Latest / A Level Playing Field / Ballon d’Or Backlash, SWPL Drama & Scotland’s Swedish Test I A Level Playing Field I Episode 34

Transcript

Ballon d’Or Backlash, SWPL Drama & Scotland’s Swedish Test I A Level Playing Field I Episode 34 · A Level Playing Field

• 0:00
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• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: The new issue includes an interview with one of Glasgow City's co-captains Lee Gibson, written by our own Alison McConnell, who's also a great piece on the chaos that Barry Smith saw during his time as Dundee Skipper, a series on Heart's title bid, Stephen McGimmons' brilliant breakdown of Scotland's World Cup Adventure, and an interview with Kelly Clarke.
• 0:23
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• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to a level playing field.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Cheryl Smith joined as ever by Alison McConnell.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: Alison, we're on our lonesome today.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: We thought it'd be a good chance for us to do one of these, just just you and I.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: We've not done one for a while, but a good chance to just kind of chat about some of the things that have been going on in the last few weeks and months.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_03: I think uh it's been a a a pretty frantic start to the SWPL and I think plenty of talking points that have come from from the first quarter really of games being played, the first rounds of games being played.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_03: I think uh you've got an impression really of how the campaign might play out.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, in the weekend obviously, when you talk about the SWPL the weekend that just passed there, uh it was a washout because of the the lovely weather.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: They were subjected to only Rangers.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: Motherwell survived that one, which I was thinking about you when that was going on, because I thought, how are you gonna write a roundup on one in one game?
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: It was a test of your skills, I think.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_03: Many tests, I don't know how often I've passed, but yes.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_03: Um yeah, it was uh one game prevailed.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_03: I'm actually quite curious about that.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_03: The the Celtic game was was called off very, very late.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_03: The pitch inspection was at quarter to two, and the pitch inspection was on a pitch that was directly behind Easter Road, where Celtic and Hibbs had literally just played, and it was a pitch inspection on an all-weather pitch and surface just behind the stadium.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, I'm not sure what that says that the the game can go ahead.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's a it is a strange one, I suppose, and these things happen.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: You just have to trust the officials and what their determination of it is, what what the quality of the game would have been like if it had gone ahead, but it didn't, but um but Rangers Mother Well did, and Rangers came out at 4-0.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: Winners are now top of the table, and albeit they've played a game more than than everyone else, but they're eight points clear of hearts, ten wins from ten, they are the team to beat.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely, I think they've been excellent so far.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_03: I think um when you when you look at it, who they've played against, how convincing they've performed against the likes of Celtic 5-2 when they met Celtic, beat Glasgow City last week, came from behind against Glasgow City, dominated the the second period, they've beat Hartz, they've beat Hibbs, they've beat everyone round about them that you would expect to go now and push them for the title.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_03: And I think the big question marks over Learn Crichton's side ahead of this new campaign would have been whether or not they had the requisite mentality to go and win a title, and and that was a an accusation I think that was maybe levelled at them at the end of last season when had they won on that last day against Glasgow City at Petershill, they would have won the league and and there was a real collapse.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm sure that would have been sore over the summer, I'm sure that's something that they would have had time to dwell on, to ruminate on, to look at the reasons why you would certainly say, judging by how they've started the campaign, that they look a very fluent side, they look like the informed side within the league, they look capable of going all the way.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_03: The real test will come once you start to get to the split and you see how you cope with proper pressure being applied.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_03: And this time last year we were maybe looking at Glasgow City and saying they were in a very similar position, they look as though they might go and run away with it, and that isn't the way it transpired at all.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_03: And I think particularly April, May, after the split, when you have the the three games a week, you see some incredible results and you see some changes within the league because it is without question the most competitive league uh in Europe when it gets to the spot.