THIS was Scotland’s groundhog game. The Georgians are the most hospitable of peoples but, twice in the space of eight years, they have inflicted utter misery on Scotland in Tbilisi. Aside from the colour of the strip, the circumstances of this 1-0 defeat were near identical to the calamitous 2-0 reverse which afflicted Alex McLeish’s side here back in 2007.

Like that encounter eight years ago, the wounds inflicted here are not quite fatal. Not yet, at any rate. Nine points remain up for grabs from our last three matches in this campaign – at home to Germany on Monday, then a double header against Poland and Gibraltar in October – and a play-off spot remains achievable. The story may yet have a different ending.

But while the football world reacted with surprise about this result to a Georgia side who hadn’t won at home in their last six matches, some Scotland supporters with long memories had seen it all before. For them, this brave new Scotland had turned out depressingly like the old one. All the promise shown in the first half of this campaign had begun to evaporate in the warm evening air of this conflicted little corner of the Caucusus and maybe it all pointed to some deeper mental frailty. Had all this talk of a repeat of 2007 become a self-fulfilling prophesy?

Assistant manager Mark McGhee had spoken pre-match about how the national team could put a smile back on faces after Celtic’s Champions League dismissal by Malmo, but this was another blow to the collective solar plexus. A Gareth Bale-inspired Wales had shown us the way with a narrow win in Cyprus, while Northern Ireland and England are all but in France next summer too, but now it is Scotland of the home nations who appear most likely to let the side down. Instead it is the Republic of Ireland, on the ropes after that draw with Gordon Strachan’s side on June, who regain momentum in the death struggle between these two sides, in all likelihood, for third place in Group D.

Shaun Maloney was the only survivor of that match in 2007 who started again last night and typically as the game wore on it was the Malaysian-born 32-year-old who this nation looked to as they searched for a saviour. Maloney has swapped Chicago for Hull in an attempt to maintain his form for the Euro 2016 run-in, and a late free-kick may well have given Scotland parity on the scoresheet had it not flicked off the very top of a giant Georgian wall. With no salvation arriving on the night, a quickfire meeting with World Champions Germany at Hampden on Monday is our only shot at redemption but even that seems almost like cruelty after this brutal evening in Tbilisi.

After a rocky start, Gordon Strachan has been sailing along serenely as Scotland manager. No longer. The questions have started already. Why did a Scotland side who have produced electrifying, up tempo football to date in this campaign suddenly appear sluggish and short of ideas? Why exactly did Valeri Kazaishvili have so long to bring down the ball and twist onto his left side before firing in the low shot which gave Georgia something to cling onto? And why did Leigh Griffiths get only 15 minutes to try to salvage a point?

For what it is worth, Strachan’s starting team was a restatement of confidence in the tried and trusted and I for one have few quibbles with it. Andy Robertson and Ikechi Anya, the tandem who got the better of heavyweight opponents Aiden McGeady and Seamus Coleman at Celtic Park 12 months back, were invited to do something similar here, while Steven Naismith and Steven Fletcher, two success stories during this campaign, also earned the loyalty of their manager despite struggling for action at club level. There was a case for re-introducing Grant Hanley at centre half, but Strachan swears by Charlie Mulgrew, who kept his place from Dublin. The two almost combined for an equaliser with Scotland’s last opening of the game, but the Blackburn Rovers defender’s header from a pinpoint Mulgrew corner slipped past.

It became pretty clear pretty quickly, though, that things weren’t working. While Scotland were comfortable enough in the match, and they might have had a lead if Steven Fletcher had been more confident going with his right foot as he hared onto an exquisite Robertson cross, too often, though, the Hull City player appeared nervous. It seemed perverse that he had actually departed the action late on when Scotland players finally found room on the flanks to deliver.

Robertson wasn’t the only one who appeared petrified. Levan Mchedlidze, who scored his maiden international goal as a teenager that night in October 2007, has turned into a man in the intervening eight years and he was a thorn in the flesh of Russell Martin and Charlie Mulgrew. Scott Brown and James Morrison have been outstanding during this campaign but they often found themselves outmanoeuvred and outpassed in central midfield by Georgia’s three, where Kazaishvili was ably supported by the deeper-lying Jaba Kankava and Jano Ananidze.

There were fleeting moments of promise from Naismith and Fletcher but both, hardly surprisingly, appeared rusty. The Everton man, subject to an £8m transfer from Norwich, was convinced a near post Maloney corner had crossed the line but that appeared to be wishful thinking, while an in-form striker might have concentrated less on impeding the goalkeeper and more on getting his head on the ball to make sure it did. While James Forrest then Griffiths finally introduced a bit of spark, this was a Scotland side which provided plenty of perspiration but could not find any inspiration. Sadly, Georgia Part II also plunges us back into a fearful old sweat for Euro 2016 qualification.