THE ROAD TO SOUTH AFRICA
STARTS HERE !!

Scotland 1 Republic of Ireland 1
B International.
Excelsior Stadium - Airdrie

After the hype, the drama, the pain and the anger and the passion from Saturday's Euro 2008 daylight robbery at Hampden at the weekend, the road to South Africa 2010 kicked off for real on Tuesday.

With Alex McLeish looking towards the qualification draw at the end of the week, this was the first opportunity for some of the fringe players to get stake their place in the top squad.

From a spectator's point of view, it was a million miles from the nerve wracking spectacle at Hampden with just over three thousand fans making the effort to watch what was dull encounter, in which Derby's Steve Howard late header cancelled out Richie Byrne's goal.

But for Mcleish the exercise was more than worthwhile.

He said: “It was a good opportunity to see players that we have not seen before at close range.”

“The first team players have set a terrific standard and that it will be hard from them to be disclosed. There is scope for some of them.”

“One pleasing aspect of the game was that Graeme Smith did well in goal. We started and finished well and showed that you cannot write Scotland off. We now have to show that life goes on and have a positive look to the future.”

Along with the excellent performance from the Motherwell Keeper, there were plus points from Kevin Thomson,Kevin McNaughton, Christophe Berra , Ross Wallace along Ross McCormack.

But the members of the current squad wont have to worry about their places being under threat just yet.

Against an Irish side which featured Dundee United duo Noel Hunt and Sean Dillon, there was a collection of familiar and not so familiar faces on show in dark blue, hoping put the trauma of the Italy to game at rest – all be it for a short time.

Hoping to make a name for themselves in this game, were Charlton striker Chris Iwelumo, Derby hitman Steve Howard and Sheffield United defender Chris Armstrong.

After a positive start from the Scots it was the Irish that started to pose the greatest threat with Hunt and Sunderland's Roy Donovan putting the Scots nervy back line under pressure with Smith the only reason that the Scots went into the break with a clean sheet.

And the fact that Irish Keeper Chris Doyle must have been close to getting hypothermia with the lack of activity inside his penalty box.

The Irish dominance continued early in the second half and were denied thanksto some more inspirational goal keeping by Smith, diving low and full length to prevent a Byrne diving header nestling in the corner of the net.

Moments later Smith was perfectly positioned to keep out a powerful Jim Goodwin shot from just outside the box.

And in 66 minutes the keeper looked to have come to the rescue, tipping substitute Mark Yeats' ferocious drive on to the bar., but had no chance when Byrne slammed home the rebound.

McLeish continues to make the changes Steven Fletcher and Ross McCormack, both on target for the Under-21s in Slovenia at the weekend, were thrown on in the hope of adding some spark to the lifeless Scots attack and grab the equaliser.

Even though the Irish will be annoyed at not coverting the number of chances that came their way and put the match beyond reach, the Scots persistence was eventually rewarded when they tied the scoring six minutes from time thanks to a substituion from the Irish Coaching staff, bringing on Dan Connor between the sticks.

And after only a few minutes on the fields, he must have wished that he stayed on the bench when Howard just got on to the end of McNaughton's cross with the ball rolling just out of his reach for the equaliser.

And what would International games be without some dodgy refereeing when Jim Goodwin was sent off for his second bookable offence, but Maltese referee Joseph Attard initially did not realise he had cautioned the defender for a second time and only produced the red card after being tipped of by Wallace.