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and Leanne Crichton she'll be she'll be aware of that what you say about Glasgow City, and it is only ten games, but it's it's funny because when you watch a team, I don't actually know I was trying to think about this earlier, and I don't really know what the word is to describe it, but when you watch a team you just get a kind of a sense that they are they're a different team this season, there's something about them.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if it's the mentality or like you say, the fluency, but they just seem to be a machine almost this season.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think as well last season you have to remember that Leanne Crichton got that job while that team were on pre-season, or just before they went away to I think they were going to Italy.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_03: And she got the job, um, and there were all obviously there was a bit of paperwork between Glasgow City and Rangers, but she missed actually going on that pre-season.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_03: She got something like 10 days to prepare for a new campaign, which you know is nothing when you you think of the scope of the job that you've got to do and assess a score, and and I think that was probably reflected in the first half of last season was about inconsistency, uh, and then they got themselves back into it.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_03: I think what you're seeing now is a team that have they've had a year to work together, they obviously understand one another, understand the way that she wants to play.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_03: I think there's quite a clear identity within that team when you watch them.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of very experienced players within the squad, but also a lot of very exciting young players, and I think when you look at what they lost over the summer, the likes of Mia McCauley leaving.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_03: I I think they've recruited well, score a lot of goals.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_03: You've got Katie Wilkinson, obviously top scorer in the league last year, picking up where she's left off and capable of coming up with some pretty big goals and big moments, thinking goals against Celtic, goals against Glasgow City.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, I think they have match winners, but as I say, I think when you really see the character within a team is when you're properly under pressure, and they've just not been under pressure really so far this season because they have started so well and certainly have started so much better than anyone round about them.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_03: So they're sitting just now on an eight-point cushion at the top, albeit that Hearts Celtic Oliver game in hand.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_03: But even if Hearts were to win their game in hand, they've still got a five-point cushion just now.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_03: So it's interesting to see how it pans out.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: But on the initial evidence from the opening months of the season, I'm not sure where they'll drop points.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: You'd mentioned it, you said they probably had been sore over the summer, but when you actually think, well, they got to both cup finals and took the title to the final day, and obviously we know what happened on the final day, but they would have seen that as a failure, basically, because they didn't pick up any silverware.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, well, I I I don't think there's any doubt that you would see it as a as a failure.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um I think the the manner of that afternoon at Peters Hill would have felt quite shocking.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_03: I think uh there would probably have been quite a lot of work to do in terms of getting them together after the summer and digesting it, analysing it, and and looking at what had gone so spectacularly wrong that day, but I I do think I do think they look like a different team so far this season, but as I say, they've it's not really been put to the test.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_03: I think the most test the biggest test you would maybe say was it was it Peters Hill last week the game that we were at and they're trailing uh they they go a goal down and then they flip the game in the the second period.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_03: So that's it you you've not really seen them cope with any adversity largely because they have been dominant within games.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_03: That would be the first game that you could really point to and say, Well, there was a bit of pressure and they've come through it.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we know Hearts obviously are in in second at the moment.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: We'll skip to Celtic are in in third because I don't think we've had a chance to really talk about them in any detail so far this season.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I mean looking at their stats, they actually they've won seven of their nine games, but there is I don't know if it's inconsistency in performance.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: If you look at their last five, so they had a narrow was a narrow one one-nil win over Motherwell, then there was the five-two defeat to Rangers, then they beat Spartans 4-0, then they beat Aberdeen 6-0, and Aberdeen can't buy a win at the minute, and uh then recently obviously that 4-2 4-2 defeat to heart.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: So is it an inconsistency there?
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: What what is it that Celtic are suffering from that's not allowing them to reach, I guess, their what they would think is their potential under Grant Scott?
