Scotland’s Head Youth Coach Ross Mathie was late meeting up with the youngsters in the national under-16 squad that are due to face England tonight in the Sky Sports Victory Shield after a nightmare journey home from Geneva.
The long serving Mathie, who had to spend the night sleeping in a seat at Heathrow Airport, now reckons that this group of youngsters have brought him the worst run of luck in his career.
Mathie left the young Lions squad under the guidance of the experienced pair of Tommy McLean and Jim Clark to attend Tuesday’s draw in Nyon, Switzerland for the Elite Round of matches that his under-17 side face later this season.
The snow saw Mathie stuck in London when he returned on Tuesday night, and as there were already thousands of other stranded passengers all the local hotel rooms were taken, leaving Mathie to spend the night fastened to an armchair in the Departure Lounge.
Mathie said, “It was certainly far from ideal and not very comfortable, however I managed to get on the 7.10 flight in the morning so I was able to spend time with the boys before heading down south again for the game. Some people think that working in football is all glamour but that is certainly not the case.”
It is the fourth mishap that Mathie has had with this season’s under-16 side as he explained, “We were due to fly to Malta for a week’s preparation earlier this year but that was lost because of the ash cloud crisis. We were booked in again and could not get because of a British Airways strike and when we finally got to a training camp in Jersey we could not play one of the two games arranged because of a flood. I have now been stuck at the airport, however if we can keep all of our bad luck off the pitch I will settle for that.”
The young Scots will win the Sky Sports Victory Shield outright for the first time in 12 years if they can defeat England at Morecombe tonight, however the game which is due to kick off at 7.35pm is in doubt.
Mathie said, “I have been advised that there were covers placed on the pitch before snow fell, however there is now a lot of snow on the covers. The pitch is meant to be not too bad, however if more snow comes it will either be difficult to lift it off the covers or it will fall on the pitch if the covers are removed.”
The English will be formidable opposition despite their 4-0 loss to Wales in October with Mathie saying, “England normally have enough strength in depth to field two sides in this competition so I am not reading too much into that result. The one thing I do know is that their coaching staff will be out to ensure that it does not happen again so we are in for a tough night. We will be looking to win the game and get hold of the Victory Shield.
The draw that Mathie attended for his older side has placed Scotland in a tough group where they will face hosts Italy as well as Slovakia and the Czech Republic with the matches taking place on March 9 -14.
The National Coach said, “We reached the Elite Round undefeated so we can take confidence from that. It was always going to be a tough draw as you are up against either Group Winners or Runners up so we will just get on with things.”
The young Scots include the Falkirk trio of Kyle Turnbull, Blair Munn and Craig Sibbald and the Queen's Park pair of Craig Johnstone and Gary Duggan.
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