Anyone else watchin Mackie for Scotland?

Indeed.

Would love to see him put one past scum keeper Cech now that would be totally amazing.

Well Scotland are very negative with their zero strikers upfront and very very poor. Mackie certainly is not the worst player out there though. He is playing wide right in a 6 man midfield.

They just took him off for Miller.

Not a scratch on him.

Cech had one save in 90 minutes.

Let's hope Levein knows he didn't play him in his own position when he thinks about who plays next game. 4-6-0? I thought that was a steam locomotive's axle configuration. New sponsor for the Scottish national team = Hornby?

Herald/Richard Wilson

Jamie Mackie frustrated on his Scotland debut but not for lack of effort

Jamie Mackie inadvertently found himself at the centre of a small outburst of indignation.

On his first call-up to the Scotland squad, he was drawn into a row about the team selection being revealed in a newspaper last Wednesday, with Craig Levein reduced to a barely suppressed fury.

Mackie might have been perturbed that the decision to name him in the starting line-up ahead of Kenny Miller would be at the heart of a story that became a confrontation. Yet this has been a season when the striker has found every hindrance overcome by an irrepressibility that has arrived suddenly, like a revelation.

He had scored eight goals in 11 matches before making his debut last night, but then it was not for this refinement of his finishing ability – he amassed only 19 goals in 87 games for Exeter City, and 16 in 98 for Plymouth – that Levein chose him to face the Czech Republic ahead of Miller.

The Scotland manager explained it by saying that Mackie’s qualities are better suited to the role he wanted him to play. The reasoning was clear enough when the game started and the QPR forward lined up wide on the right. He has played there in the past, where his hard running and sheer heartfelt effort finds an outlet tracking up and down the wing.

But then he would normally have been allowed rein to support a central attacker, rather than being required to hold his position and keep the shape of a formation that was essentially 4-6-0, something rigidly unfulfilling. It was in the ninth minute that he made his first intervention, with a foul on Michal Kadlec, the Czech left-back.

The pair were to find themselves in direct competition throughout, mostly with Mackie following the Bayer Leverkusen defender deep into his own half. There is a diligence to Mackie, an earnest willingness to sacrifice some of his own ambition for the cause of his team. It is this relinquishment – of all but a sense of duty – that Levein values.

He had to be stoic and trust there will be other nights when he can express himself. Richard Wilson
Mackie is well-built, tireless in his industry, and committed to applying himself. Scotland were effectively playing with two inside forwards – James Morrison and Graham Dorrans – with Mackie on the right, and Steven Naismith on the left. The wide men were mostly providing support to the full-backs, and even when Scotland eventually fell a goal behind, the first response in switching to a 4-4-2 was to send Morrison and Dorrans up front.

It was a night of frustrated effort for Mackie. One clearance deep into the Czech Republic half in the 21st minute almost allowed the QPR striker to run at Kadlec. But the way the ball landed allowed the defender to tidy up the potential danger.

The closest that Mackie found himself to a goalscoring opportunity was the one moment of crisp counter-attacking football. Morrison broke from deep before feeding the ball out to Gary Caldwell. His cross reached Mackie in the penalty area, but with his back to the goal, he took a touch before trying to turn and the ball was cleared.

Mackie is effective in the air, but was restricted to keeping his discipline and holding to a position wide on the right, at least until the ball entered the final third, which was a rare occurrence. Instead, he had to be regimented, as though operating in narrow confines. His selflessness was evident in the way that he followed Kadlec’s surge into the penalty area in the 43rd minute. When the ball broke off Allan McGregor and was spinning towards Kadlec, it was Mackie who swept out a leg to clear.

There was a grim dependability to Mackie, and little opportunity to show the sharpness, of instinct and technique, that has allowed him to make such an impact this season. It would have felt like a wry observation to Mackie that the qualities he was expected to rely on were the traits that served him while he toiled away in the lower reaches of the game after leaving Wimbledon as a teenager.

He had to be stoic and trust that there will be other nights when he can find a little room in which to express himself. The second half was even less ready to offer up moments of attacking purpose and Mackie fell from the game like an afterthought.

There was almost a forlorn inevitability that when the Czechs scored and Levein sought to rearrange his side in the search for goals, Mackie was the first to make way. As he was replaced by Chris Iwelumo, and shook the hand of Kenny Black as he walked to the bench, he looked a little dispirited.

James Mackie holds off Michal Kadlec


www.heraldscotland.com/sport/more-scottish-football/jamie-mackie-frustrated-on-his-scotland-debut-but-not-for-lack-of-effort-1.1060408

Will not watch Scotland and not interested at all. Sorry, but don't think I need to explain my reasons!