Hibs: Pat Fenlon's failings go deeper than Malmö mauling

A big crowd, a night where the history of Hibs was so emotionally celebrated and...an absolute, cover your eyes, when it will stop tanking.

Another big game ends with another apology from the manager and much discussion over Pat Fenlon's future as manager. Record defeats in Europe - for Hibs, for any Scottish club - can make a man's employment status a topic of debate.

And Thursday's demolition against Malmö was historically bad. Hibs have had a tendency to crumble or to fail to show up in big games. But that weakness still didn't prepare many of us for the orgy of ineptitude we endured.

Malmö's manager said his team had been "lucky." The opening period of the game certainly didn't suggest the Swedes had come to wreak historical havoc. Their good fortune was to come up against a team powerless to stop them doing exactly that.

It's true that Malmö are already in the swing of their domestic league. True also that they're in no way a bad side. But they filled their boots because Hibs looked like a side who had never met rather than a side who had already enjoyed a substantial pre-season together. Malmö are a good side but they'll only win 7-0 if they come up against a very, very poor side.

Once again the support answered the call when Fenlon led Hibs to a big game. How have they been repaid?

• That cup final hammering against Hearts
• A 3-0 defeat to Celtic in a Scottish Cup final, almost lauded in some quarters because his team didn't collapse as they had done the year before
• A big home support expecting Hibs to fight the good fight against Malmö, a support that ended up watching the heaviest ever European defeat suffered by any Scottish team

Even his biggest fans must ask how exactly Fenlon prepares his players before they face these challenges.

He lost those three games by an aggregate score of 15-1.

He did manage to overcome Dunfermline in a relegation battle at Easter Road in 2012. And Hibs came back when Falkirk - a side 25 points short of SPL promotion - went 3-0 ahead and threatened to do "a Malmö" in last season's Scottish Cup semi final.

But the first half of that Falkirk match raised even more questions about how Fenlon prepares his sides for these games. At the very least one gets the impression that his team talks fall short of Churchillian and teeter on the edge of Blimpian.

Does Fenlon deserve another shot at a domestic campaign based on the first 20 months or so of his reign?

An online poll of fans - much quoted in the weekend press but lacking the numbers to be truly representative - had 68 percent of supporters (at the time of writing) deciding Fenlon had to go.

My anecdotal evidence - even more scientifically flimsy - suggests he's doing well to have over 30 percent of fans backing him.

(Full disclosure: a Twitter correspondent who I've never met called me a wanker for questioning Fenlon. So the love is out there for Pat, there are supporters swimming against the tide of popular opinion ready to succinctly articulate their point of view.)

The pro-Fenlon argument suggests that calls for his head are a knee-jerk reaction to Thursday night. A freak result suffered by an unfinished team in a game that came too early.

(I've seen it called a meaningless game - Hibs and Scottish football might have slipped but if history means anything then no European game at Easter Road should ever be called meaningless.)

Are the anti-Fenlon mob guilty of the predictable whining of fans licking their Malmö shaped wounds?

Or is it the final verdict of the people who watch Fenlon's Hibs most closely each week?

His league performance since taking the job - and I'm about to present a barrage of stats cobbled together on the back of a fag packet - looks to me like being 60 games played with 18 games won.

A win percentage that we could generously round up to 30 percent.

How does that compare to his most immediate - and there's been a few - predecessors?

My SPL calculations give:

• Colin Calderwood a win percentage of 25 percent
• John Hughes a win percentage of 36 percent
• Mixu Paatelainen a win percentage of 32 percent
• John Collins a win percentage of 38 percent

Fenlon undoubtedly inherited a mess from Calderwood. His five SPL wins over 22 games in 2011/12 saved Hibs from relegation when there were times - before and very often after he took over - when they flirted with being caught by a poor Dunfermline side.

But three of his league wins came in the last three games of last season when Hibs had nothing but seventh place to play for in a season when the Rangers sized ructions of the previous summer left a very different SPL landscape.

Seventh place did represent progress on the previous season's eleventh place - but it most certainly wasn't the progress the fans had hoped for.

Those three end of season, seventh spot snatching wins also give a certain sheen to Fenlon's calendar year results in 2013.

The idea that he inherited a side surely ended when this year's January transfer window closed.

Building a football team from a low starting point isn't easy. But three transfer windows offers a decent opportunity to mould a new side.

"It's Calderwood's fault!"

Well, no. Since Fenlon's third transfer window in the SPL closed I'd contend that it isn't Calderwood's fault anymore.

And since then Hibs have played 13 league games and won four. Without winning against a team that finished in the top six.

Fenlon's 2013 win percentage is, of course, increased by the Scottish Cup run. But even including the road to Hampden not since the 1-0 win over Celtic on 29th December have Hibs beaten a team that finished in the SPL's top six.

And what of that cup form?

Fenlon's consecutive final appearances make him - thanks to the perverse relationship they share with the old trophy - Hibs' most successful manager in the competition for ninety years.

Ten games played, eight won. A record that can't be knocked - well, alright, it can: none of those wins came against teams that went on to finish in the top six of the SPL.

But given how poorly his team has often played in the league, two cup finals can be seen as Fenlon overachieving.

This Hibs fan was certainly caught up in the moment on the road to each Hampden final.

Then I crashed down to earth when his teams didn't perform. It's fair to say - and it often is by his fans - that Fenlon has twice been 90 minutes away from Easter Road immortality with those two cup finals.

Which is true. Unfortunately on both occasions his side looked decades away from actually winning the cup.

Does reaching those finals make him a better manager than his immediate predecessors?

I'm not sure it does.

Maybe he's the luckiest unlucky manager Hibs have ever had: two unlikely semi final wins delivering him the permanent blot of a famous win for Hearts and a Swedish reversal of the most cherished Hibs result.

Stripping away those results - although football is an emotional game, there are some results that many fans find so unpalatable that apologies from the manager simply don't cut it - still doesn't seem to give much proof of real progress under Fenlon.

With a year left on his contract he needed a good start to this season. Malmö was the worst possible start - yet again he finds himself plotting progress on the back of a high profile thumping with many fans disillusioned before the domestic campaign has yet started.

"But we can't go on sacking managers."

I've said that myself before, probably on this blog more than once. But it’s hardly the strongest reason to persevere.

An excuse that suggests all hope is lost.

An excuse that suggests the real crisis of confidence lies not with whichever Tom, Dick or Harry is picking the team but with the men that gave him the job in the first place.

And maybe that gets to the heart of the matter.

Pat Fenlon isn't a good manager of Hibs. He's had his share of good fortune and he's had his share of bad fortune. But he's never consistently raised Hibs to much more than a whimper.

He could be sacked tomorrow or he could last the season. But his departure - yet another departure - needs to be part of an overhaul in attitude and governance at Hibs.

What exactly do the board want for Hibs? And when and if they set those targets how do they ensure the right people are in place throughout the club to achieve them?

Balancing the books is an admirable aim but a football club needs a football vision as well. It's been too long since Hibs have articulated anything close to that. It's also self evident - as the crowd that turned out for the Malmö game proves - that achieving more footballing success will actually help the accounts.

It's sensible that any manager of Hibs will need to work within certain financial constraints. But the first step for the board is ensuring they appoint someone who can actually do that.

His performance to date suggests Pat Fenlon can't pull off that trick consistently, either in the day to day drudgery of the league or in the big one off games that can make legends of managers.

Hibs look to have recruited quite well this summer - there are some areas where they still look short and there will be big pressure on James Collins to replace the goals of Leigh Griffiths - but Pat Fenlon's record doesn't give me much hope that he can use those players effectively.

