Blair Expects Every Scot to do their Duty

The Facts:

On 6 May 1953 Mr Leo Blair's wife Hazel gave birth to a second son in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was given the name Anthony Charles Lynton Blair.

He spent his early childhood in Australia before moving with the family to Durham. But he has his secondary education in the city of his birth at Fettes College, Edinburgh.

Yesterday he became another Scot to become all English saying:

"I support England very strongly, but if Scotland was playing - not England - but a game against someone else why [take the attitude] that I don't want Scotland to win when they are part of the United Kingdom?"

The thing is Tony it is just this sort of attitude that the English will happily adopt an Scot, Welsh or Northern Irish sports team of person as their own when doing well but always reject them when they start to wane that leads to the Celtic nations looking for teams of excellence to support, especially if we are neutral. That plus the fact that the English still go on about 1966. So the Scots have to keep reminding the English that they were the first team to beat the World Champions when they met in 1967. The same may eventually be true of Rugby from 2003 but the Irish take great pleasure in reminding the English who beat them first as world champions.

We also live in a multi-cultural society Mr Blair are you asking the Australians, Germans, French, Americans, Italians and others who live in England and are supporting the land of their birth or forefathers to support Ingerland? Or what about Norwegians, Austrians, Russians or New Zealanders who are merely supporting a team maybe they have some connection with, or maybe has some players in their league?

Last time I checked I was free to support Northern Ireland living here in Scotland. In fact the other Livingston fans applaud me for it. I also support Ireland in the Rugby whether at Murrayfield or, as happened once, at the Scottish Lib Dem conference with the party leader stood beside me.

So when all this jovial anybody but England support is out of the way at some point from the 24 June to the 9 July we'll either be hearing about the 40 years of hurt continuing or ending ad nauseum until the next World Cup or beyond. So allow the Scots their 4 weeks of pleasure Mr Blair, after all tis only a game of fitba.

Could Scotland Knock Sweden Out of the World Cup?

The last time Sweden faced Scotland on 17 November 2004 the land of Abba and Sven Goran Eriksson celebrated a 4-1 win.

However, Sweden have yet to qualify for the second round of the World Cup, they need a single point to go through. Following Argentina's 6-0 win yesterday against Serbia and Montenegro England need to impress to be taken seriously by the other serious contenders, Portugal, Germany, Holland and Brazil have all looked equally fragile so far only Argentina and Spain have stood out.

So let's say Sven allows Gerrard and Lampard some freedom and that he has Owen and Rooney fighting it out to impress to play alongside in form Crouch in the second round. The team might just leave Sweden on four points with either a negative or neutral goal difference.

In the simultaneous game at Kaiserslautern on Tuesday night Trinidad and Tobago must play for a win against Paraguay who will only be playing for pride. Now sat on T&T's bench so far unused in this campaign sits Jason Scotland. Should Leo Beenhakker find his team winning and in with a chance of progressing he may wish to rest his starting strikers. Now he has used 5 already but maybe to gee up the Tartan Army support that has adopted his team he might throw on Jason Scotland.

So imagine the scenario:

T&T are 2-0 up Sweden are losing 3-1, therefore Trinidad and Tobago are one goal up on goal difference.

Scotland comes on with about 20 minutes to go.

Sweden score through Henrik Larsson (Scotland [the nation] doesn't know whether to laugh or cry) Sweden are now ahead on goals scored level on goal difference.

Jason Scotland scores and T&T deny Sweden by one goal as the games come to an end.

Pubs across Scotland start singing Scotland, Scotland, Jason Scotland after all they all seem to have been looking up the lyrics. As most of them have come through here in that search.

Scotland World Cup Song Soars Up Charts

"The World Cup Finals are on their way
With all the teams off to Germany
Brace yourself cause on every screen
There'll be nothing but the England team
But wait!
Hey!
There's hope at hand
We can still support Scotland, Scotland, Jason Scotland"

From Scotland, Scotland, Jason Scotland by the Trinidad and Tobago Tartan Army

Despite only selling 12 copies in London the above single has made the top 30 of singles charts. Somehow Scottish football fans have managed to get a World Cup song into the charts in a year that their team did not even qualify. Maybe that is what is meant by the immortal lyrics of the 1978 song 'Well we'll really shake them up when we win the World Cup'. At least in one respect the Scots are managing to maintain their hold on memorable World Cup songs.

However, the official Trinidad and Tobago song 'Fighter' by Maximus Dan is not fairing so well on the UK charts for the Soca Warriors.