THE life of a Scotland supporter is like being a long-term prisoner who nears the end of his sentence only to have it cruelly extended.
Anyone who believes they have served their time – and that's now 15 years since the team last qualified for a tournament – is soon put right.
Captain Gary Caldwell tried to be optimistic as the squad flew to Serbia yesterday for tonight's World Cup tie in Novi Sad but, for many fans, his message will seem both demoralising and familiar.
Essentially Caldwell said it would take years before Scotland would have the right to be consistently competitive in World Cups and European Championships. The long-term work of Mark Wotte, the Scottish Football Association's SFA national performance manager, is as important as manager Gordon Strachan's, said the Wigan centre-half. He was right, of course, but it was a depressing message because it has been heard so many times in the past.
"It's going to take time," said Caldwell. "Things are in place for the future, not just for this group but for years to come. The technical ability of Scottish players is going to be greater. It's going to change how we go in future campaigns, it's going to be the younger generation. It's important in the future to make sure we do a lot better. The manager has come in and he'll work hard and try to get it right, but the future generations are more important."
Caldwell will be 31 next month, making him the third oldest member of the squad behind 33-year-old Kenny Miller and Allan McGregor, who turned 31 in January. "I can see some good young players coming through, which hopefully gives the manager some encouragement for the next campaign and the foreseeable future," added Caldwell.
"The work that Mark Wotte is doing with the younger generation has got to be right. There's no point in getting the national team to an okay standard and then it just falls away. We have to put something in place now that's going to be there for years to come."
There has been plenty of self-flagellation from the Scotland management and players since Friday's dismal defeat at home to Wales. Strachan had publicly questioned himself, wondering whether he had filled his players' heads with too much information and unwittingly contributed to their awful first-half performance. Caldwell, to his credit, exonerated his manager and assumed full responsibility.
"I don't think he overburdened us with information. Like us, as players, he looks at things as well. He hurts like us and tries to think what he could have done better. Personally I don't think he gave us that much information. It was the players' decisions in bad areas, giving the ball away, that put us under pressure. We have to take responsibility for that.
"We were all hurting over the weekend so the best way to try to get over that is to get on the pitch again and try to put right what went wrong. It's a quick turnaround. You have to recover quickly and go into the game in Serbia ready to put in a better performance and get a better result.
"There was a lot went wrong on the night against Wales. We didn't start well, we gave them too much encouragement early in the game to get on the front foot and put us under pressure. We recovered well, though, we dug in and we got ourselves into the game and 1-0 up, which was incredible considering the start we had.
"You have to think positively. You have to pick yourself up and go again. Serbia is another chance to go and win a game of football. We need to start doing that."
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