Hugh Keevins: Scotland the grave

There was only one thing missing from the Celtic win at Dundee yesterday which took the club one win away from six league title wins in a row.

Entertainment.

It was fairly un-inspiring stuff at Dens park from a side who have started to look ever so slightly jaded thanks to the relentless exertions of getting themselves to where they are under Brendan Rodgers.

And where they are is, to be fair, in a pretty impressive place.

But the manager has deflected thinking away from notions of tiredness having started to affect his players.

He sidetracked the media, for instance, when a Scottish Cup comeback from a goal down against the bottom club in the Championship ended with Rodgers saying St. Mirren were the best team he had come up against this season.

And then the non-award of a penalty kick against Rangers the following week distracted everyone when it was obvious Celtic had just played their least enterprising game of the season.

There's absolutely no shame in being exhausted because that's how you get to live in a different postcode from the rest of the teams in the division where you play.

But it could be an added complication for a former Celtic manager, Gordon Strachan, at a time when he could do without any more problems thank you very much.

The biggest representation from a single club in Strachan's latest squad for Wednesday's friendly against Canada and the World Cup qualifier which follows against Slovenia comes from Celtic.

All six of the Celtic players chosen by the manager will be rested against Canada with the intention, presumably, of making any, or all, of them available to play in what he has acknowledged is the must win game with the Slovenians.

But if a change of shirt colour can't energise tired limbs then it'll be the last thing Gordon needs.

If we're being brutally honest about it, the national team has become an irrelevance.

The inconvenient truth being that they no longer fire the public's imagination.

This week's break from club football will be seen as an irritation by Celtic fans eagerly awaiting a title win to spark lavish celebrations.

And viewed as an annoyance by Rangers supporters who want to see how Pedro Caixinha acquits himself when he comes up against stronger opposition than the now apparently terminal case which is Hamilton Accies.

For a country which is so motivated by its political future, the team which carries the Saltire as its flag has become a pariah at the polls.

The spectating public have started to vote with their feet and non-attendance is probably going to be a dominant feature of the next two international matches.

If the tie with Slovenia should end in calamity, i.e. a draw or a defeat, then the manager will lose his deposit, so to speak, and stand down.

The selection of another candidate to carry the nation's hopes, however they can be defined after twenty years in the wilderness of non-qualification for major tournaments, will then follow forthwith.

That will likely prompt greater interest than what happens on the pitch over the coming days.

Scottish fans like a good hanging followed by an explosion of cock-eyed optimism surrounding the one who follows the victim sentenced by the court of public opinion.

Whatever happens, just get it over and done with so the country can get back to the parochial issues which generate greater interest than a national team whose campaign to make the World Cup finals in Russia is in the throes of death.

We want soap opera, not a Scotland team unable to wash its face.

Ian Cathro says it's normal for a team to be run by committee, but he can hardly be heard for the sound of laughter which accompanied that statement.

Dundee United celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the night they beat Barcelona in the Nou Camp Stadium by losing 2 - 1 to Raith Rovers in what the Kircaldy folk know as the San Starko.

It's melodrama of a type the Scotland team can't produce so, whatever happens to them next, make it quick.

It would be awful to see something we love and knew when it was in much better health suffer too much pain.

The quicker it happens the sooner we can get on with the healing process. We're good at that, mainly due to the fact we get so much practice.

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