FOR Russell Martin, Georgia will always be on his mind.
That night in Tbilisi when the Scotland national team forgot how to play football and allowed a genuinely bad opponent outplay them in a shameful defeat will never leave the Norwich City defender.
Even if one day he actually gets to play in a major championship with the country, a prospect which in the wake of Thursday seems further away than ever, that result is always going to be lurking somewhere at the back of his mind.
He won’t be alone.
Martin to his eternal credit was one of the few Scotland players to front up after the draw with Poland which in a brand new way ended the hopes of the national team taking part in next summer’s European Championships in France.
And when asked where it had all gone wrong, there was no doubt in his mind. He said: “Georgia. Simple as that. No doubt about it. Ireland have taken four points off Germany – and we lost in Georgia.
“There’s no hiding from the fact. That’s what’s killed us.
‘We’ve taken points off Ireland, taken points of Poland. But they’ve beaten Georgia and we haven’t. That’s what has defined our disappointment, I guess.
‘It wasn’t a horrendous game in Tbilisi but we didn’t put in a performance. In every other game, we’ve put in a performance where we could be fairly happy with most of it.
‘The last two performances, we can be extremely proud of. We’ve scored two world-class goals against Poland and still come up short somehow. But that Georgia game is where the damage was done, in terms of the group.”
The Strachan question had to be asked and Martin was clear with his feelings about the manager. No surprisingly they were postage given that he owes his international career to the man.
Martin said: “I definitely think he’s the man to take the national team forward. Just look at the progress we’ve made. We’re talking about a disappointing 90 minutes in Georgia. Let’s not get carried away with ourselves, that’s all it was – and the rest of the squad feel the same.
“Take that out, we win over there and it’s a totally different scenario against Poland. If you look at the overall progress we’ve made as a squad and team since he’s been in, it’s been huge.
“I’m sure I’m echoing the sentiments of all the lads when I say we want him to stay. Hopefully he does.”
Scotland face another summer of watching a football party on television, far removed from being able to actually take part. Thankfully there will be three, maybe all four, of our near neighbours to support instead.
Aye, right.
Martin said: “It’s going to hurt that the other Home Nations are probably all going to be there while we’re sitting at home. Of course it’s going to hurt. Next summer, it’s going to be painful. I wanted to be there, everyone wanted to be there.
‘We had been building and building – and until Georgia it looked as if we would be there. But we’ve shown against Germany and Poland that we can compete with anyone on our night, when we’re playing well.
‘We have to take those performances into the next campaign. It’s going to be hard, believe me – but we have to get over this. I’m sure we will. Right now, it’s just very tough.
“It’s hard to find the words to describe how much it hurts. Obviously conceding so late made it worse. I know the Ireland result didn’t exactly go in our favour, anyway, but to still lose a goal that late – in a game we deserved to win, in the manner that we did … it just hurts a lot.
“We have to dust ourselves down for another game on Sunday but, right now, we’re hurting. That’s to be expected. We’re all professionals, we all care about Scotland. So we’re going to be hurting for a while.
“But in time we’ll need to focus on the progress made during the campaign. We’ve had one really disappointing performance – and that has cost us.”
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