The pressure is already mounting on former Aston Villa and Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish after his Scotland side were humiliated by Kazakhstan in Euro 2020 qualifying this afternoon.
The Scots lost 3-0 in an opening qualifying match which they were heavily tipped to win. The Tartan Army took the best part of an hour to register a shot on target, at which point they were already 3-0 down.
Hopes were high before kick-off that Scotland would be serious contenders to challenge for qualification for next year’s European Championships but with just one game gone, manager McLeish and his troops already face an uphill task.
Scotland find themselves in a qualification group with Belgium and Russia and this afternoon’s shock defeat leaves them needing to ruffle the feathers of some of their greater opponents in upcoming fixtures.
The defeat in Kazakhstan is a world away from McLeish’s most successful moment in English football management which came during a three-and-a-half year spell with Birmingham City. The 60-year-old guided the Blues to a League Cup final success at Wembley in 2011 while he was a promotion winner with the club two years earlier.
After leaving St Andrews, McLeish went on to manage Birmingham City’s bitter rivals Aston Villa whilst he also had a spell with Nottingham Forest before moving abroad.
At international level, McLeish has now won just four of his 11 matches as Scotland boss and after this afternoon’s humiliation in Kazakhstan, his job could be on the line with another banana skin in minnows San Marino up next.