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_03: Well, Grant Scott keeps saying that they are a work in progress, and I think that's what you would probably say has been evidenced over the first couple of months of the season.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_03: I think they are being capable of decent performances at times, beat Glasgow City the opening day of the season, they've beaten Hibs.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_03: So I suppose they've they've potentially addressed that psychological element of struggling against league rivals.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_03: However, they were fairly abject against Rangers and then uh against hearts too.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_03: And I think when you look at some of the goals they've conceded, they have an incredibly soft centre.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_03: The goals, certainly, some of the goals that they have conceded in the in bigger games have been pretty appalling at points like come down to individual errors, and I think that that's probably just really underpinned some of the results that you've seen.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_03: I think from middle to front, at times they look capable of causing other teams problems, probably.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_03: I think they'll score goals.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_03: They they look like a team who have have got a bit of menace in the final third, but at the minute I I I still think when they're put under any defensive pressure that they look culpable.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's time for our player of the week, sponsored by Nutmeg Magazine, the home of brilliant football stories.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: Check out the latest issue at nutmegmagazine.co.uk.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: This week's player of the week is Rangers attacker Brogan Hay.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: She returned to the starting lineup in the 4-0 win over Motherwell at the weekend and grabbed herself a double.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: It was a victory for Leanne Creighton's side that took them eight points clear at the top of the table.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: Their match was the only one to survive after havoc was wreaked on the fixture calendar by the storm at the weekend.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: That was our Nutmeg Magazine player of the week.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: For more great football writing and to order the latest issue, visit nutmegmagazine.co.uk.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and there's not been when you talk about kind of suggestions of inconsistency like I was saying, there's not been consistency in either the goalkeeping position or in the defence Kelly Clark's dropped out in the last sort of four games.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: The goalkeeper does switch often.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if if he knows who his number one keeper is.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um but that can't help when you're trying to build from the back and uh from a solid base, and there's kind of interchange you know interchangeable between the keeper and then who's in that back line.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think he's probably just trying to work out what his strongest squad is a lot of changes again over the summer, a lot of players coming in.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_03: I think Kelly Clark has been a mainstay of this Celtic team, particularly in the modern era of this team going professional and becoming really under the umbrella of the club in a way that they weren't.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_03: I'd say probably just before COVID, just after COVID.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_03: And I think Kelly Clark has very much been probably the most consistent performer, has probably had the most appearances every season, captained the club, took them to their first ever league title, took them in the Champions League, lots of big moments, and and I'm sure that's probably been a fairly tough decision to start maybe changing things around and and she's not started in that.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_03: I I can imagine it's not been an easy decision to make, but also it it it creates a a situation there when you're taking uh you're taking out someone who has been pivotal to that entire team, yeah, and they're dropping out of the side as you look to try and find something new.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how it goes um in the weeks and months ahead because they are we are only ten games into the season.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um wanted to have a wee chat with you about the Ballon d'Or, which was just uh just this week, and we obviously had interest in it because of Caroline Weir.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: She finished 25th, highest ever ranking for a Scottish player in the women's Ballon d'Or, which has been going for seven 2018.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: And also it was our second uh consecutive nomination, as we know.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: Her C V.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: She must have a very small font in her C V to fit in all the things that she's she's achieved, and uh we hope that she can add a World Cup to that.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it was interesting.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_03: The interview in BBC that that she's done is saying that she would trade all of it to get back to a World Cup, which is interesting.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I would trade you for a World Cup.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_03: But um yeah, I I think an incredible achievement to be in that bracket, to be to have left Real Madrid as their top scorer, uh, to go to Lyon, a club with such a fabled history, particularly within the the women's side, and and just to be in that bracket, to be in that elevated company is a reflection of of just where she is in her career, and I think Scotland probably need to enjoy it because she won't be around forever.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_03: I think sometimes you get generational talents and you just have to enjoy it.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_03: You would you would like to think that she is befitting of a place on the biggest stage of all and befitting of going and and playing at a world cup, but as we all know, it just life does not work like that, and football doesn't work like that.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_03: You could have a a fairly long podcast chatting about all the players who didn't make it to a World Cup in the George Bests of this world, um Ryan Giggs, you could you know you could go through just because you have a very natural talent, it doesn't align that that you're you're gonna be there with your country at the best tournament.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_03: So you would hope for her that well, you'd just hope for all of them, um, but you would like to think that players like Caroline Weir and Erin Cuthbert, if Scotland are to compound all expectations ahead of that game against Sweden, these are the players that you think are probably going to have to really turn up and turn it on to to get what would be the biggest result in Scotland's history.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: We'll have a week um rechat and a bit about that next round against Sweden and what what that can look like.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: But um on the Ballon d'Or there was a bit of commentary that came out off the back of that.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um Alexia Patellus won the women's ballon d'or for the third uh it was her third third win.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: She was presented by Michael Owen, he presented the award to her.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: So there was a whole discourse around should it have been you know an advocate of the women's game that presented it, someone more appropriate, someone who's got a connection to that trophy and to her journey and that type of journey.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: But um what did you what did you make of all that?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: What was your thoughts about it?
