Lithuania 0-0 Scotland

Well the scoreline certainly tells a story, Scotland failing to score in 8 consecutive games away from home. And if I'm honest, a goal was the only thing missing from the performance in Kaunas. The two central defenders I pointed out as weaknesses prior to the game played well and were solid for the 93 minutes, even McCulloch who sat in front of them broke up play well. The Lithuanians never really created much, with two decent chances the whole match, one of which was only created from Weir being thrown to the ground off the ball. You will get the usual calls of poor tactical choice by Levein, however without the 5-man midfield we wouldn't have been as likely to have controlled the match as well as we did. The change with 20 minutes to go, shortly after McFadden was brought on was the correct move again when McCulloch moved into centre midfield, Morrison came on to the right and McFadden went up in behind Miller. The only thing missing here for my money was bringing Boyd on instead of Miller, we need a goal and since I named him Kenny Misser, I didn't feel confident. Again, I can't fault Levein here as Whittaker had taken a knock and he obviously knew he was struggling and had to keep the last substitution for him. However, I do feel we would have coped with a half-fit Whittaker as the Lithuanian ventures forward weren't to often.

We don't like to see unnecessary bookings, but the Lithuanians tactics were plain to see from the get-go and the foul count was there to match it, I think a yellow card or two early on may have stamped it out and made for a better game. There were long periods of the game where it would be stop-start, which really affected Scotland's rhythm. This is the one complaint I would have of the Turkish referee. The known Cesnauskas wasn't on the pitch, however his brother was and he showed similar diving attributes, it really was laughable. The guy came shoulder to shoulder with the Scottish defender about a meter and a half away from the box, rode the challenge, then made the dash into the box and he jumped into the air and fell, nobody within half a meter of him. Well done to the ref for not falling for it, but where was the simulation booking, it really was a ridiculous dive. Anyway next up is Liechtenstein at Hampden, where we would expect at least two up front, and one of them being Boyd. A few goals and another clean sheet would be a great way of washing away the disappointment of tonight's goalless draw.