SpawnPoint

From today's news: -

"THE Tartan Army scored an amazing victory in Georgia - before a ball was even kicked.

Citizens of this impoverished country have taken the travelling fans to their hearts for lavishing disabled children with clothes, toys and cash.

Locals turned out at Tbilisi Airport yesterday morning to welcome around 300 Scots with a medley of traditional folk songs. And by the time the day was through, Georgian TV was broadcasting special news programmes about the generous visitors from afar.

The Tartan Army's impact came as the national team prepared for a match which could see us make it to the Euro 2008 finals.

We've already beaten France and Ukraine to top the qualifying group. If we beat Georgia tonight and France draw with Lithuania, we've qualified. France could only end up with the same points as Scotland - and our two wins against the World Cup finalists mean we go through. If both France and Scotland win tonight, we need just a draw in our final game - at home to World Cup winners Italy next month.

Yesterday, though, the focus was on Georgia - and the Tartan Army made an immediate impact in the country.

Denis Keefe, Britain's ambassador to Georgia, joined Scotland fans at a gift-delivery event for First Step, a day centre for mentally and physically disabled youngsters. The 49-year-old diplomat said: "I think this is fantastic. These guys might be here for a football match but they are really helping to put Scotland on the map. "Everything I had previously heard about the Tartan Army is true. They are brilliant ambassadors for their country."

Several dozen travelling supporters got in some early practice at First Step, on the outskirts of Tbilisi. They played Scotland the Brave on their pipes and encouraged the kids to beat the drum for their country. Musician Craig Shepherd, 36, from Edinburgh, said: "It's been a privilege to come here and share a little bit of Scotland with the kids."

The Scots watched a five-a-side football match involving the squealing youngsters and later attended a barbecue at the centre with Ambassador Keefe. A hospital linked to the centre will receive baby care equipment costing £15,000 thanks to the generosity of the Scots. Mum Nana Zakareishvili explained that until her 17-year-old son Mishiko was 14, he had nowhere to go during the day. Nana, 35, said: "When First Step opened, he was able to come to school for the first time. I am very satisfied because he is learning skills and is happy to go to school every morning."

And people wonder why the Scots fans are loved all over the world when we travel.

I'm still just trying to figure out how I can explain to Debbie that if we qualify for Euro 2008 i'm gonna be in Austria and Switzerland for a week or so before we go to Corfu for our vacation LOL.

Come on the Scots!!

Well i'm just getting ready to head to our National Stadium to watch Scotland in their crunch Game against the Ukraine!

We're currently top of the qualifying group with 3 games to go and a point ahead of Italy and 2 ahead of France with 3 games left to play.

56000 Scots all singing "Flower of Scotland" is going to really get the adrenaline pumping and my heart racing.

It's funn, because at the start of qualification no one gave us a hope in hell of qualifying as we had the current World cup champions AND the runners up in our qualifying group but here we are, top on merit and aiming to stay there.

I must admin i'm really, really proud to be Scottish at the moment and, hopefully, with luck we'll get a result today and move onto Wednesdays game against Georgia knowing another win will see us qualify!

I'll be on later, probably the worst for wear and totally hoarse.

Good luck to both England AND France in the rugby world cup finals later today although in true Scots fashion I hope France win ;)

Well it's that time again.

The team I support is playing in the UEFA cup on Thursday night and i'm heading for the return leg in gothenburg Sweden two weeks thereafter.

Now this got me thinking. What's the furthest you have gone to watch your team, where was it and why?

Yes paragraphs finally work LOL

Well my provincial football team were in the Scottish Cup final on saturday.

Dumfermline are not a massive club here in Scottish football (soccer) with an average home crowd of 5000 or so. We were playing Glasgow Celtic who are one of the largest followed and richest clubs in Europe regularly playing to nearly 60000 fans. They had won the league title and reached the last 16 in the European Champions League :o

We, despite our size, sold some 15500 tickets for the "grand day out" at our national stadium and i have to admit as to being rather on edge as we decked ourselves out in our black and white "war paint" shirts, scarves and flags and headed for the hallowed turf of Hampden.

The sea of black and white at our end of the stadium coupled with our band and bag pipers made me swell with pride at the fact "MY" team was here on this special day. The fact that we had finished bottom of the league and been relegated from the top tier of football some 2 weeks before paled into insignificance at that time.

The game commenced and we sang and cheered and chanted our heads off throughout the first half and were unlucky not to be leading at the half-time interval. The deafening silence from the 30000+ so called "greatest fans in the world" at the opposing end of the stadium was both funny and eerie.

With 5 minutes to go and with the cruelest of luck the opposition scored a scrappy goal and in one instant 15500 hearts were cruelly broken. I have to admit that it was difficult to hold back the tears of disappointment at full time and realising that, although the guys had played some of their best all season it was all to no avail.

I'm proud to be an avid fan of them. I'm proud that through all the odds we made the final. I'm proud of the way we played. They gave their best and no one could be faulted in their performance.

It's a cruel lesson in life. Sometimes, even when you play above yourself, fate has a way of bringing you crashing back down to earth.

Live your life to the fullest as you never know whats round the corner.