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I I think listen, it's been going the the female award was only introduced in 2018, so it's very new still if you go back to the very first year when it was introduced and you had the whole twerking controversy and the whole sexist nonsense that went with that.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think it's in the same ballpark, however, I don't think it's a good look to have a former male winner presenting the female award.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_03: I think it would have made sense.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_03: Pick a legend of the women's game, have a Mia Ham or someone like that present the award, someone who who was held in considerable esteem in the women's environment, and then he also had then Barcelona, Barcelona's women's team, essentially dominating the categories.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_03: It was it was near on a clean sweep, and then when the Barcelona president got up on the fact that the women's team had been nominated the best club in the world, and he started to speak about the men's team and and his belief that the men's team can go and win the Champions League this season, and it just felt tone-deaf.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you're you're up to to accept an award on behalf of the work that the women have done, and it was just a reminder, really, that sometimes even when you're particularly successful that you're still playing second founder.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it f it kind of felt like that the female award is very much part of it now and should be, but it's also kind of feels like it's just been slotted in into yeah, into like a a schedule that is you know predominantly it's built for men.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um it it kind of felt it felt that way.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: I saw people I didn't see the ceremony um live or anything, but seen snip snippets of it.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: I saw kind of people online chatting about the fact that there was uh female interviews happening and then the camera would flip away to whoever was the the male, whoever was arriving at the you know the aluminium owl and people like that.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think all of those things together it just doesn't look good.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: In terms of Scotland, obviously we hope we hope they get back to the world stage and they're gonna have to take on Sweden, who beat Lithuania 15-nil on aggregate in the previous rounds and uh sitting in the sitting in the stadium at Paisley watching that result go come through.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like everybody in that press box was just uh getting more and more terrified as that as that game went on elsewhere.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: But um it's gonna be a tough one, tough one for them.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: And we're not actually sure of the the injury situation with Caroline Muir because she missed the game and she pulled up in the in the warm-up, and then afterwards Melissa Andreata said that you know she was she wasn't gonna get full minutes anyway because she was trying to build her back in because of the injury that she had at Leon, but hopefully, hopefully she's back.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: But Sweden, eighth in the world.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: What's what are you thinking?
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_03: It's just such a massive, massive test for Scotland.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_03: I I I don't think it's over egging the puddin to say if Scotland were to win, it would be the biggest result in our history.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_03: It's massive.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_03: This is a team that have qualified for every episode of the women's World Cup, back-to-back, semi-finalists, World Cup.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_03: They they uh they are heavy weights of the women's game.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I think the challenge that faces Scotland is formidable.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_03: Um I have to say I don't see it happening as as much as I would like to see it.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know how you go about trying to engineer a result against one of the best teams in the world.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_03: And I don't want that to sound too defeatist, it's more a realistic take on it.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_03: But I think the fairest thing to say is that Scotland 100% have their work cut out for them.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_03: If they are to take something and really punch above their weight, it has to be a structured, disciplined, mature performance.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_03: You need all of that, they'll still need a bit of luck, they'll still need to have a uh something on their side.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_03: I do think the influence of Erin Cuthwert and Caroline Weir, when it gets to these games and you're playing against the very best in the world, is fundamental to whether or not Scotland can prevail.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_03: You need big players to come to the fore to come up with something, um, and it's just interesting to see I think how they'll line up, I think how they'll approach that first game in Paisley and how they how they'll look to nullify the threat of Sweden while also going and trying to ask some questions of their own.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think um well I don't I don't actually know if this is true.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: I think when I saw that the first leg of it was at home, I thought that that was a a positive because it was um that that night in Paisley was it f it felt different.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: We have been to in you have been to hundreds of women's games and have been to a few, it just felt different.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: I think the sm the smaller stadium, the fans closer, there was just a the atmosphere just felt different.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: There was not the echo chamber that there can sometimes.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think there's any doubt having it in a a stadium that's full or or almost full makes a massive difference.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_03: I think if you're at Hamden and there's five thousand people at Hamden, it it it doesn't feel good.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_03: There's no energy within the stadium.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_03: You can hear the shouts of the Players, you can hear the shouts of the coaching staff.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_03: It's a bit like COVID, yeah.