This time. That was the slogan that the Scottish FA have had emblazoned all around Hampden and churned out constantly on their social media outlets for the past year to help make us believe that this time it would be different. This time we would not let down an entire nation desperate for a seat at the big table and not to be watching another major tournament on TV.

This time we wouldn't fall agonisingly short of qualifying for a major championship and not grace the biggest of international stages for the tenth time in a row. Twenty years of hurt were going to be wiped out this time.

After the first four games of the campaign, we had a measly four points from a possible twelve. Back-to-back 3-0 defeats last October and November made Gordon Strachan's future look bleak. Scotland supporters were in disarray and the knives were well and truly out for our manager. We looked dead and buried. Then it happened.

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We got that unmistakable whiff of hope. Hello my old friend, it has been a while. You know that waft in the nostrils we got when we beat France home and away. That sniff of glory we got when Griffiths popped his second goal high past Joe Hart to put us 2-1 up against our oldest of enemies or when Martin Skrtel slid a cross past his own goalkeeper to put it back in our hands. Then we could almost taste it last night when the imperious Griffiths smashed a low volley past Jan Oblak to put us in front.

But always in the back of your mind you had that nagging feeling that somehow we would find a way to blow it. You thought to yourself, “I have seen this movie before.” We will find a way to turn this into yet another episode of 'Glorious Failure'. And boy we did. A dreadful second-half performance against a side with little to play for consigned us to the outside looking in yet again. But we shouldn't have been in a situation, where we needed to beat a stuffy and unspectacular Slovenian team. Our slow start ultimately cost us a crack at the play-offs.

But what now for the manager? It is surely now time for a change.

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I have said from the very start of this campaign that we had the players to qualify for the World Cup in Russia next year. We just had to pick the right ones. We haven't. It has been a campaign of fine margins but at least give yourself the best possible chance of being on the right end of them.

England were always going to win the group but second place was certainly achievable. However, for me, Gordon has made some grave errors in not only team selection but formation. He hasn't got the best out of what he has had to work with. He was ridiculously cautious early in the campaign and one game sticks out like a sore thumb. The Lithuania game at home. One striker, Chris Martin, at home against a team who had won two games in three years, versus Malta and San Marino.

Lithuania are dreadful and a team you simply need to pick up six points against. If we had, we’d have been in the play-offs. It is a fact. But Strachan left Leigh Griffiths, who is the best striker we have available by an absolute country mile, planked on the bench. An abject performance and team selection was only rescued by a late goal, an equaliser.

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You can actually argue that it was a point gained given our performance on the night. That left us needing snookers after one game. When you think about it now, going with one striker, not even our best one, against Lithuania at home and going with two away to Slovenia is totally bonkers. But we needed to go chasing because of that one poor decision early on.

Look at Griffiths' performances since Strachan actually put him in the team. He has been every inch a top-level international striker and very nearly put us in the play-offs.

Gordon's insistence on picking the old guard from the English Premier League or Championship has also been particularly infuriating to a lot of punters as well. Those divisions are, to my mind, two of the most over-rated leagues in Europe.

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It's just snobbery, in my opinion. Our own domestic league has been looked down upon by our own international manager for a long time and the proof of the pudding is in some of squads and teams he has picked. His blind faith in the early part of the campaign, selecting the likes of Russell Martin, Grant Hanley and Chris Martin, was driven by his obsession in picking players from down south. In the meantime, guys like Darren McGregor, Graeme Shinnie and a 40-goal striker Griffiths were playing out their skin in our own league, and were overlooked.

Even this week, two players in John McGinn and Callum McGregor, confidence coursing through each of them after coming off doubles in a thrilling Celtic v Hibs game, did not see a single minute of action. I just cannot believe that. The tried and tested faces were again wheeled out. Stick to what we know. Well, let me tell you something that isn't very difficult to fathom – the 'tried and tested' hasn't worked. The fact that McGregor wasn't even in the original squad tells its own story. Some will say he hasn't been a regular at Celtic but it's harder to get in Celtic's team than it is Scotland's national side.

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After a gruelling game, physically and mentally, against Slovakia, Strachan again went with his favourites. McArthur was back in. Fletcher and Bannan where wheeled out to go again. All the time the two young lads with legs, drive and energy to get up and down the pitch to support the strikers and provide a goal threat sat, wastefully, on the bench. That was the final straw for me.

This time it just wasn't to be. Again. Next time we need a new approach and a new manager.