In last night’s Old Firm match, Celtic were denied a clear goal when Carlos Cuellar blocked a Shunsuke Nakamura shot with his hand right on the goal-line.  There was no way the shot was going to miss without his intervention and he was rightly redcarded and his team were reduced to ten men.

Celtic were then awarded a penalty, which they contrived to miss.

Is the sending off of one player and the award of a penalty punishment enough to a team in Rangers position?

What has happened to Scottish football lately?

We are used to being dismissed as pretty rubbish in recent years, but just lately there seems to have been a bit of a resurgence in form for both our domestic teams in Europe and also for the national team in the Euro 2008 qualifiers.

It doesn’t always follow that success for domestic clubs will lead on to success for the international side as there are so many foreign players now involved with the teams here (and unfortunately we can’t then use them to play for Scotland!).  Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is up to others to decide, but obviously something good has been happening behind the scenes to encourage homegrown talent which has now bourne fruit with Scotland’s international results in this campaign so far.