I hope I'm wrong because Rod Petrie doesn't yet look persuaded to remove him and frankly I can do without watching another season of huffing, puffing crapness. But my confidence in Fenlon as Lazarus has evaporated.

And that represents a big gamble for the cautious Petrie. Another season of dithering inconsistency risks something worse than the ire of the fans: apathy is likely to have a more detrimental impact on the club's accounts than taking a hit on yet another unconvincing manager.

(Note: post edited to amend Colin Calderwood's league win percentage.)

St Johnstone and Hibs face Europa challenges

The second week of European participation for Scottish clubs and we're one for one so far.

Celtic got Cliftonville out of the way with a 2-0 win at Celtic Park on Tuesday for a 5-0 win on aggregate.

If Neil Lennon pointed to a certain rusty profligacy it was job done with a minimum of fuss.

Sweden's Elfsborg - who knocked 11 past Latvian side Daugava (who, Wikipedia tells me, have conceded 21 goals in three European ties) - are the next hurdle as Celtic look for a repeat of last season's European progress.

Elfsborg - currently fifth in the Swedish league - should present a stronger challenge than Cliftonville but it's a challenge that Celtic should be able to overcome.

Sterner tests too for both St Johnstone and Hibs in the Europa League qualifiers tonight.

St Johnstone face Rosenborg in Perth with a one goal lead safely delivered from the away leg. If that result was a fantastic achievement it has not persuaded betting sites to revise their opinion that the Norwegians are favourites to progress.

The first leg win was an ideal start for new manager Tommy Wright, who already appears so comfortable in the role that Rosenborg manager, Per Joar Hansen, has been moved to accuse him of playing mind games.

Wright had claimed that losing at this stage in the competition would be a disaster for the Norwegians who currently lead their domestic league. He's also spoken about springing a surprise on the visitors in his team selection. No doubt designed to keep the pressure off his own players, it gives the impression that this is a man relishing his new job.

It might be argued that taking a 1-0 lead into a home time against opponents considered favourites for the tie is a tricky proposition.

Perhaps. But it's a problem Pat Fenlon would love to have as he tries to engineer a way back from 2-0 down as Malmo - 16 games into their league season and second in the table - visit Hibs.

The loss of two early goals in Sweden looked like not only ending Hibs Europa participation but signalling the start of a heavy defeat.

While Malmo continued to threaten and dominated for large chunks, what belief Hibs take into this game will stem from the way they held out at two down and the chances of their own - limited but very real - that they created.

A Malmo goal will finish Hibs off, leaving Fenlon in the invidious position of requiring goals and also having to rely on a defence that looked shaky in losing two goals in such quick succession last week.

It's been a long time since Easter Road was enthralled by a famous European night. In a week when Famous Five legend Lawrie Reilly's shadow looms large, Hibs need to try and replicate the nights of yore this evening.

It would take something out of the ordinary for both Hibs and St Johnstone to progress but it would be big, big boost for the newly named Scottish Premiership if one or both could.

And something to note for proponents of summer football in Scotland: a worst case scenario a couple of weeks hence could see three of our teams dumped out of Europe by Scandinavian sides already reasonably deep into their domestic seasons.

Let's hope results go well enough to leave that debate - worthwhile as it might well be - for another day.

Europa League: Motherwell v Levante

Edinburgh might be hosting one of the most decorated teams in Europe this evening but Lanarkshire has the romance.

An unfashionable side that battled back from financial trauma and turned last season into an unlikely success story.

But that's enough about Motherwell...

Actually there are similarities between Motherwell and their visitors Levante.

Both have discovered that money can be a cruel footballing mistress, both weathered those storms and recovered.

Both surprised their leagues last season and got their continental rewards: Motherwell with a Champions League debut and Levante with their first ever appearance in European competition.

The weather's better in Valencia though.

European new boys they might be but the experts are falling into line behind Levante. Not much money to be made betting on an away win in this one.

The consensus seems to be that finishing sixth in La Liga is more of an achievement than finishing third in the SPL.

Cheeky buggers.

To combat this Stuart McCall is considering a "Scottish" approach.

Tactics the staff of President Josiah Bartlett might call "let fitba' be fitba'." Probably.

Not, perhaps, Motherwell's normal game. But if you can't beat them, join them. And if you still can't beat them, leave them and try to beat them the old way again.

What McCall will want is the sort of ferocious European night that grounds across Scotland used to reverberate to.

It won't please the purists who think we should have moved on - we should have - but a rumbustiously crowd-pleasing night has its attractions.

The catch, with Scottish football there is forever a catch, is that we weren't always successful playing that way. And our opponents seem to have leapt forward with more vigour and more conviction than we have managed.

Yet Levante's cherry popping European appearance plays on my mind.

Will the untested tourists just want to drop in to Motherwell, be quietly cagey and get the party back to their place as quickly as possible?

If that's the case then Motherwell hurling blood and guts their way could give them an uncomfortable night.

Not the fashionable way to do things. But when have Motherwell ever worried about being trendy?

Still a big ask though. Motherwell's aggregate score across their last four European match is 8-1 against without a goal scored at home.

Levante have been quick to pay their respects to their opponents but they'll be cheered that their European baptism of fire is in this particular furnace.

Even when the unfashionable collide, they split up into the haves and the have nots.

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Europa League: Hearts v Liverpool

"When are games versus Scottish teams ever as easy as they should be?"

So asked one Liverpool fan after his team were drawn against Hearts in their Europa League play off.

The answer, a bittersweet truth to be sure, is that too many clubs from too many countries have found games against Scottish teams clubs to be all too easy in recent years.

Liverpool themselves have endured a few hard battles but five times out of six they've prevailed in the cross-border clashes that have punctuated their six decades of European participation.

The first test allowed two men on the road to greatness to meet head on in the Cup Winner's Cup.

Celtic v Liverpool.

Jock Stein v Bill Shankly.

It was Shankly who triumphed in 1966, a 2-0 win at Anfield securing a 2-1 win on aggregate.

The 1970-71 Fairs Cup saw Liverpool make their first competitive trip to Edinburgh with a 1-0 win over Hibs.

"Hibs are one down and are playing in front of the Kop. Need I say more?" asked Shankly.

Apparently not. A 2-0 win at Anfield completed the job.

Hibs had another crack in the 1975/76 UEFA Cup. This time a Joe Harper goal gave them a home win before John Toshack dominated the return leg at Anfield.

With Kevin Keegan providing the service, Toshack's hat-trick secured a 3-1 on the night.

By 1980 Liverpool were a major force in European football, Aberdeen the coming force in Scottish football.

In the second round of Alex Ferguson's first European Cup campaign Aberdeen lost only 1-0 at Pittodrie but were undone at Anfield by the eventual winners.

Ferguson said of that defeat:

"The 4-0 beating we suffered in the second was far too emphatic to to allow us to plead mitigating circumstances on the basis of the players missing because of injury. All we could was try to ensure that we learned from painful exposure to the proven masters of the techniques and discipline required in European competitions."

By 1997 Celtic and Liverpool didn't quite offer the same promise as they had when Stein and Shankly were building dynasties and taking the fight to the world.

They could still put on a show though. A goalless draw at Anfield was followed by a Michael Owen goal early in the second leg.

Celtic fought back. A Simon Donnelly penalty had them 2-1 up with 15 minutes to go before Steve McManaman settled matters with a late equaliser to seal a win on away goals.

This time Celtic didn't have quite as long to wait for revenge. The first leg of the 2002-03 UEFA Cup quarter final finished 1-1 in Glasgow.

Advantage Liverpool. But this was a determined - and very good - Celtic team.

A clean sheet and goals for Alan Thompson and John Hartson sent Celtic closer to the final and, after 37 years of sporadic attempts, finally gave a Scottish club a win over Liverpool.

