Sports Diary

  • Scotland's shambolic performances in their first two matches at the Under-20 World Cup caused much suffering in the Back4 operations room. The more so because we tipped them to progress beyond the group stages in last week's column only to see Archie Gemmill's side slump to a 3-1 defeat to Japan hours later.

Scotland were truly abysmal in that opening game: passes which almost decapitated the intended recipient, touches that would have shamed an elephant, and Jamie Adams.

But worst offender of all was the Teflon-coated goalkeeper Andy McNeil, whose ability to dodge bullets was bettered only by his ability to dodge footballs travelling towards his posts.

Despite gifting Japan two goals with howlers that would have cost many other players their international careers, McNeil escaped the wrath of the BBC commentary team and that of Gemmill who dropped four other players for the next defeat, against Nigeria, but retained the Hibernian goalkeeper.

"Back home, Andy has been getting a bit of stick but he has actually made four or five saves. If it hadn't been for him it could have been a cricket score," said Gemmill.

Well excuse Back4's ignorance, Archie (you do know better than us after all) but isn't that his job?

Rather than keep his head down McNeil compounded his gaffes by opening his mouth in the build-up to the Nigeria match. The result was akin to the opening of a sewer grate in a Sheffield sidestreet and sounded something like this. "I read Lance Armstrong's book recently about his struggle to beat cancer," he said. "Now I'm not saying what happened to me is as important as getting cancer but . . .

"His book was important for helping me to put things into perspective from my perspective. People have always knocked me, they said I was too small and I proved them wrong. I'm not going away, I'm not going anywhere."

Unfortunately. McNeil blundered again in the 2-0 defeat to Nigeria. The first time he was forced to deal with a difficult backpass he miskicked so badly that the ball spun behind him and out for a corner.

It got worse. Shortly before the end of the match, with his team pushing for an equaliser, he spilled a shot straight to Ezekiel Bala who put the game beyond Scotland's reach. All of this was played out to a soundtrack of Paul Mitchell and Gary Mackay making numerous excuses for Scotland's failings.

"Just look at this Nigeria team, they prepare them, they bring them through and develop them. They are 19 or 20 but they are athletes," said Mackay, clearly oblivious to the hypocrisy of his words.

"That's the quality of this team, they take one player off and bring another one on who's just as good," he added. (Eh? Isn't this the whole principle behind selecting the best 22 players in your country?) Mitchell was little better, pointing out how Nigeria had more experience at this level. "Did Scotland not reach the final of the European Under-19 Championships?" Back4 shouted at the television.

McNeil, meanwhile, was subsequently dropped for Scotland's 2-1, last-minute defeat to Costa Rica.

  • Fantasy: Everton announce the signing of Juan Roman Riquelme, sublime Argentine playmaker, from Villarreal on their official website. Reality: It's a mistake and the club are forced into an embarrassing apology blaming their website suppliers for publishing "example data" on the official site.

Reality: Everton sign Phil Jagielka from Sheffield United for £4m. Fantasy: Nope, Everton fans, you really have signed him.

  • Is it just Back4 or has there been a whiff of something rotten in the whole Steven Naismith will-he, won't-he join Rangers fiasco?

Naismith's agent, Andrew McCormick, is listed on the Scottish Football Association website as representing MAD, the player agency.

Speculation is rife on Kilmarnock fans' sites that MAD stands for the initials of two Rangers employees. Now let's just say these rumours are true (we're not, of course, we're merely speculating) then surely this represents a conflict of interest? Just a thought . . .