The Romance Of Playing For Scotland ...

The volcanic ash that has prevented any planes using Scottish airspace halted Scotland's under 19's celebrating at home. The volcano in the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier in south-western Iceland did not allow Billy Stark’s under-19 side getting home within a reasonable time after their 3-2 win over Luxembourg on Wednesday night, They were due to fly home on Thursday morning but SFA staff had to come up with an alternative plan due to the ban on flying.

They booked the travelling party of players and officials onto a coach to Rotterdam where they caught a ferry to Hull. A coach was then booked to pick the travelling party up from the ferry and bring the players back north. Hamilton Accies Secretary Scott Struthers, who was acting as an SFA Official on the trip said: "Thankfully we managed to come up with a solution quite quickly to get players home for games this weekend with their clubs. Having a Scotland team in the airport seemed to cause a bit of a stir and Billy Stark ended up being interviewed for Dutch TV about our plans to get home."