Mad Vad's crazy Scotland v Georgia decision - scudded by waterbombs, closed-door threat, squeegee squad

Walking up to the national stadium before kick-off – well, the first of about umpteen proposed kick-offs – the globules falling from above were so ruddy enormous, the drenchment they inflicted made you feel as if you were being scudded with waterbombs. And that was when the cloudbursts hadn’t yet reached their full dastardly drookitness.

That point was arrived long before hapless Hungarian referee Istvan Vad impaled his commonsense by electing to start the game at the appointed time of 7.45pm. Immediately it became apparent this was the most ridiculous decision, the pitch holding so much water it played like a ginormous green paddling pool. Fountains spraying up from the feet of players as they waded through it, with the gluggy, stuttering passage of the ball across the submerged surface eliciting the same. It wasn’t simply a night for the ducks. It was a night mad Vad shouldn’t have ducked his responsibility and simply recognised conditions weren’t compatible with playing a game of football.

Instead, it took him until Callum McGregor’s sixth-minute goal to appreciate it was bonkers to carry on with the football-meet-waterpolo style proceedings. And even then, this wasn’t before he had first headed to the tunnel to consult with the UEFA delegate Christain Kofoed watching on from that area – the home fans thought it was a VAR goal check – then brought together both captains for discussions, it seemed, on what they thought should be the course of action.

How it wasn’t obvious seemed a product of soggy think. Not least when both Georgian manager Willy Sagnol and his Scotland counterpart Steve Clarke had spent the early minutes throwing up their hands in horror at the crazy conditions. Eventually, Vad eventually directed the players from the pitch. It seemed then this inevitably would be the end – for the evening – of a game that shouldn’t have started. Instead, it proved the start of a game farrago that threatened to never find an endpoint.

You had to wonder if Mr Vad had some pressing engagement back home on Wednesday, so reluctant did he seem to call a halt on the interminable difficulties – a call which would have necessitated the qualifier being completed behind closed doors at St Mirren Park the following lunchtime.

He will consider himself vindicated Vad because ultimately it was completed without serious mishap … though you can bet the Georgians – who seemed to refuse to re-appear for a desired 9.15pm resumption – will lodge their objections to UEFA over their 2-0 loss. They could hardly be blamed as the eventual 9.33pm restart followed delay after delay. It first relayed that the action would recommence at 8.55pm, then 9.15pm, then 9.30pm. The crowd’s entertainment during this period – wherein the players appeared, disappeared, were left head shaking and sporting, uhm, wet weekend countenaces – were restricted to watching the groundstaff, and ballboys, attempt to sweep the pitch of copious amounts of surface water wielding squeegee brooms. As the PA system reverberated to a rain/sunshine playlist. Spotify has much to answer for.

The squeegee squad performed heroics, no question, though sometimes their endeavours appeared akin to pushing water up a hill. Come to think of it, that was what they kind-of were doing. And did with sufficient success for the pitch to be skimmed off enough water to be playable enough that the confrontation could be finished at pushing 20 past 11. As a result, in the end-up, with a history-making fourth straight victory in Group A pulled – or should that be pooled? – off, even the elements couldn’t rain Scotland’s parade.