Ferguson's Scotland decision was a personal one

I didn't want my blog to be all about Barry Ferguson this week but, well, there hasn't been too much happening down at Annan since my last one.

I don't know about you but I hope the Ferguson and Scotland saga is over and done with now and everyone can move on.

I doubt it very much, though, as we'll have the usual pundits having their say in the build-up to the next qualifiers, and quite possibly afterwards as well, depending on results.

I'm a little undecided as to whether it would have been a good thing or not. The Ferguson who is playing superbly for Birmingham in the Premiership would be fantastic to have in the Scotland side at the minute; let's make no mistake about it.

Former Scotland captain Barry Ferguson warms up at Hampden. Photo: SNS.

It would ease some of the pressure on Darren Fletcher, who at times I think is expected to carry the team on his own.

Fletcher has been brilliant for Manchester United but he has a completely different role there than he has with the national team. With Ferguson in beside him, he would be able to concentrate on his own game and relax a bit more and I've no doubt we would get more from him.

I think Ferguson is in a similar situation with Scotland to the one he was in at Rangers. Is he doing anything different at Birmingham every week than he was at Ibrox before he left for the second time? I don't think so.

He's possibly injury free now, as well as getting the rest he needs in between games that his previous injuries require. But he is playing the same game and it suits him and Birmingham perfectly.

It's more a personal decision than a professional one for Ferguson, in my opinion. I think he knows he could still perform at international level but it appears everything in his life is going well and if things didn't go right for him with Scotland it's quite probable that everything else becomes affected.

Could you imagine if he had been playing against Liechtenstein at Hampden a few weeks ago when we went a goal down?

A lot has gone on in the past and Ferguson has clearly made some bad decisions as a Scotland player, but he is still someone I would have playing in central midfield for the country.

That being said, I'm glad the decision has finally been made and we can move on, at least until the next bit of controversy.

Although I said there hasn't been much happening at Galabank since last weekend, we have squeezed two games in and had a Spanish trialist baring his backside at his first training session!

I've said it to a few people since Saturday's victory over Queen's Park but I still struggle to believe that we managed to pull off a win in that one.

Queen's Park must have been absolutely pig sick to not even walk away with one point. I can't remember us having a shot in the match until Bryan Gilfillan had his usual 40-yard near-wonder strike in the last few minutes. A few of the boys have said that was winning ugly, but I don't think you can even call it that; I would just say it was undeserved.

We're not kidding ourselves on at all. We know the performance wasn't good enough and I'd be surprised to see us getting away with another one but we'll take the result all day, thank you very much. As I said last week, it's now set up very nicely for the Third Division match of the day at Berwick Rangers.

For the fifth game in a row I did not make it off the bench and things are getting increasingly frustrating for me. In the past I'd maybe have reacted differently but I'm being patient right now and as far as the manager is concerned I'm doing all the right things, so I don't feel there's much else I can do.

I'm still doing extra work away from the club and another game for the reserves up at Dumbarton on Tuesday will have done me no harm. I'm just waiting on my chance now.

We lost the reserve game 3-0 but that wasn't really a fair reflection on the performance. We had five of our under-19s with us and their performances are always encouraging.

I enjoyed the game until the latter stages when I felt I was at fault for a couple of the goals and it was maybe my tiredness that affected me in that part of the game. The results aren't important at reserve level but I certainly didn't enjoy the result.

Finally we'll move on to our Spanish trialist Javier, who was with us last week. You would think we would change things when a stranger comes in to the ranks, especially when he hardly speaks a word of our language, but we didn't.

Unfortunately for Javier, he paired himself with Jordan Halsman who doesn't have the best record at possession and they ended up the worst pairing during the first game.

Jordan knows the score so off he went and we just had to point Javier in his direction. His face was a picture, but fair play to him. He eventually realised what was going on and dropped his shorts!

I'm not too sure if we'll see him back, though.

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