How refreshing it was for the normally bullish Steve Clarke to come out and berate his players after the final whistle at Hampden brought the greatest sense of relief seen at the stadium since Hibs ended a 114-year wait for the Scottish Cup.
Somehow, against all logic and following a heist of epic proportions against Greece four nights previously — when stunned bewilderment had trumped any sense of good fortune on that occasion — Scotland had banked six precious points in the pursuit of an automatic place at the 2026 World Cup.
With Denmark disposing of the Greeks later in the evening, it meant a play-off place had been secured as an absolute minimum and the celebrations could begin. Except, no one particularly felt like partying.
Following 99 desperate minutes in which they had toiled to keep determined group minnows Belarus at bay, Clarke and his players trooped off the pitch with barely a smile on show while Gala’s 90s anthem Freed From Desire blared from the stadium PA.
Want more and more, people just want more and more? Not of this torture they didn’t.
Mercifully, Clarke refused to gloss over the paucity of the performance in his post-match press briefings. ‘Disappointed’, ‘head-scratcher’, ‘below-par’ — in truth he didn’t go far enough, but his comments were so far removed from his normal defensive playbook that Scotland’s now-longest-serving manager for once felt like a breath of fresh air.
Scott McTominay’s celebration was justifiably muted after he put the Scots two goals up
Steve Clarke consoles Belarus coach Carlos Alos after his side’s brave display at Hampden
McTominay’s goal looked to have put the game beyond Belarus, though the drama wasn’t over
Quickly, though, that air was dispelled. With the limp performances witnessed over the course of a deflating international double-header, only the most optimistic or delusional of fans would look at the next two games away in Greece and at home to Denmark and start to dust off their star-spangled banner in preparation for a trip Stateside next summer.
The lack of cohesion this long-established Scotland squad are displaying at present is worrying in the extreme. The form of too many individuals, most notably skipper Andy Robertson, is a major cause for concern.
The revolving door at the back — has Clarke EVER had a settled idea on his best defence? — is perplexing. And that’s before we even get to the subject of substitutions and how they can, you know, if you choose to use them, change the way a game is going.
Above all else though, it is the lack of spark, the absence of attacking intent, the inability to excite that is causing most consternation amongst supporters. Harsh? Not if the embarrassment of the last two European Championships is still etched in your mind and you are fearful of what another major finals would throw up.
Put simply, Scotland have pushed their luck to reach this far. To expect that good fortune to sing our tune in Athens and at home to the Danes next month is wishful thinking in the extreme.
However, we simply MUST hope that the collective disappointment is enough to inspire a response ahead of those games on November 15 and 18. Because a genuine chance to achieve something seismic is just 180 minutes away, and drawing with Greece and beating Denmark is probably a more favourable pathway than whatever would await in the play-off.
Che Adams’ opening goal settled the Scots after a nervy start but they couldn’t build on it
We should have known it was going to be a long night at Hampden the minute Steven Thompson appeared on commentary talking about ‘winning comfortably’ — when do Scotland ever win comfortably?
James McFadden then expressed his surprise at how Belarus had set up and were playing on the front foot. Perhaps they were just aware that taking on a limited and unadventurous Scotland side at Hampden was easily their best chance of a victory on the road in this section?
Time and again that pair continued to talk dismissively about the visitors, while the plain evidence on the pitch was that trouble — and potential calamity — was brewing.
Yes, Carlos Alos’ side have had a stinker of a campaign, but that is only to be expected given the fact they’ve had various visa issues preventing them calling on some of their more experienced players and have been forced to play their home matches behind closed doors in Hungary because of their government’s involvement in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
It is undeniable that Scotland got away with one on Sunday evening. The visitors were quick out of the traps, playing with the kind of attacking intent the fans at Hampden long for from one of Clarke’s teams, and caused no little unrest in the Scotland backline in the opening exchanges.
Going behind to Che Adams’ opener upset their rhythm but they kept at it, infuriating Clarke enough to elicit a rare half-time dressing-room dressing down, and they picked up the intensity in the second period. It felt as though the longer Scotland failed to put the game to bed with a second goal, the more dangerous Belarus were becoming.
Evgeni Malashevich silences Hampden with an equaliser that was subsequently ruled out
Few people inside Hampden — with the exception of Thompson and McFadden, it seemed — were surprised when the walls momentarily caved in with Evgeni Malashevich’s 62nd-minute ‘equaliser’, which was somehow chalked off on a VAR review. Scott McTominay’s tumble in midfield in the build-up looked soft on first glance and equally so after a number of replays.
Quite how that decision would have gone down if we had been on the receiving end would have been interesting — suffice to say we would be poring over it ad nauseam amid talk of letters of protest being sent to UEFA.
Of course, McTominay’s contribution in front of goal on 84 minutes helped to put concerns at bay, temporarily at least, though his lack of celebration spoke clearly of relief trumping any desire to rejoice.
With the result safely in the bag — or so we thought, before Hleb Kuchko’s goal in squeaky-bum time — Clarke deemed the 88th minute as an appropriate juncture to inject some fresh legs and minds into the Hampden drudgery, with Lyndon Dykes and Lennon Miller entering the fray.
Two minutes for Miller? At 19 years of age and with a wealth of first-team experience at Motherwell and a multi-million pound transfer to Serie A behind him, he is not some callow youth, not to be trusted among the big boys. He is, alongside the likes of Ben Gannon-Doak, the future of the national side. Would he not have been a better, more forward-thinking option in midfield than Kenny McLean — if not from the start then at least after an hour?
Hleb Kuchko slots home a consolation goal for Belarus that set up an extremely nervy finish
It is an eternal frustration in Scottish football that we hold back our youngsters for fear of exposure to ‘men’s football’. Meanwhile, the likes of Greece wonderkid Konstantinos Karetsas are set loose on the road to superstardom at 17.
Can we not dream of showing a little adventure? A little spark? Is our current approach really as good as we can expect it to be? Grind, graft and get lucky — it’s not exactly an inspiring blueprint to follow in the pursuit of greatness.
And certainly, it’s not a recipe that is going to take us to the Greatest Show on Earth next year — unless Lady Luck decides she’s not quite finished with us yet.
