Time for the qualifying shocks to stop

SOME quotes just stick in your mind and here’s one from Gibraltar boss Allen Bula from the summer that he may yet come to regret.

“I said it before the draw was made - my target is the play-offs - and I’m still sticking to that,” he said.

“I think we’ll give a good run to every single nation we play and I think they are starting to look at us now.”

Well, they are certainly looking at you, Al. Looking at you with the kind of pity you show for a dog with three legs. Or merely looking at you with utter contempt or, in the case of goalscorers chasing records, looking at you with boot-filling glee.

Even in a qualifying competition which has already been punctuated with any number of coupon-busting upsets, there’s no way on earth that Gib can beat Georgia and we can concentrate instead on what has become a wide-open race for the top two spots.

Germany’s loss in Poland on Saturday has thrown Group D wide open and now those two welcome Ireland and Scotland respectively.

It’s amazing to think that the Scots, after two games, are still actually in with a sniff of qualifying, especially as one of those matches ended in a loss. But that’s what happens when you hand out invites to the whole of Europe to qualify for a major finals and then invite all of them - apart perhaps from Gibraltar and San Marino - back for the finals as well.

So Scotland - played two, won one - head for Poland with spirits high after thrashing Georgia by an own goal.

I’m looking at the prices and thinking the Poles are an absolute mustard bet after beating Germany at the weekend.

But the German game was so, so important to them that will they now be able to lift themselves for a visit from the Tartan Army? Who am I kidding? It’s the Poland, Georgia, Switzerland treble for me and a timely end to all those pesky shocks.