As Liverpool made occasional visits across north, Hearts had to bide their time for a Scotland v England clash.

Not until last year - 53 years and 72 games since their European debut - did they face English opposition.

A long wait that ended rather abruptly.

A 5-0 win for Tottenham at Tynecastle in the first leg, a display of utter dominance.

The 0-0 draw in the White Hart Lane was creditable but irrelevant.

It was Hearts misfortune - there but for someone's grace go any number of clubs - that it was on their patch that the disparity between the SPL and the EPL would be most starkly illustrated.

Their misfortune too that the Liverpool game - lucrative as it will be - should follow so hot on the heels of their first stab at establishing cross-border relations.

The temptation is to look at what happened last year and allow that to inform our predictions for what will happen tonight.

Thus the challenge that Hearts are being set is not to make history but to stop history repeating itself. Don't reach for the stars, reach for the damage limitation manual.

Maybe that's symptomatic of Scottish football's drained confidence or maybe it's an example of brutally honest realism.

Either way I don't think it helps manager John McGlynn's cause.

Spurs were the better team by some distance last year but the constant pre-game reminders that they were up against a big side, a better side, can't have helped Hearts.

When the game started and Hearts froze the outcome was not only predictable, it could have been a lot worse.

With a younger team, with last year so fresh in the memory, there is a risk we'll see the same thing happen again.

Liverpool have travelled without Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez, Martin Skrtel and Glen Johnson.

Big names missing as part of a European rotation policy. Mind you, those big names played last weekend in the 3-0 defeat to West Brom.

For their part Hearts might start with debutant goalkeeper Peter Enckleman.

Unlikely heroes can emerge on nights such as these.

Hearts will need as many of them as they can get.

How will it go?

Ladbrokes tell me it doesn't look good. Odds of 11/2 on a Hearts win and 8/15 on a Liverpool win tell their own story.

4-0 Liverpool is 28/1, a repeat of Spurs' 5-0 win is 66/1. Andy Carroll is 25/1 to score a hat-trick.

I suspect Hearts will do well to score (John Sutton is 9/4 to score anytime) though so their best hope might well to a 0-0 draw, keeping the tie alive for the second leg.

You'll get 10/1 for that.

It's never nice to be reminded how well off your neighbours are. And we're forever reminded of the riches that flow into English football.

The reality is that Liverpool's second string would stand out in the SPL.

With nothing to lose Tynecastle will be in full voice. It could be a long night for Hearts.

What a boost it would be for Scottish football if it could also be a famous night for them.

(Remember folks, gambleaware.co.uk)

Rangers v Sporting Lisbon

A quiet few days for Rangers kicks off with a Govan welcome to Sporting Lisbon in the Europa League.

The teams last met in 2008 when Rangers were on their way to the final of the UEFA Cup. What Walter Smith would give for that to be an omen of good times ahead.

In his tactical preview for Scottish Football Forums, Andrew Gibney of Gibfootballshow looks at Walter Smith's options:

Much of the pre-match build is based over what system Walter Smith will play in the first leg. Does he stick with the tried and tested 5-4-1 or with some new players at his disposal he could go for a more aggressive 4-5-1. Lee McCulloch’s injury will have been a massive blow to any of Walter’s plans and it gives him a few key decisions to make before kick-off.

One of those formations would seem to be the most obvious decision for Smith. But rumours from Graham Spiers on Twitter suggest that Rangers might be going with two up front for tonight's game - or at the very least with another forward instructed to support Lafferty up front.

We've been focusing a lot recently on Rangers' loss of momentum in the SPL as Celtic have hit top spot. But what would Sporting, some 23 points being league leaders Porto, give to be within a couple of games hand from the top of the table?

So tonight perhaps offers a welcome distraction for the Portuguese. But is it an unwelcome interruption to Rangers' preparations for Sunday's Old Firm clash?

Smith says that is absolutely not the case. Much depends on the result. If Rangers perform well and get a decent result while avoiding injuries they are buoyed for the weekend. If they get beaten and the scrapes and bruises mount up then the hangover might last until Sunday.

Certainly Rangers will need to be fully focused in a clash which seems winnable. On current form neither of these sides are in the top ranks of the European aristocracy and it could be quite a tight affair. But there is no reason for Rangers to be overawed by the presence of the opposition.

And that might just make up Smith's mind when he weighs the benefits and disadvantages of showing slightly more adventure than he has on previous European nights.

The right attitude and the right start will get the crowd going and convince the players of their ability to win this game. A lot of that can come from the manager's choice of formation and tactics.

For Smith, the arch pragmatist, an emphasis on attack would also allow him to move the focus from the gap in Rangers' midfield caused by the absence of Lee McCulloch that Andrew mentions.

Smith might have cause to curse that absence before the season is out but a shift away from the no risks approach would be a way of papering over the cracks in the short term.

The European nights are drawing in for Smith. Why not let his troops off the leash for once?

It could be an interesting night at Ibrox. I'll miss it, happily ensconced in the local picture house watching The King's Speech instead.

And Rangers can't afford a stuttering, stammering performance tonight (that gag was so blindingly obvious I'm almost ashamed) because right now they look a side at the end of their period of pre-eminence.

They can't allow that feeling to be reinforced by a poor display against a struggling Sporting side before Sunday's Old Firm clash.

Scottish Football Blog prediction: A rare European win for Rangers in a close encounter.

> Nikica Jelavic ineligible, Kenny Miller gone, Kyle Lafferty not long recovered from illness. Could El Hadji Diouf play a big, big part for Rangers tonight. On STV's football site Zonal Marking suggests that seeing Diouf in the lone striker's role "wouldn't be a surprise."

> "A rare European win?" Rangers have won only one of their last 17 European games from open play, reports Roddy Forsyth.

The Scottish Football Blog News Feed

SPL In Europe: Terrible Trio

Time once again for our clubs to roll up their sleeves and embark on yet another march towards European respectability.

Dundee United's forays into Europe have been sporadic of late. The memories of great European nights linger but a defeat to MyPa 47 in 2005 has been the solitary new entry in United's continental history in the past decade. This, remember, is a club that as late as 1987 could consider itself a contender in European competition.

Tonight United will need to rely on memories and passion rather any depth of European experience in a match against AEK Athens that looks daunting. With the home tie first United will be keen to put on show. The reality is that they have to stay close enough to AEK to keep the away leg alive.

I'll start on a downer: I can't see anyway United will progress from this tie. I hope I'm wrong but I suspect that they'll be all but out of the tournament by full time this evening.

Motherwell's third European tie of the still young season begins in Denmark. I said at the time that the draw was as good as Craig Brown could have hoped for.

Not that Odense are going to be a pushover. Far from it. But they looked to be less daunting than others in the draw and Brown will be looking for a tight performance tonight, with an away goal as a bonus, to give his side every chance in the return at Fir Park.

A simple plan, far easier to talk about or write about than to execute. They'll certainly need to cope better defensively than they did against Hibs in the second half on Sunday.

But I've got a feeling they might just manage it. A 1-1 draw would be a commendable result but it's certainly not an impossible one.

Finally Celtic's Europa League parachute has landed them in a tie against Utrecht. The Dutch side are hardly high fliers in either Europe or domestically. A seventh placed finish in the Eredivisie - European qualification came through a play off win - is not the stuff of legends.

Celtic should be looking at ties such as this with caution, treating the opponents with respect and then beating them. Unfortunately that rarely seems to happen these days and I suspect Neil Lennon's players might struggle a bit tonight.

Playing at home first is little comfort and they could be left with a mountain to climb when they travel to Holland. Everything could, of course, click. Celtic could be excellent, Utrecht could be a ramshackle mess. It seems unlikely though.

