McLeish rallies troops for Italy game

Alex McLeish insisted "the whole of Scotland should be proud" of his team even though a defeat in Georgia has left them needing to beat Italy to qualify.

Hampden date
A 2-0 loss in Tbilisi brought to an end a superb run of four straight wins for Scotland and saw them slip down to second in Group B, but they know that they can progress to the finals of UEFA EURO 2008™ if they beat world champions Italy at home in their final qualifier on 17 November. McLeish said: "To be going into the game against the Italians needing to win is phenomenal and the whole of Scotland should be proud of what the players have achieved."

Missing talent
The display in Georgia was not a memorable one for Scotland but McLeish cut his side some slack. "Maybe our momentum was disrupted by missing players and we were short of the quality we had in other games," he said. "Nobody gets an easy game in Georgia and they have made it difficult for a lot of teams considered better quality than us. To be fair to Georgia, they played a good game. We had four first-choice players missing tonight and that is not a criticism of the players who came in. They are gutted in there in the dressing-room."

'No reason'
Striker Kenny Miller added: "It was a disappointing performance all round. We never really got started. We were not hard to play against as a team and that is what we have been doing in previous games. We knew it was going to be a difficult game and we were prepared for it. We wanted to come here and win and we have the squad capable of coping with injuries and suspensions. Maybe we were overdue a bad result and hopefully we will be back on the boil against Italy. We've won our five games at home, so there's no reason why we can't beat them at Hampden [Park]."