When Stephen McManus helped Scots sink Lithuania at Hampden

They are regular qualifying opponents for Scotland and this week's Hampden fixture against Lithuania conjures up days gone by which the national team must set about recreating '“ up to a point.

Scotland's Stephen McManus celebrates his goal against Lithuania in 2007.

The last time the Lithuanians played at Mount Florda on a Saturday ought to be lodged in the mind of Stephen McManus.

The imposing centre-back, then with Celtic, claimed his first goal for his country to send Alex Mcleish’s men on their way to a victory placed in doubt for lengthy a spell after the visitors made it 1-1 in the September 2007 meeting. McManus broke their resistance with a 76th-minute goal before James McFadden sealed the win with a screamer from 20 yards.

The success made Scotland contenders for Euro 2008 but is recalled little because, four days later, McFadden upped the ante with a 35-yard screamer to put away the French in Paris. It seemed then that a 10-year wait for an appearance in the finals would end, before a defeat in Georgia and a battling last night loss at home to Italy returned the Scots to the status of glorious failures.

Now, Gordon Strachan’s side are tasked with the bid to end 20 years without a finals’ appearance. The failure to reach this summer’s 24-team European Championships in France following so promising a start caused a sense of hopelessness to set in. Yet, McManus maintains that the baby step of an opening 5-1 thumping of Malta offers genuine encouragement.

The 34-year-old has, however, been discouraged about the passing of time when watching his telly recently. “I’m a Scotland fan. I’m an ex-internationalist but I’m a Scotland fan the same as everyone else. I sat watching Scotland’s Game on BBC1 and cannot believe the years have just whizzed by when we’ve not been in a tournament,” said the 26-times capped Motherwell defender.

“That campaign when we finished off against Italy I only realised, when watching the programme, just how close we actually came to qualifying. Which is amazing. When you are there, you just expect you are going to be involved with Scotland until you are 60. You think ‘this is great’, you are riding on the crest of a wave, and you don’t realise how good it is until it has stopped. And this campaign has got off to a good start and you have hope, belief and when you see the players that Gordon [Strachan, right] has to pick form it gives you that wee bit of confidence because you see how talented the boys are.

“That Lithuania game in 2007 was good to play in. I remember parts. We got off to a decent start in that campaign and I think that was my first campaign when I started becoming a regular, which was great. The biggest thing about Scotland is the atmosphere at the Hampden games, which is terrific.

“It’s great to see the current group have got off to a good positive start with that really good result against Malta.

“It puts that bit of disappointment from the Euros to the back of everyone’s mind and now you are focusing solely on this qualifying campaign where everybody hopes Scotland put in a 
positive showing.”

Just how distant Scotland appearing in a major finals has become is reflected in how McManus remembers the last time, and the boost Scotland got by the team opening France 98 against World Cup holders Brazil.

“My last exam at school was that day,” he said. “The next day I joined Celtic full time. I can’t remember what exam it was. I put my Scotland strip on that I wore in the youth teams and watched the game. It’s amazing it’s been so long since we last qualified. But what an incentive. You want to make everyone proud, your family and friends. It’s emotional playing for your country at anytime but helping Scotland reach a major finals after 20 years would be even more amazing.”