It's a difficult one to call, I think it will be one goal win and I think Celtic will concede. So I'll be extremely optimistic and say Celtic to win 2-1.

I'll probably be wrong though.

A comprehensive guide to Utrecht at GibFootballShow.

Annoying that with three teams in action we're not being treated to any television coverage. The BBC should be taking a long hard look at themselves.

SPL in Europe: Draws

UEFA get on my goat. They really do.

Celtic, not SPL champion's, get knocked out of the Champion's League. Their reward for losing is to be seeded in the Europa League play-off round.

Motherwell get through two rounds, not the hardest of ties but tricky and requiring some negotiation, and don't get seeded.

Yes, fair enough, Celtic are stronger and had actually got themselves into the Champion's League qualifiers.

But until UEFA stop pimping the integrity of their competitions to best suit the bank accounts of the biggest clubs they should give up any pretence of these being great sporting events.

The governing body are continually diluting both the worth and quality of both their tournaments. And they should be ashamed of themselves. Yes, Platini, I'm aiming this accusing stare at you.

Anyway, the millionaires orgy, the rewarding of mediocrity, the administrative trick of turning defeat into something positive goes on.

Which means that big fat losers Celtic, Euro cavaliers Motherwell and not played yet Dundee United found out their play off opposition at lunchtime today.

Motherwell will play Odense, a trip to Denmark continuing their Scandic odyssey. Probably as good draw as they could have hoped for. Craig Brown certainly seems to think so:

"It's accessible for the fans and it's not too far to travel. I would hope it's an even game," said Brown.

"Some of the other teams like Manchester City were much more formidable than Odense.

"I have no complaints, the draw has been reasonably kind to us."

But has the draw been kind? Aye an' naw. It's an easier tie than they could have had. But it's hardly a debt busting glamour clash.

It's a good draw if they progress. If they lose, not so much. Nae pressure then boys.

Dundee United face AEK Athens. Not easy that. Home game first, away leg second. Tough.

And Celtic's prize for losing to the Portugese runners-up is a clash with Utrecht, the seventh best side in Holland last season.

Utrechtian (made that word up, by the way) defender Alje Schut was effusive as he greeted the draw:

“It is a fantastic draw,” Schut told Voetbal International. “Beforehand, we hoped to get a big opponent like Liverpool, Celtic or Borussia Dortmund."

Which might be a problem for Celtic. Schut has warned Neil Lennon's men not to underestimate the Dutch side. But if Utrecht over-estimate Celtic's strength then what should be a winnable tie could become a touch uncomfortable.

So all three miss out on the sort of "big" team fixtures that UEFA use to distract us from their dastardly plan to strip football of everything that makes it great.

But from those three ties we can say that one team in the Europa League group stages is achievable. Two teams is not impossible. That would be that rarest of treasures: a positive development in Scottish football.

Of course, if we end up with none then it will be time for the wailing and hollering that we're all much more used to.

*Ties to be played on August 19th and 26th.

SPL In Europe: Hibs Look To History

Where there's a group of football fans, there's hope. Last week Hibs left me thankful that I've not got a gas oven.

Although I wish I'd remembered that before spending an hour with my head in the electric fan oven. This week's lack of blogging can be put down to my recovery period for severely singed hair.

But there's been time to ruminate on the piddling trifle of an obstacle that a three goal deficit represent for a classy footballing outfit. Obviously it's a slightly larger obstacle for John Hughes' Hibs.

But still, all is not lost. Yet.

And, as John Hislop recounts below, it's not like Hibs don't have form in the chasing a European lost cause stakes. Can't believe there's a not song Leith about Dino Zoff:

There’s much doom and gloom down Easter Road way following the first leg defeat in Slovenia on Thursday night, but that’s to be expected. Hibs fans fall into either the ‘glass half full’ or ‘glass half empty categories.’ At the moment, the majority appear to be in the latter.

OK, perhaps Yogi should have played Riordan and Stokes from the start, but that’s water under the bridge now. While I won’t be selling my car and putting the money on Hibs to progress to the next round, I agree with the manager, the tie is far from over.

One of the reasons for my optimism is that I can vividly remember overturning a similar deficit against a team much superior to Maribor.

It doesn’t seem like 43 years ago when the Hibs returned from Naples having been comprehensively beaten 4-1. By all accounts the game had been much closer than the scoreline suggested but it took a last minute Colin Stein consolation goal to give the manager Bob Shankly some degree of hope.

In fact the older Shankly brother told anyone who would care to listen that the tie was still very much alive, but most took his predictions with a pinch of salt.

The Naples manager certainly didn’t appear too concerned as he sipped a whisky in the director's box whilst watching his team train on the night before the game. Legend has it that he had decided to rest his star player, Jose Altafini, for the weekend derby, a mistake he would live to regret.

The return game was played on 29 November 1967 before a disappointing crowd of 21,000. This was my first European match, and I headed for my usual spot in the upper section of the old East terracing.

After 5 minutes, I witnessed the greatest goal I have ever seen at Easter Road, and the place erupted. Not only did right back Bobby Duncan hammer the ball past rookie Italian keeper Dino Zoff (whatever happened to him?) but he did it with his left foot to score his first ever goal.

Various subsequent accounts measure the distance from anywhere between 25 yards and 45 yards, and I appreciate that sometimes your memory can play tricks, but I seem to recall that he hit the ball from just outside the Albion Bar.

In any case Zoff was left helpless and, just before half time, Pat Quinn added a second to the delight of most people in the ground. With Easter Road buzzing, there were still a few moaning faced auld gits predicting we’d throw it away in the second half. I suspect their grandchildren now bombard the comments page in the Evening News demanding Rod Petrie resigns.

In any case, the rest of us couldn’t wait to get the Italians ‘down the slope’ and, sure enough, headers from Peter Cormack and Pat Stanton put us in a great position. Even then some were sure that it was just a matter of time before Naples scored to take the game into extra time and it was only after Colin Stein wrapped things up near the end to make the final score 5-0 that they accepted that we were through.

Being a youngster at the time, I assumed that these games happened every year, and when we returned from Leeds following a 1-0 defeat, I was confident that we would progress.

An early goal from Colin Stein was followed by an onslaught on the Leeds goal, but their defence held out. With extra time looming, Clive ‘The Book’ Thomas decided that he hadn’t received enough attention.

This was the man who blew for full time when the ball was in the air following a corner kick from Brazil during a World Cup match, so awarding the world’s first free kick for breaking the new 4 steps rule was just another notch on his whistle. He had conveniently ignored his fellow countryman Gary Sprake in the Leeds goal taking nine steps on one occasion as later proved by TV evidence.

The rest is history. Johnny Giles floated the ball to the back post and Jack Charlton headed an undeserved equaliser on the night to end another European run.

OK, I accept that we had better players in those days, but I genuinely believe that the current team could give them a run for their money. Especially since most of that team are now in their seventies.

Anyway, an early goal on Thursday night and who knows?

SPL In Europe: Avert Your Eyes

In a parallel world, one where my life is more than a stuttering series of disappointments, I might well have been in Slovenia watching Hibs tonight. Every cloud and all that.

Were Nigel Farage and Richard Littlejohn ever to have a lovechild - and please take as long as you want to mull over that particular image - it’s unlikely that said bairn would manage to have a more fractious relationship with Europe than our SPL clubs are enduring at the moment.

We spend ten months of the year squabbling about who is going to get to go on a continental adventure. Then, like the kind of British tourists who stuff their luggage with tins of Heinz All Day Breakfast and Tetley teabags, we discover we absolutely hate it when we get there. To our disgust it’s just like being in a foreign country.

Celtic and Hibs played a 4-5-1 formation this week. The intent was obviously to keep things tight and negotiate tricky away games with a minimum of damage.

