Clarke angered by Scotland on historic night

“At half-time, it was the wildest I’ve seen him in 72 games…”

This should have been a routine game to bookmark Steve Clarke making history while his Scotland team took a step closer to a first men’s World Cup in 28 years.

But despite a top-two place in their qualifying group being assured by a win over Belarus – combined by Denmark beating Greece – the man who took charge of the men’s side for a record 72nd time was seen at his most furious according to midfielder John McGinn, and others within the home dressing room.

Scotland won 2-1 to take maximum points from this international camp and ensure a least a play-off place for next summer’s finals, but there was huge frustration around the stadium – both in the stands and on the pitch – as his team’s subdued lap of honour was brought to a close.

“If you’d said at the start of this camp we’d come out with six points, everyone would’ve been really happy,” said Clarke.

“But, I have to be honest, tonight I was really, really disappointed in my team. I don’t think we got anywhere near the levels we can and that was really disappointing.

The foundation of Clarke’s era has been circumspection. So it is of no great surprise that Scotland are the team in Group C who have scored the fewest goals against bottom seed Belarus.

Clarke’s teams are hard to beat, competitive, with the ability to grind out results. Much the same as the teams stewarded by the man he’s just surpassed, the late Craig Brown.

But alarms were going off on Thursday at Hampden as Scotland somehow beat Greece 3-1 after an hour of wretchedness.

While never behind at Hampden on Sunday, they were ringing almost as loud as the booing coming from the 49,000 inside Scotland’s national stadium.

“At half-time – and deservedly so – it was the wildest I’ve seen him in 72 games,” said McGinn of the head coach.

“We’re no stupid. As a team we’re not quite gelling. There’s things on the ball and off the ball, but what we have done is put ourselves in an ubelievable position.

“We’ll accept any criticism that comes our way, we’re old enough and strong enough to deal with that. We expect better of ourselves, the supporters expect better, but the main thing was getting over the line.

“We know we want to be better. The fans coming here want to be entertained and attacking football. It’s because they know we’re capable.

It’s not every day Scotland are booed off after winning a match which puts them to within two games of automatic qualification for a World Cup, but such are the level of expectation set by Clarke’s team.

While the Scots weren’t shooting the lights out in attack, they also allowed Belarus to be comfortable for large parts of the game. The fact they had 10 shots more than Scotland is a huge cause for concern.

“At half-time the manager came in but he was absolutely furious with us,” said defender Scott McKenna.

“We didn’t win any first balls, didn’t win any second balls either. Belarus probably looked more dangerous than us over the 90 minutes.”

Despite the fury, self-reflection and pain, Scotland are still in a strong position. An away game in Athens against a Greece team who can no longer catch them, and then a Hampden showdown against Denmark next month lies in wait.

Everyone from the Scotland camp who spoke acknowledged what they’ve produced over the past week will not get the job done, but there is a belief that they have it in them to find solutions. Somehow.

“We’ve had some great moments, and some quite disappointing moments,” said Clarke. “What we are is quite resilient, we can come back from a down.