BACK ON TRACK

Clarke thanks ‘realistic’ fans for sticking by national team

STEVE CLARKE praised Scotland’s “realistic” fans for backing the team all the way through a tough period. The national team have suffered a mixed bag of results in the series of international fixtures this month.

Most disappointingly, Scotland lost out to Ukraine in the World Cup play-offs as the team blew their chance of a spot at the showpiece tournament in Qatar this year.

Clarke’s charges were then put to the sword thanks to a terrible performance against Ireland in Dublin as they slipped to a 3-0 defeat.

Two wins against Armenia – including last night’s 4-1 victory – leaves Scotland in a strong position in their Nations League group. But that has not stopped a huge wave of critic-ism coming the team and Clarke’s way as the mood surrounding the national team has shifted and the feel-good factor has evaporated.

Clarke knows failure to qualify for the World Cup is not good enough, but he was grateful to a section of the supporters for sticking by his men.

He said: “The realistic fans are fantastic. The people who come over here, I’ve got nothing but praise for them. I’m glad they saw a good performance.

“But the realistic fans know what we’re doing and what we’re trying to do. The rest of it is outwith our control.

“It was a difficult schedule for the players but we haven’t made excuses. There are no excuses for the two games we lost.

“Two wins against Armenia are not going to make this international camp a good camp because it wasn’t.

“We failed in our primary objective which was to get to the World Cup. We failed in that.

“We had a really bad performance in Dublin, which put us on the back foot again. So it’s nice to bounce back tonight but there’s work to do.

“It was a game we wanted to win, it was a game we probably had to win, although not necessarily if you look at it mathematically.

“It puts us in a position where we can go to September and have a realistic chance of topping the group and that’s what we wanted.”

Scotland seal win over Armenia in Nations League