They both lost 3-0.

As Liam Neeson is saying in a cinema near you right now: “I love it when a plan comes together.”

It’s maybe easier to look at Hibs in particular because the team has fewer changes than last season and John Hughes’ longer managerial resume provides a sounder footing for accusations of technical naivete than can yet be made against Neil Lennon.

A quick glance at the Hibs team last season would suggest that a defensive 4-5-1 doesn’t suit their strengths. To choose that formation at the expense of both Anthony Stokes and Derek Riordan robs the side of their most potent attacking forces, a problem exacerbated by a five man midfield that always looked like it would struggle to bridge the gap between the men behind the ball and Colin Nish alone up front.

Warnings about this were evident throughout the pre season trip to Holland where 4-5-1 hardly proved a resounding success. It seems that not even the cunning ploy of reverting to a 4-4-2 and swapping the officially listed shirt numbers around for the final game was enough to daunt the watching Mirabor scouts.

Hibs, of course, have a tendency to be little more than a house built on sand, a team where attacking talent too often provides a bandage for defensive frailties. Even so there must be a way of playing to your strengths in Europe without being too cavalier.

A decision to go ultra defensive, apparently borne from fear, is always going to handicap a team like Hibs. When it backfires as spectacularly as it did this evening then the manager has to hold his hands up and admit he got it wrong. Don’t hold your breath for that.

It’s the inevitability of results like this that most depresses. Not only did Hibs’ preparations give tonight’s events a certain predictability but the recent history of Scottish clubs Europe pretty much signposts what’s going to happen.

Yes, these games do come early. And that does bring complications especially if, like Celtic, you’re in the process of another major summer overhaul.

But Scottish teams have been involved in these July skirmishes for years now. They don’t suddenly get told on the first of the month that they’re going to have start a fortnight before the SPL kicks off.

If we still take Europe seriously - and, if nothing else, those blunt 4-5-1s suggest we are still affording the games some respect - we need to sort our preparations out. I’m going to take a punt and suggest that neither Neil Lennon nor John Hughes were Boy Scouts in their youth. Still, no need to be a direct descendant of Baden Powell to understand the importance of being prepared.

We’ll still hear that excuse though. Better to build up a barricade and hide behind that than face up to the truth of results that suggest we’re just a bit crap. Unfortunately, unless that simple truth is accepted, it’s difficult to see how it’s going to change.

I certainly can’t see how our European results are ever going to improve if we go into games crippled by the belief that our players aren’t ready and that even an approximation of our usual tactics will end up going horribly wrong. It’s like Usain Bolt volunteering to run the 100 metres in a straitjacket.

Hibs weren’t beaten by a top European side tonight. Celtic capitulated to a side that, I believe, has undergone even more radical surgery since the end of last season. These are bad results, bad whenever they happen and bad despite a 1000 well rehearsed excuses.

Fear, misery and a great big dose of the blame game on the trip home. And thus Scottish football’s awfully big European adventure begins to resemble a particularly bad stag weekend in Blackpool.

* Fair play to Motherwell. Absolved from the above rant with an away goal to their name after their 1-1 draw in Norway. A late, late penalty for Aalesund denied them the win. Finely balanced is how you’d describe this one now. But when losing 3-0 seems to be the norm, finely balanced is pretty much the equivalent of winning the World Cup.

SPL In Europe: Celebrate

Alright, so Breidablik of Iceland are hardly the world's most fearsome football team. But credit to Motherwell.

First hurdle cleared, potential banana skin avoided, job done and various other congratulatory cliches are winging their way from Scottish Football Blog HQ to Craig Brown.

And a bouquet of flowers to Jamie Murphy:

ICE-COOL hitman Jamie Murphy fired Motherwell closer to Europa League qualification and made history in the process.

The Scotland Under-21 star boosted his Euro uro goal haul to five, equalling the club record held by Steve Kirk since 1994.

Murphy netted a European hat-trick last season in the same competition against Flamurtari and bagged a goal in the 3-0 win over Llanelli in Wales.

Motherwell's reward is a trip to Norway. And what a trip:

Motherwell are hopeful of arranging a charter flight to avoid a marathon trip to face Norwegian side Aalesunds in the third Europa League qualifying round.

Craig Brown, whose side defeated Breidablik in Iceland on Thursday, had feared they would face a two-day trek for next week's first leg.

He thought they might have to leave on Monday to ensure they had Wednesday to prepare for Thursday's match.

But a 60-seat charter flight leaving Glasgow on Wednesday is being explored.

The manager had made initial inquiries about how to reach the island sea port city of Alesund, 147 miles north east of Bergen.

It doesn't really sound the like kind of European adventure that will attract a lot of Motherwell fans.

Aalesunds qualified for Europe by winning the Norwegian cup for the first time in their history in 2009 and are currently fifth in the league.

I'm sure chickens will not be getting counted but this is another draw that could have been worse for Motherwell.

Let's hope so.

* Hibs will not be playing a rematch against Videoton after the Hungarians lost to Maribor 2-0 last night. That the gave the Slovenians a 3-1 win on aggregate. Hibs play the first leg away from home next Thursday evening.

SPL In Europe: Could Be Worse

There are no easy European games anymore...

...Unless you get drawn against an SPL side.

No, no. I jest.

We're on a roll now.

Well, a roll might be pushing it. But a winning start is all you can ask for.

Motherwell might not have raced out of the blocks against Breidablik last night but Ross Forbes' goal got them a win and they kept a clean sheet. Better to be rueing missed chances in a victory than in a defeat.

So Motherwell head to Iceland in good heart.

And the two European draws today have not been massively unkind to the three SPL clubs.

In the Champion's League Celtic face Portuguese debutants SC Braga, a clash that brings together the runners-up from Scotland and Portugal.

Clearly Celtic would have preferred to play the fifth placed from Luxembourg. But they've missed teams like Ajax, Fenerbace, Zenit St Petersburg and Dinamo Kiev.

It could be worse.

Of course the big problem for Celtic is that beating Braga sends them through to another round. So the Champion's League proper remains a big ask. But we knew that anyway, at least negotiating Braga would offer a confidence boost.

In the Europa League draw Motherwell will be heading to Norway if they can see off Breidalbik in the second leg, with Aalesunds FK waiting in the next round.

The Norwegian cup winners are making their European debuts this season. As with Briedablik they have the advantage of being well into their league season, lying fourth at the midway stage.

Again not easy. But could be worse. Providing the job gets done in Iceland of course.

Finally Hibs will play either Videoton of Hungary or Slovenian side NK Maribor who drew 1-1 in their first leg last night.

Again not powerhouses of the European game. Neither, of course, are Hibs.

But games that SPL clubs need to be looking to win if we're to start to show some improvement in Europe.

Fingers crossed.

Champion's League 2010/11 3rd Qualifying Round
SK Braga v Celtic (27/28 July and 3/4 August)

Europa League 2010/11 Third Qualifying Round
NK Maribor or Videoton v Hibs (29 July and 5 August)
Aalesunds FK v Motherwell (29 July and 5 August)

Motherwell visit the gods

Motherwell will play Iceland's Breidablik when they kick off the SPL's 2010/2011 Europa League challenge.

The first leg will be played at Fir Park on 1st July with the return match played seven days later.

Not much of a holiday for Craig Brown and his players.

Breidablik's home town is Kópavogur where, apparently, they are the smaller of the two clubs.

Still, there's no easy games in Europe these days, a wisdom that we might write of as a cliché if Scottish teams weren't so hell-bent on proving it to be a truism.

More on Breidablik here. (A translation might be required.)

Breidalbik was where the Norse god Baldur lived.

Baldur was associated with light, beauty, love and happiness.

