A HIGH FIVE FOR SCOTS!
Winning run puts Tartan Army into play-offs
STEVE CLARKE urged Scotland to take advantage of their World Cup finals chance – as they made it high fives and clinched a play-off place.
The Tartan Army grabbed a fifth victory in a row to secure second place in Group F and seal their best run of wins in competitive games for 26 years.
A year to the day since beating Serbia to qualify for the Euro finals, scorers Nathan Patterson and John McGinn were excellent.
And once again Chelsea’s
Billy Gilmour ran the show, begging the question why he is warming the bench for struggling Norwich.
It sets up a semi-final and final next year, chasing one of three qualifying spots against 11 other nations.
Scotland boss
Clarke said:
“The team has developed well. The campaign is not finished. We will look ahead at the play-offs in March after Denmark on Monday.
“This was a good performance. We were aggressive going forward, lots of shots but only two goals. But we are pleased to finish second in the group.
“We are still on track. It is nice to win games. To win five in a row is difficult at any level. We put ourselves in a position where we had to win them.” Patterson broke the deadlock after a dominant 39 minutes, netting his first for Scotland.
McGinn laid off inside the box allowing the Rangers’ rightback to drill home from 12 yards.
Patterson, aged just 20 and 27 days, is the youngest Scottish scorer since Darren Fletcher (then 19) 18 years ago. And he is the first Rangers players to score for Scotland for a decade.
Scotland’s second was created by another touch of genius from Aston Villa midfielder McGinn, who nutmegged his marker with a backheel and sent the overlapping Patterson to the goal-line.
The youngster added an assist to his earlier goal, crossing for Southampton striker Che Adams to smash home at the back post.
Patterson dented his performance with a daft handball on 80 minutes, conceding a penalty. But keeper Craig Gordon made his second brilliant save of the game to deny Vadim Rata, aided by Kieran Tierney superbly clearing the rebound. Patterson said: “I am buzzing. We said if we got an early goal we would settle then kill them off with a second.
“Hopefully we can now go on and get the results we need to get to Qatar.”
They now want a good result against Denmark on Monday for top seeding, and a home semi-final.