Winning proves a dying art for Levein’s men as hopes fall flat

Craig Levein’s gambles could be judged to have paid-off but his luck ran out at Hampden Park on Saturday afternoon, as Scotland collided with the disaster they had flirted with throughout a tense, ultimately unsatisfying encounter with Czech Republic.

The winning habit continues to elude the manager, who has now seen his side win six times in 13 matches, but only once when it mattered – against Liechtenstein last September, with a winner which came seven minutes into injury time. Scotland found only a sting in the tail this time, although from the opening minutes, when Milan Baros scooped a shot over the bar from eight yards out, Levein’s side seemed to struggle with the burden of knowing that they had to beat the Czechs. “Victory is vital”, Levein reminded everyone in his match programme notes.

Tension spilled from the centre-backs into a worryingly narrow midfield, where the enormity of the occasion seemed to act to constrict the ambition of a department routinely lauded by Levein. Only a nerveless Scott Brown looked to be unconcerned about the possible implications of making a mistake, although he let himself down in another way, lunging into Tomas Rosicky after 18 minutes and picking up a booking which keeps him out of tomorrow night’s clash with Lithuania.

The referee should have noted then what it takes to make an opponent crumple to the turf. Kevin Blom later added his name to the list of Tartan Army refereeing nemeses, one which includes the likes of Manuel Mejuto Gonzalez, who awarded a late, dubious and extremely damaging free kick to Italy in a similarly crucial qualifier in November 2007.

Blom handed the Czechs their equaliser on a plate when penalising Danny Wilson for felling substitute Jan Rezek, when in reality the Liverpool defender had brushed the ball and avoided the opponent completely. Wilson’s only crime was having allowed Rezek to get goal-side of him. It was up to Rezek to make the most of this error by putting the ball in the net, not by throwing himself to the ground. Afterwards Levein complained that Blom had made two mistakes of magnitude, although there had in fact been three – he failed to award the away side a penalty when Charlie Adam took Baros out in the box in the first-half.

Levein’s observation was in reference to a penalty claim for Scotland in injury time. However, Christophe Berra’s own theatrics, after a challenge from Roman Hubnik, were a mite embarrassing, and possibly helped make the referee’s mind up for him.

Indeed, it was a rather lame attempt to play the Czechs at their own game, although even when this game was possession football, the hosts looked somewhat lacking, and, at times, out-of-touch. Levein’s decision to play both Fletcher and Hutton, both of whom kicked their first competitive balls of the season on Saturday, looked flawed initially.

However, they eventually rose to the challenge, Fletcher most obviously. Levein’s conviction that this is a team of great technique was not borne out by events, although Scotland did, somehow, secure an interval lead on the stroke of half-time, after Fletcher supplied Kenny Miller, whose angled shot was deflected into the corner of the net by goalkeeper Jan Lastuvka’s boot.

Otherwise, Scotland struggled to cope with the quick-breaking Czechs in the first-half, with debutant Petr Jiracek giving Hutton a torrid time on the right. However, the Aston Villa full-back recovered and proved to be more effective after the interval, particularly in an attacking sense. Instead, Scotland’s glass jaw was shown to be on the left, with Wilson the player whose lack of competitive action was exposed in the short time he was on. Levein was forced to turn to the defender when Phil Bardsley’s injured calf could no longer be endured.

The switch, after 75 minutes, altered the match. Shortly after coming on, a better placed Wilson failed to give Berra the shout required when standing just behind the Wolves defender and Berra’s header, squirted out to the Czechs’ right flank. The visitors were able to sustain their attack and when the ball was again sent back out to the right, Wilson had pushed too far into the centre, perhaps drawn there by instinct given that his preferred position is centre-half. This left Rezek with time to control the ball and drive it back across goal where Jaroslav Plasil bundled the ball into the net with his midriff, although Wilson might justifiably wonder about the marking, with both Adam and Brown having stood off the player.

Hampden was plunged into silence. However, it was a Czech player who next experienced serious trauma, letting the ball run under his foot in the run-up to Scotland’s second goal, just seven minutes before the end. It wasn’t quite late enough to be successfully preserved as the winning strike – yet it would have merited this billing, for both its creation and execution.

Miller still had much to do after seizing on the hapless Jan Rajnoch’s mistake, and bore down on goal before playing a perfectly measured ball across the face of the six yard box, into the on-rushing Fletcher’s path. The fact that the Manchester United midfielder was even in the vicinity said everything about his contribution on Saturday. He passed the ball back across the goal, into the corner of the net. Although there were only half the number of attendees, the resultant Hampden roar was surely every bit as loud as in 1973, when the Czechs were downed by Joe Jordan’s late header and a World Cup berth was secured. Then the Scots had 15 minutes to see out whereas this time they only had to withstand seven minutes, plus three minutes’ of injury time, and yet they couldn’t do it.

The Czechs kept piling on the pressure, suspecting Scotland would succumb once more to jitters but surely never imagining that the referee would prove quite so willing to collude in their equalising goal. It was a poor, poor decision, but while it is natural to want to vent frustration at Blom, what about Rezek? It niggled all the more when afterwords he proved himself to be an exceptionally pleasant individual, complimenting the Scotland support and looking genuinely upset at the hurt he had caused. Nevertheless, he maintained he had been touched - but, he admitted, “it was not a big fall”.

Scotland’s last chance of qualification for Euro 2012 appeared to lie with Allan McGregor, but not even he could get near Michal Kadlec’s fiercely struck penalty, as the Hampden scoreboard showed 89 minutes, and more, on the clock. It was, in short, a disaster for Scotland, but then where have we heard that before?

Scotland: McGregor, Hutton, Caldwell, Berra, Bardsley (Wilson 75), Naismith (Robson 86), Fletcher, Adam (Cowie 79), Brown, Morrison, Miller. Subs not used: Gilks, Goodwillie, Bannan, Forrest.

Czech Republic: Lastuvka, Hubnik, Rajnoch, Sivok, Kadlec, Hubschman, Plasil, Petrzela (Rezek 56), Rosicky, Jiracek (Pekhart 77), Baros (Vacek 90). Subs not used: Drobny, Pudil, Pospech, Lafata.