Kind of like a Norse Craig Brown then.

The Chumpions

There is, in Bruges, a museum devoted to the humble chip. You might think that a nation that devoted to deep fried complex carbohydrates might have a degree of sympathy for Scotland. Sadly it seems that any lingering attraction between two nations enslaved by their love of the fryer does not extend to the football field.

Thus we Scots find ourselves outstripped by the Belgians in the race for co-efficient points. Last week's Europa League results, once they had been analysed and decoded by the ghost of Alan Turing, meant that Scotland slipped from the top 15.

Given that our most recent European adventures were the footballing equivalent of a stag do in Benidorm where the best man dies, the groom picks up an STD and an usher is blinded by a ping pong ball, it might reflect better on us if we accept some culpability for our own downfall.

It would not be a surprise, however, if the Belgians found themselves the object of some opprobrium in the boardrooms at Ibrox and Parkhead last week.

For much of the season you have hardly been able to lift a newspaper without reading about how crucial Europe is to the ambitions of the Old Firm. With two Champion's League spots up for grabs the loser in the two horse title race at least had a safety net to cling to. No longer.

From the end of next season to the victors will go the spoils and to the loser will go the far less lucrative prospect of the Europa League.

We need only look at Rangers' debt and Celtic's less than buoyant accounts to realise that this is a horrifying development for the big two. Where do they go from here?

That Rangers will be reduced to fighting it out for a solitary place in a qualifying round for the richest show on earth will hardly make the Ibrox side more attractive to potential buyers. As those potential buyers seem to be already looking on them as being as attractive as an asbestos riddled hovel with an outdoor toilet, this is not the best news to reach Govan.

Celtic too will be looking at a cutting of cloth. Whatever their feelings about Tony Mowbray the denizens of the East End might do well to just sit back and enjoy the richly rewarded talents of Robbie Keane. It may be some time before they see his likes again.

How do the Old Firm react? There might be a temptation to gamble, to build a team capable of dominating domestically and navigating those tricky qualifiers. But that is route fraught with danger, the downside of which can be summed up in a single phrase: "doing a Leeds."

The other option is to excercise prudence and sign up for an age of austerity. That also carries risks. Celtic have already seen how medicority can reduce attendances and the budget routes opens up the chance of sliding backwards towards the rest of the league. As welcome as that sounds to those of us on the outside it is surely unthinkable for the big two.

So the money men are going to have quite a little balancing act to contend with. The search for an owner who can ease the financial woes has suddenly become a lot more desperate for Rangers. The need to have a manager that can deliver what's needed will have Celtic's directors looking ever more quizzically at Tony Mowbray.

The whole issue, incidentally, is proof of how UEFA are now not so much a governing body as a tinpot dictatorship in place only to do the bidding of the continent's richest club.

That doesn't change the reality of the situation or the size of the crisis it presents for the Old Firm. It seems that we might be facing one of those moments when the whole landscape of Scottish football is in for a violent shake-up. Who'd have thought it would be the Belgians who provided the catalyst?

The Scottish Football Decade: Europe

And so the decade ends. Or doesn't depending on who you believe and what patience you have to live through another thousand pub bore discussions that you hoped had run their course in 1999.

In the time honoured media tradition of such year/decade/century closing moments the Scottish Football Blog is looking back on the decade lumbered with the terrible nomenclature. Ladies and gentlemen, the "noughties."

Where better to start, in our most woeful of years, than with our European decade:

Celtic and Rangers in UEFA Cup finals. The record books will show that in this decade Scotland could boast of two European finalists. The same figure as the 1980s. In fact, in four of the six decades in which we've played European football Scottish clubs have only failed to make a final in the 1950s and 1990s. Moreover both Celtic and Rangers reached the knockout stages of the Champion's League, new ground for Scottish sides.

So the current gloom is only transitory? Well, probably not. Both those finals were in the UEFA Cup which was, by the turn of the millennium, but a pale shadow of the tournament that Dundee United came so close to picking off back in 1987. And Rangers and Celtic in the latter stages of the Champion's League are like the paupers being let into the Manor House once a year. They like what they see and they get a small slice of pie. But the gentry just want to get rid of them.

2009 probably offers a better insight into where we stand. One way or another six teams, half our top flight, set off on European trips this summer. Not one will still be there when the Christmas turkey is roasted. To cap it all Standard Liege's goalkeeper scored the goal that pushed the final nail in the coffin of our coefficient. It's not going to be easy in the twenty-tens.

There have been some highs along the way. Jimmy Calderwood's Aberdeen made it through Christmas in 2008 to serve a little reminder that there are more than two teams in Scotland. On the other hand, Aberdeen only played in Europe three teams this decade and failed to get out of even prequalifying in 2000.

Other teams had some brave performances, good results. But so often it was all too little, too late. Hibs beat AEK Athens at home but lost in extra time. A brave result but Hibs' European decade seemed to revolve around misjudged, ill fated Intertoto Cup adventures. The bad has outweighed the good.

Or Celtic with their UEFA Cup final, including the green hooped invasion of Seville, and their Champion's League knockout appearances. But what of the inability to win on the road, the debacle that was Artmedia Bratislava?

I'm not picking on those two teams. I'm saying for Hibs and Celtic, read Scottish clubs in Europe. One step forward, two massive punches in the face backwards. Success has proved illusory, mediocrity might now be seen as level to aspire to.

The truth is that UEFA have seen the future of European football and countries like Scotland are not an integral part of it. Unless the governing body is suddenly gripped by a desire to level the playing field and embrace the concept of inclusiveness then we are destined to live off crumbs.

We should, however, be able to produce more teams that are harder to beat, that can discover a game plan, stick to it and get the job done. Like most things, when we search for the answers to our European conundrum we might begin to look for answers closer to home.

Hello: Livingston, Gretna, Queen of the South and Falkirk made their European debuts. The Bairns shortlived adventure this season made them the 19th Scottish club to play in European competition. Falkirk, Queen of the South and Gretna fell at the first hurdle. Livingston got through a preliminary round before going down to Sturm Graz in the first round proper of the UEFA Cup. Proof that the romance of Europe is not easily converted into a rocketing coefficient.

Fifty years: In 2005 Hibs travelled to Germany take on Rot-Weiss Essen to mark the fiftieth anniversary of their pioneering role as the first Scottish club in Europe. Back in 1955/56 Hibs dispatched of Essen in the first round and went on to reach the semi final of the European Cup.

Two finals: Celtic in 2003 and Rangers in 2008 made the final of the UEFA Cup. After a long drought from Dundee United's appearance in the same final back in 1987 this might well be seen as a sign of some progress. Probably not much progress but desperate times call for desperate clutching of straws.

Fans: Fairly or unfairly Rangers' UEFA Cup final will be remembered by the violence that erupted on the streets of Manchester. Rangers had found some European pride and, sadly, much of it was ripped away. Tell me the rights, tell me the wrongs. The fact is mob violence is ugly, a throwback, and Rangers fans that night shamed the club and shamed Scotland.

Preview: Celtic v Hapoel Tel-Aviv

It’s funny what managing Celtic can do to a man. Gordon Strachan was the quick witted, Match of the Day, rent-a-joke pundit before taking over. By the time he left was a snarling bundle of rage, unable to decide if the fans or the media were most deserving of a Strachan savaging.

When Tony Mowbray arrived he gave the impression of a man doing the job he was born to do. Not a press conference would go by without Tony providing a lengthy discourse on the football that Celtic are supposed to play, the football the fans deserve.

Are we really only at the start of December? What have those few short months done to Mogga? The articulate student of the game, the dugout philosopher, has become the man who starts a press conference like this:

C'mon, let's go, I'm busy.