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_03: When you saw games played behind closed doors, it's an entirely different thing altogether.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_03: So I think the sensible thing to do is to go to a smaller venue.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_03: We've spoken about this before.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_03: I'd said to you that from the outside I think it's sensible.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_03: I do think the players deserve to be consulted on that, especially when you're talking about games of this magnitude.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_03: But for me, I think you want to harness any energy at all.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_03: And playing it somewhere in in Paisley makes absolute sense because you you get a lift from the the energy and the atmosphere within the the stadium.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_03: I think my own preference would always probably be to play first tie away and second leg at home, so you're at home when you know exactly what lies in front of you and what you've got to do.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_03: I think it can be a bit harder when you play the first leg first.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_03: However, it is what it is, and it's it's up to Scotland now to go and go and approach the game in in the right way and see what they can do.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_03: I'm I'm curious to see how Melissa Arangiata goes about it.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_03: She's had ample time to to think about it.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sure she'll be watching a lot of the Swedish games and and know a lot of these players and be well aware of the damage that they they can cause Scotland.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_03: In some ways I do wonder if this is oddly, weirdly, like one of those games where Scotland might actually be better off.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_03: You've seen them not show the best versions of themselves in recent playoff finals.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_03: I'm going back to the Finland, the the European Championships playoff final against Finland, Easter Road, and then second leg in Finland.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_03: I thought Scotland were very, very poor, insipid, just didn't rise to the occasion.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_03: The same against the Republic of Ireland at Hamden when they missed out in the World Cup the last time, the the the tournament that was in Australia and New Zealand.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_03: Very limp performance at Hamden.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_03: I I do wonder this is a game that no one realistically really does expect Scotland to win.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_03: This is a game where Scotland are massive underdogs.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_03: Oddly enough, maybe that does actually go and work in your favour when you don't have the same level of expectation.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_03: They would have been expected, I think, against Finland, against Ireland to go and prevail and come out and top and they didn't do it.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_03: I wonder if this the the psychology around the game is slightly different.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I know what you're I know what you're saying about you would rather you know teams think like that, they would rather be away first than at home, but you know, they're playing against Sweden, and I think to have the home game first could help them in terms of what you're talking about with the crowd and the energy because there's still jeopardy in the game and the fans that were at the one like the start of this month will have felt there was sick there was over six thousand there.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: They could potentially sell it out.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: There's there's something on the line if they not to say that they would, but if they went to Sweden first and came back five nil down, it'd be harder for them to get people through the door, and that's really what we need.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: I support you at this time.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: But um and it was a there was a huge there was a huge difference I felt sitting there.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um so looking forward to seeing it again and hopefully they do completely sell it out this time because it was good and uh and you'll be there as well because that last last time you just swanned off to Italy in holiday.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: I just do enjoy yourself.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: It'll be it'd be good to have you back.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: But it'll be interesting uh to see how it goes.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm actually looking forward uh to seeing you experience what that was like because it was it was great, and you've you've sat in Hamden hundreds of times when there's there's not been that, so you go back to the last time Scotland qualified for a World Cup and 18,555 people turned up for the farewell game, the friendly against Jamaica.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_03: So, where are those 18,500 people now?
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_03: What what's gone wrong that Scotland haven't been able to retain that interest?
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_03: I think you could do a hundred programmes on the reasons why there was loads of feelings in the aftermath of that tournament, but it is a glimpse into what is possible with the right environment in the right circumstances.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: I think we'll leave it there.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: That was a good uh a good chat just to catch up on on the things that have been happening in the last few months because we don't often get a chance to talk about the here and then I'm lucky enough to have uh a guest almost every week.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's 33 episodes now, um, which anyone listening can skip back and listen to any any one of those.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: Including Carline Lear, of course.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um so yeah, skip back on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, you can listen to any of those.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: Make sure you also follow a level playing field on uh TikTok, X and Instagram are there, and we will be there in Paisley as well just to bring you some some coverage of that of that game.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: So hopefully we're um hopefully we're celebrating in Paisley.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: But thank you, Alison, for your time today, and uh thank you to you for listening.