time to. The boy that scored the 2nd goal for Greece was 17 ffs if they are considered good enough to be selected they should be played. As has been mentioned in other posts the promising young players in Scotland have been badly coached and developed for years,by successive regimes Some of these guys are regular starters for their respective teams, but get dumped in the nonsense that is the u21 set up, if they have the ability get them in the full squad and then maybe we could build a team for the future, instead of sticking with the so called experienced dross that constantly under performs year after year.

I dont think it was the right circumstances. Regardless of the fact that Clarke would have still been hoping for a miracle right to the death, putting him on in, what was by then, a totally unbalanced team getting the runaround wouldnt have been fair to the boy at all. What chance would he have to shine? Play him from the start against Lichtenstein and/or Iceland alongside some experienced midfielders and give him the best chance to show what he can do. Just my opinion mind.....

Can see this being a heavy defeat tbh. 5-1 home win

I tend to agree with you but when you dig deeper you find that (based solely on place of birth) Max Johnston is no more entitled to play for Scotland than Scott McTominey, Lyndon Dykes and Bryan Gunn. All three born outside Scotland but with a parent or parents who were born in Scotland. Both Dykes parents were born in Scotland. So if being born outside Scotland is the criteria then our pool is even smaller and some surprising players would be ineligible. Also for me it seems unreasonable to ignore players who were born outside of Scotland because a parent was 'abroad' for work purposes. It is not as if the child chose to be born outside Scotland. Max Johnston as an example when his dad was playing for Middlesborough.. Extending qualification to take into account a grandparent is a step too far for me though. So that would exclude Hirst, Conway, Slicker and Adams. Maybe that's a balance that's fairer? Just to add to the nonsense, although the Home Nations agreed as a group to ignore them, per Uefa/Fifa players can qualify based on the length of time they have been in a country and any player born in the UK can play for any of the four nations. Schooling in a country for a set number of years is yet another route to qualification. James Tavernier is actually eligible to play for Scotland. Not saying he should but technically he qualifies. And, for the more senior amongst us, Jack Charlton also has a lot to answer for. I think the current Manager is a bigger problem than qualification criteria though. His loyalty to players who hardly feature for their Clubs is nonsensical. As is his refusal to select in form players. Only one Manager learned anything from the Thursday night win in Greece. And it wasn't Steve Clarke. Did he really believe that Ralston and Hanley with next to no game time for their Clubs could survive two full games in four days at International level.

Good points grizzly,hanley and ralston can't get near there club sides but yet clarke sees them as the answer for a two legged tie,there's no way either would be sharp enough for the demands.not even being biased towards max johnstone but he should have been involved,he had the balls to make the move abroad and further his career and has impressed in doing so but yet we stick with ralston who seems the type that will happily sit on his arse and not play as long as he's doing it at his beloved celtic.

I refer to the likes of, Slicker, Conway, Hirst, Adams, Dykes and a large list of non Scots given caps over the years because they had a Scottish Granny or Grandpa etc at the expense of homegrown talent like Miller, Turnbull, Doak, to name a few in a long list. The whole Scotland set up is a shambles as some of the best and promising talent in the country is constantly being overlooked.

I would take a punt its at George Hirst, capped under 17, 19 and 20 for England. Grandad Scottish. Should be nowhere near squad in my opinion. I want guys passionaite for our country, not guys only picking us for convenience

The only person responsible for Billy Davies being out of the game is Billy Davies. Im glad we didnt entertain bringing him back.

They could easily have buried us in the first half, but despite all the pressure and chances, they never got more than a goal ahead. I was right behind the goals, quite low down and I couldn't see Dougie at the second goal. A good ball played in and the next thing, the ball was nestling in the back of the net. Absolute scenes. Psycho's goal was just out of this world. I said to my old man at the time and watching it back confirms this. When that goal went in, if you look at the Celtic players, it looks like someone has run round and stuck a pin in them all. They all just instantly deflated. Kirkie's goal was the icing on the icing. I remember at the time that it seemed to take an age for the ref to actually give it, but watching it back, it's only 2 or 3 seconds. Those last few mins, knowing that the game was in the bag are the best feeling i've ever had as a football fan. Even my old man, who was quite elderly at the time, was bouncing up and down, singing and hugging random cunts ! What a feeling that was !

The whole 'Celtic don't lose replays' chat was heavy in the air that week, the football for our 2nd goal was tremendous, obviously Psycho's screamer was the talking point, Celtic couldn't deal with us and it was fucking brilliant, bus lost all it's windows on the way back, nobody gave a shit