And goes on to rubbish whatever slim chance his side have of progression:

We need Hamburg to lose two games and it's highly unlikely they will do that as they are a high-class team.

And then rounds it all up by delivering a less than convincing boost to players already short on confidence:

I think the lifeblood of any club is new talent. The club has got to evolve. Players stagnate if they stay at clubs too long.

As promotion for the big event this was the press conference to give Don King nightmares. Even those Celtic fans who have already bought tickets might now be considering staying away.

The truth is Mowbray is right.

The Europa League, in common with much else this season, has been a poor, poor campaign. It’s only useful role will have been to confirm to him those players that he can’t trust to take the club where he needs them to be.

His anguish and frustration will have been the heightened by the realization that the number of players he can’t rely on is longer than he could have imagined.

Other than to cheer up his own fans – and give Scottish football a modicum of self respect – tonight’s game really serves no purpose for Tony Mowbray. He knows what is going wrong and he knows that he needs to make changes.

There is probably not another manager in Britain looking forward to the January transfer window as much as Mowbray.

His record so far has been almost unbelievably poor for a Celtic manager. He’s made it clear that the talent at his disposal must hold their hands up and accept a healthy dollop of responsibility for that.

January is his chance to start the revolution he promised. If he still can’t change things after that then these last few months will begin to look like a honeymoon period.

And another thing...

Numpty of the Week: Take a bow Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) Deputy General Secretary Dave Moxham.

Calling on the Celtic fans to protest about Israeli invasion of Gaza at tonight’s match was one of the worst ideas by a union leader since Arthur Scargill looked in his bathroom mirror and thought he saw the man that could bring down Thatcher staring back at him.

Football games are not the place to make political protests, not the place to find answers to questions that, I’d suggest, are rather bigger than anything Mr Moxham deals with in his working day.

If they’re about anything more than a game they should be about celebrating what unites us not what divides us.

For a leading member of Scotland’s political community, with the backing of former Glasgow Lord Provost Alex Mosson, to attempt to hijack the game like this is astonishingly misguided at best, horribly irresponsible at worst.

And how would UEFA react? Perhaps it has escaped Mr Moxham’s notice that Glasgow has a bit of a reputation for football being poisoned by religious hatred and the politicising of supporters.

Any organized, premediated protest is likely to have far reaching consequences in the eyes of the footballing authorities and is hardly likely to promote the city as a welcoming football destination.

No doubt many Celtic will sympathise with the Palestinian cause. Others might have conflicting views that they might like to share with the world at large.

But they have to realise that a football match this evening does not offer them a platform to make any sort of reasoned protest. Mr Moxham, whose commitment to this issue I'm sure cannot be questioned, should be ashamed of his attention grabbing attempts to encourage them.

A time to deliver

Tony Mowbray was being as philosophical as ever yesterday when he spoke about being a “performance” coach. Leave it to others to judge his team on “results.”

A jolly Corinthian approach for sure but one that doesn't quite answer his growing band of critics. Results matter and nowhere is that more keenly felt than in the east end of Glasgow.

A solitary point from league games against Rangers and Motherwell hints at a falling off of domestic form. Another single point from two Europa League games suggests that Celtic's continental dealings thus far have offered all the restorative powers of an 18-30 weekender in Ibiza.

New coaches, as much as great coaches, need luck though and whatever hardships he has so far endured Mowbray does not find himself adrift at home or abroad. An apocryphal “Crisis, what crisis?” quote might have crucified Jim Callaghan but Mowbray might glance at the league tables and offer a similar sentiment.

At this stage in both campaigns he is but one result away from topping the pile, well placed to take advantage of any slip ups from pacesetters who have no aura of invincibility themselves.

Time and patience, Mowbray would argue, are all that is required. For that though you need calm heads and everything that surrounds Celtic exists in a state of constant anxiety, emotions never far away from boiling point. To soothe the masses he needs results.

The visit of Hamburg tonight would be as good a place as any to kickstart the Mowbray revolution.

Hamburg looked like being the main force in the group before a ball was kicked but they were humbled 3-0 by a Rapid Vienna side that rarely looked much more than ordinary in drawing with Celtic the last time out.

Unlike Celtic the Germans did bounce back from an opening day defeat but the 4-2 home victory over Hapoel maybe hints at a defence that can be exploited.

To take advantage of that Mowbray will need to coax a more rumbustious performance from his charges than he has of late.

In talking often and at length about playing football the “Celtic way” the manager has been keen to convey the message that he is the perfect fit for Parkhead. He may well be. But he might not be the perfect fit for the resources he currently has at his disposal.

Against Motherwell Mowbray's starting 11 was entirely inherited from Gordon Strachan. Given that there appears to be a wide gulf between the tactical outlook of the departed ginger pragmatist and his artistic successor the players might be forgiven for paraphrasing Bobby Jones and Jack Nicklaus and asking why they are being asked to play a game with which they are not familiar.

New coaches, as much as great coaches, need the ability to inspire, transform and adapt. Mowbray's major failing so far is his apparent inability to stamp his mark on this group of players. He needs to find a way to do that and do that soon.

Discovering the alchemy he needs against Hamburg will not be easy and might need some brave decisions. A time to gamble.

The stakes are higher than simply a valuable three points. His honeymoon might have been short lived but if Mowbray can find some magic tonight he'll take a step towards making the faithful believe that he can be the man of their dreams after all and not, as some increasingly suspect, an embarrassing drunken mistake.

21 steps to Scotland's European failure

21 games. Each with its own background, its own unique circumstances. The cumulative effect is a European nightmare for Scottish football. Since July we've appeared about as comfortable on the continent as Norman Tebbit at a Eurovision convention.

21 games. In blogs, phone ins, forums and newspapers fans scream for change. It seems to fall on deaf ears. What else needs to happen for somebody, somewhere to step in and say “enough?”

21 games. Something is horribly wrong. Some blame it on money. And we're not rich but we've lost European games to teams from Lichtenstein, Wales, Romania, Israel and Albania. It's not powerhouses of world football that are making us look like amateurs: Rangers, our champions, lost 4-1 at home to a team that had never, ever played top flight football before 2006.

21 games. Is it the coaching, the players, the training regimes, a generation of players who just don't care? I don't know but something has got to change.

21 games.Six teams, half our top league, set off on foreign adventures this summer. Four were knocked out before August was finished and a fifth, Celtic, had been demoted to the second tier competition.

21 games. Something has to change.

21 games. I've collated all the results - and highlighted a few stats that leapt out at me. I'm sure you'll have your own facts and figures to illuminate the sheer horror of our failings but these will get you started.

• 21 games played
• 5 games won
• 2 games drawn

• 4 games have seen Scottish sides concede four or more goals (Rangers twice, Aberdeen and Hearts)
• 8 games have seen Scottish sides concede three or more goals (Rangers, Motherwell and Aberdeen twice, Hearts and Celtic)
• 3 ties have seen Scottish sides concede five or more goals on aggregate (Celtic, Motherwell and Aberdeen)

• Only 3 games have been won at home (Falkirk, Motherwell and Hearts)
• Only 2 games have been won away (Motherwell and Celtic)
  

• 24 goals have been scored by Scottish clubs (Motherwell's 8 in one game inflates that figure and provides a little light relief)
• 42 goals have been conceded (an average of two a game)

• Only Falkirk and Hearts have managed to keep a clean sheet at home
• Only Celtic and Motherwell have managed to keep a clean sheet away

Falkirk 1 – 0 FC Vaduz
FC Vaduz 2 – 0 Falkirk

Motherwell 0 – 1 Llanelli
Llanelli 0 – 3 Motherwell

Flamurtari 1 – 0 Motherwell
Motherwell 8 – 1 Flamurtari

Steaua Bucharest 3 – 0 Motherwell
Motherwell 1 – 3 Steaua Bucharest

Aberdeen 1 – 5 SK Sigma Olomouc
SK Sigma Olomouc 3 – 0 Aberdeen

Dinamo Zagreb 4 – 0 Hearts
Hearts 2 – 0 Dinamo Zagreb

Celtic 0 – 1 Dinamo Moscow
Dinamo Moscow 0 – 2 Celtic

Celtic 0 – 2 Arsenal
Arsenal 3 – 1 Celtic

Hapoel Tel Aviv 2 – 1 Celtic
Celtic 1 – 1 Rapid Vienna

VfB Stuttgart 1 – 1 Rangers
Rangers 1 – 4 Sevilla
Rangers 1 – 4 Unirea Urziceni

Friends reunited

Another European game rolls around and, refreshingly, we’re simply concentrating on what is likely to prove a mildly diverting match up of two teams keen to impress in Europe’s second tier competition to prove that they deserve to feast at the Champion’s League banquet.

