SCOTS SUMMON SECRET WEAPON
Having Sir Alex back in the stands is ideal inspiration for team
SCOTLAND’s past meets scotland’s future this evening. And any inspiration the new generation can draw from the feats of the old would do no harm in the quest to secure a place in the World Cup play-offs.
Three years since his near fatal brain haemorrhage, sir Alex Ferguson returns to the arena where his playing career began at Queen’s Park. Part of a youthful scotland XI who toured Asia and Oceania in 1967, there were no caps awarded for games against Israel, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand’s Under-23 team, a Vancouver XI or Canada back in the day. Tonight the sFA will put that right.
After six games in three years, there isn’t much scotland can do to surprise Israel these days. Handing a legendary manager a cap on the pitch for a game he played in Tel Aviv 53 years ago just might do the trick.
If that doesn’t work there is always Nathan Patterson and Billy Gilmour. When scotland drew 1-1 on an unsatisfying night in Israel in March, neither player had a cap to their name. Two of the most exciting talents to emerge in some time, both will start at Hampden tonight.
No stranger to throwing in the kids, sir Alex will watch from the south stand, nodding his approval.
‘It will be nice for the scottish public to see sir Alex,’ says Clarke. ‘Obviously he has had his time as a World Cup manager, in sad circumstances, when he took the team to Mexico in 1986. so it will be nice to see him.
‘I have bumped into him already a couple of times this season. It is always nice to catch up and hear his thoughts and it will be great for the scottish public to give him the ovation and the acclaim he deserves.
‘He is very, very supportive of the country. He is always positive about scotland. I always have nice, positive conversations with sir Alex. so it’s great that he will be there to get that cap from such a long time ago. I’m sure he will get a fantastic ovation and it is richly deserved.’
Even Ferguson found the task of leading scotland to victory against Israel a bind. In January 1986, three months after the untimely death of Jock stein, the former Aberdeen boss took charge of the national team for a friendly in Tel Aviv. A warm-up game for the World Cup finals in Mexico, a Paul Mcstay goal earned the scots a narrow 1-0 win. And the two teams have been cancelling each other out ever since.
since 2018, 20 per cent of the fixtures played by scotland’s national team have come against Israel. Only one — a 3-2 win under Alex McLeish — has ended in outright victory. The other triumph came via a penalty shoot-out in a Nations League play-off semi-final.
To call Gilmour (pictured) and Patterson secret weapons in the search for a breakthrough would be pushing it. Yet neither have played against Israel before and Clarke will start both tonight in the quest to bring some freshness to a fixture growing stale.
‘Israel will have watched Nathan play for us and watched Billy for us,’ says the scotland boss. ‘I’m sure they do their homework as diligently as we do ours.
‘But it’s nice because I feel we keep evolving. You talk about bringing in the younger ones and that just helps to keep the squad evolving.
‘The core of the squad are picking up more and more caps. The younger ones are picking up more and more caps and we are just growing as a team.
‘If we want to keep growing, then a good, positive result against Israel will help us grow even more after the fine performance and result away in Vienna last month.’
Remarkably, scotland have only finished second in a World Cup qualifying group twice before.
In 1990 and 1998, a runner-up spot guaranteed qualification for the finals themselves.
These days it brings the additional hurdles of play-offs, with runaway group leaders Denmark set to qualify outright.
‘somebody said we still have only a 13-per-cent chance of qualifying for the World Cup,’ adds Clarke. ‘That shows you how difficult it is for a country like ourselves to come out of this section. But we were looking at a 22-per-cent
He’s always positive about Scotland. It will be great to see him again
chance before the Austria game of claiming second position and now we are up to 60 per cent. ‘We need to make sure now that we build on the two results we got last month that gave us the six points and put us into a position to control second place. We need to cement that against Israel.’ After the Covid disruption and call-offs of the triple header last month, Clarke has a full squad to pick from tonight. ‘We have had a clear week to lead into the game, so it’s nice to give the lads a nice recovery at the start of the week followed by three good days training on the pitch,’ adds Clarke.
‘There has been lots of information for them and hopefully they take it on board and we get the result that we need.
‘I think both ourselves and Israel, even in my time, have improved in equal measure. We are a Pot Three team trying to become Pot Two and they are Pot Four definitely trying to become a Pot Three team. They have dangerous forwards, good organisation and we expect another tough game.
‘There is no way you can look at it and say they are not a good team because anybody who has watched them play will know that.
‘And anybody who has watched us will also know we are a good team.
‘so, a good game between two good teams — and we want the win.’