Scotland - and Gordon Strachan - have much to learn from success of the Irish

Partly, this is of course motivated by jealousy that they managed to finish above us in the qualifying group for these championships, and by a frustration – apparently shared by the national team manager Gordon Strachan – that they really aren’t any better than us, are they? We beat them in Glasgow and drew with them in Dublin after all, didn’t we?

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And yet, the Republic of Ireland - who couldn’t beat Scotland in two qualifying matches - just enjoyed one of the greatest nights in their international football history by beating Italy, meaning that they join England, Wales and Northern Ireland at the biggest party in Europe while we are left at home to take the bins out - as so many English, Welsh and Irish fans gleefully pointed out on Tuesday evening.

How did that happen? What is it that these teams possess that Scotland doesn’t? Well, England quite obviously have better players, and even Wales can boast a world superstar in Gareth Bale with Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsey among their supporting cast. With Northern Ireland, a relatively easy qualifying group can be pointed to as a reason - or excuse - to explain away their presence at Europe’s top table in our stead. But the Republic of Ireland? They were in our group, and they finished above us.

The Scotland manager attempted this week to explain away his side’s failure to make the tournament by helpfully reminding everyone of how well qualification rivals Germany and Poland are doing in the tournament. Did the Republic of Ireland’s progress to the last 16 strengthen Strachan’s argument that our qualifying section was especially competitive? Well, in a word, no. In actual fact, it has turned the spotlight on the manager himself as the increasingly frustrated Scotland support look to apportion blame for our status as major championship pariahs.

The Republic of Ireland, like ourselves, do not have any world class stars. Martin O’Neill, like Gordon Strachan, picks from a pool of players who operate at the bottom end of the English Premier League or the Championship as a whole. So if the players are of a similar standard, what is the differential?

It would be unfair to lay the blame for Scotland’s recent failures solely at Strachan’s door, but there are undoubtedly areas where he has to shoulder responsibility, and there are lessons to be learned from those mistakes rather than pretending they didn’t happen.

Not least of those, was Scotland evidently settling for a draw at the Aviva Stadium when our rivals looked to be there for the taking. A win there, and perhaps the monumental disaster that was the defeat in Georgia wouldn’t have been quite so calamitous. Ireland, after all, had already secured three points from their trip to Tbilisi.

‘But who could have foreseen that Ireland would beat Germany?’ you may ask. Well, given that it was entirely possible that Germany would have nothing but pride to play for by the time they came to visit Dublin, while Ireland had everything to play for, it was hardly the shock that it may seem if taken out of context.

There were echoes of that Irish triumph in the way that they qualified for the last 16 of the Euros on Tuesday evening, and they were undoubtedly fortunate in the timing and circumstances that they yet again faced up to one of world football’s historical giants. The Italians were already assured of top spot in their group, meaning that the task before them was less daunting than it may have been. These are the rubs of the green that haven’t come Scotland’s way, but our absence from these finals have nothing to do with fortune.

It may have been hard to stomach for the Tartan Army, but nevertheless, it would have taken the coldest of hearts - or the largest of grudges - not to have been moved by the emotional scenes of jubilation as Robbie Brady’s header hit the net for Ireland. And there are lessons that Scotland, and in particular Strachan, can take from Martin O’Neill and his side.

They have shown that organisation, heart, determination and an indefatigable team spirit can carry an ordinary group of players to summits that Scotland haven’t threatened to get close to for decades. Perhaps all it will take to get our own group of game but ultimately limited players back on the game’s major stage is a manager who believes in them.

If Gordon Strachan won’t take advice from supporters, pundits or journalists on account of their lack of experience at the top of the game, perhaps he could follow the example of O’Neill, a man who has stellar credentials as a player and makes his players believe they can achieve anything, rather than publicly – and continually – pinning the responsibility for our national side’s failures on their lack of ability.