Or not. One of these days Celtic or Rangers are going to enjoy a serene build up to a match. But not tonight for Celtic. Not when we can relive a glorious episode from 25 years ago involving a stunning fightback, fans misbehaving, Austrian play acting, UEFA dithering, fans losing the plot, players being attacked and Celtic getting dumped out in the Lancashire night.

Yes Celtic and Rapid Vienna. Do the names not just roll of your tongue, so redolent of the glamour of European football? Only if your idea of glamour is being sick round the back of Stagg’s nightclub after a dozen lagers and a dodgy kebab.

It’s getting rarer and rarer that I can say this but I’m too young to remember it all. Like Arthur Scargill, tight shorts and 5 Star I have only really experienced the madness of what went on second hand.

I summarise: Vienna beat Celtic 3-1 at home and turn up in Glasgow expecting to seal the deal with ease. On a raucous night Celtic lead the Austrians in a Vienese waltz and win 3-0. Relations between the players during the match are less than comradely, a legacy of alleged stamps by Peter Grant and Alan McInally in the first leg. Perhaps feeding off the players, or perhaps it’s the other way around, The Jungle is at its intimidating best.

Or worst. Because it now seems clear that objects were thrown on to the pitch that night. Bottles? Who knows? It’s almost certain that no Rapid players were hit by anything bigger than a coin but one of them claimed to have been hit by a bottle.

Sad, pathetic, unfortunate but forgotten. No, not quite. Rapid complain and UEFA do their normal twists and turns before deciding the match must be played again. A neutral venue, Old Trafford, is chosen.

Celtic have chances but Rapid take the game 1-0. That was the football. A hard one to take for sure but just another game really. Well, not quite. Celtic’s supporters behaved so badly that night – at least two Rapid players attacked, the team bus belted with bottles – that Celtic’s next European game was held behind closed doors.

Squalid, shameful etc, etc. But long gone now.

Aha. Not quite it would appear.

Rapid released a special red away shirt to pay tribute to the strip they wore that night so keen are they to celebrate a win on a night when 22 men were sent out to play football in a bearpit of violence – an atmosphere that was not intense or intimidating but actually threatening and ugly.

Former Celtic players, including current coach Peter Grant, hit back, talking of their hurt and anger at being "cheated" out of the game. Frank McGarvey actually seems to be in need of counselling such is the extent to which he still seems haunted by the manner of the defeat.

Such has been the ferocity of dormant anger being stirred up that Celtic have actually stepped back from their original stance – marketing the game as 25 Years On – to appeal for calm lest any over zealous supporters lose the plot.

It’s been a strange build up to be sure. The press have, of course, loved it. It’s all left Tony Mowbray keen to concentrate on the game but few people that keen to let him. Stephen McManus has spoken of being embarrassed at the build up – an admission that Peter Grant should probably have a long hard think about.

Anyway a game there most certainly is. And one Celtic could really do with winning after the Hapoel Tel-Aviv second half horror show.

After knocking out Aston Villa in qualifying and the putting three past Hamburg in their first group game Vienna would look to be favourites. Mowbray needs a reaction from his players to the roasting he gave them after their below par win over St Mirren. He’ll hope that and home advantage is enough.

But everything we’ve seen from Scottish teams in Europe this season points to it being a long night for Celtic. Our technical deficiences, and Celtic have played enough poor football this season to be lumped into the same SPL grouping, have been glaringly obvious. It’s those failings that lead Mowbray into the displays of frustration he showed last Saturday.

So a Rapid Vienna win? Possibly. Celtic are dangerous because they have the potential to confound us all, to come together and play some excellent football. Maybe they’ll do that tonight, maybe not.

They’ll miss McGeady and if he is proved unfit then they’ll need to refocus some of their attack because I doubt Mowbray will want to play Pat McCourt at this level just now. Big players like Scott Brown will need to raise their games and shake off the lethargy that had them huffing and puffing in Paisley.

This isn’t mission impossible for Celtic. It’s just that right now they don’t seem to be able to sustain enough form to make it mission very likely either.

Still it’s only a game. And let’s hope everyone remembers that and uses tonight to bury the lingering resentment of 25 years ago. Even in football life is simply too short.

*The game is on Five tonight. So if you're on Freeview and you've not retuned yet it might be best to leave it until after the final whistle.

Rangers v Sevilla: Preview

Having seen the less than glorious impact that washing the dirty strips in public had on Celtic's European campaign you might have thought that Rangers would have had more sense than to do the same.

Not a bit of it. New chairman Alistair Johnston faced the press for the first time yesterday and seemed to leave a number of questions lingering unanswered as the debate rages as to the extent of the Rangers crisis.

Against this backdrop Walter Smith appeared to issue an ultimatum about his future. The suggestion had been that Smith would refuse to sign an extension in January. He now seems to be saying that is not the case (going as far as to blame the rumour on his wife) but demanding answers to financial questions before he commits.

The good news is that Alistair Johnston promised Rangers won't do a Leeds United. The bad news is that Rangers fans will now be wondering how close that prospect actually is.

How bad are things? Worse, I think, than many might realise. For someone as long in the tooth as Walter Smith to cause a fuss like this in the week of a European game points to a club rife with problems.

Strange times for sure, but there's a game on tonight.

You would think there's about as much chance of Rangers getting the better of Sevilla as there was of Hawick Royal Albert beating Huntly at the weekend.

But you would probably have written Rangers off at half time in Stuttgart and they came home with a point.

Since then they have been dire. Really bad. There best player is a centre half. No shame in that. Except that Bougherra also appears to be their most potent attacking force.

Form is temporary of course. This might just be a blip that has been blown out of proportion by the ongoing financial storm blowing off the field. It all adds up to Rangers being massive underdogs tonight.

They will play the tried and trusted European formula. The big surprise is the inclusion of Stephen Naismith as the lone forward - a move that signals Kris Boyd's demotion to third choice on European nights. It will be back to the walls stuff.

Can I see any hope for Rangers tonight. No. Sevilla will be the best team they play this year. Walter Smith has shocked us at Ibrox before. Tonight, his team out of sorts and his club in turmoil, will be a surprise too far.

A long night, then, for the less than capacity crowd. They can, perhaps, amuse themselves by scanning the stands for any benevolent billionaires who might just have wandered in to Govan for the night.

Arsenal v Celtic preview

Battle of Britain Part Deux tonight then. 2 away goals look a lot. Celtic need an early goal. Chasing an early goal will expose the defence. It's a Catch 22 for Mr Mowbray.

Anyway if you want a slightly more indepth preview then click here to be taken to ITV's big, shiny football site where they've been kind enough to let me witter away as a guest blogger.

And if you were to push me I'd say Celtic will score. But it won't be nearly enough.