Call-up is just reward for Saints keeper Clark

The Perth aversion was becoming a bit worrying, writes Eric Nicolson.

It was beginning to look like a young Steve Clarke had been dragged around Scone Palace in the school holidays when he had his heart set on skimming stones at Ardrossan beach.

Perhaps that he had hooked a couple of balls into the River Tay when he was all square going down the last hole at King James VI Golf Club.

Or it could just have been he was the latest in a long line of Scotland managers with a blind spot to the merits of footballers who play for St Johnstone.

Make no mistake, in terms of the people who represent and follow the McDiarmid Park club, and their relationship with the national team, a Saint-free squad this time would have been a new and desperate low.

There is a broader point that there was some sort of moral obligation to recognise the historymaking side which won both domestic cups (with a one to 11 of Scots) and has now earned draws away to Galatasaray and LASK, both clubs of impressive recent European pedigree.

And you will not change my opinion that Jason Kerr is one of the form defenders in the country, a better choice for the right-sided centre-back role than Jack Hendry and should have been called up.

But the individual case for Clark was so compelling that to not pick him would have been a flagrant injustice.

I would have said “unfathomable” but given what went before, it would have been entirely in keeping with the chain of events.

First we had Gordon Strachan who thought Jack Hamilton was a better goalkeeper. Then came Alex McLeish and his assistant, Peter Grant.

Back in November 2018, when asked to explain the fact that Kilmarnock’s Jamie MacDonald and Celtic reserve goalie Scott Bain were preferred to the Perth man who had just posted a club record five clean sheets in a row, this was part of Grant’s explanation: “A couple of weeks ago you lose six or seven against Celtic, James Forrest gets four and you are crucifying the goalkeeper.”

It was jaw-dropping stuff at the time and doesn’t read any better now.

Nobody was “crucifying” Clark. Quite the opposite, in fact. Anybody at the game, or who paid it proper attention, would have realised he was Saints’ man of the match and was largely responsible for keeping the scoreline in single figures.

The hope was that Clarke, hired by Scotland after success with Kilmarnock (minor league success compared to St Johnstone’s under Tommy Wright and now Callum Davidson, it should be stressed) would be different. That he would realise big club does not always equal best player.

Had David Marshall not been banished to the fringes at Derby County post-Euro 2020 and had Jon McLaughlin been available, I suspect Clarke would have stuck with his usual goalkeeping three.

But Clark has his chance – hopefully ahead of Liam Kelly as second in line behind Craig Gordon.

And nobody can say that the man who kept a clean sheet in two cup finals, performed superbly in two semi-finals and stood tall when the pressure has been intense at Ibrox, Celtic Park, Istanbul and Klagenfurt in a long period of virtually blemish-free football, has not earned that opportunity.

It’s only a surprise, albeit a very pleasant one, because it’s St Johnstone.

This selection has been long, long overdue. Five years by my maths.

St Johnstone goalkeeper Zander Clark has been named in the Scotland squad.