Painful night at Hampden as Scots fail to find mojo against Irish
Clarke’s men slump to seventh game without a win after toothless display
SCOTLAND will go into their final Euro 2024 warm-up matches against Gibraltar and Finland in June on the back of a sevengame winless run after crashing to a 1-0 defeat to Northern Ireland at Hampden last night.
The national team dominated the friendly match from kick-off, but they failed, unlike in their encounter with the Netherlands in Amsterdam on Friday night, to create any clear cut scoring opportunities.
They paid the price for that costly failing in the 32nd minute when rivals who had barely been out of their own half up until that point broke the deadlock against the run of play.
Nathan Patterson gave the ball away needlessly and carelessly inside his own penalty box and Conor Bradley capitalised on his error. That strike was all that separated the two teams when the final whistle blew.
The losses to England, Spain, France and the Netherlands were perhaps understandable given the calibre of opponent. As were the draws with Georgia and Norway in meaningless qualifiers. But this display and result were both woeful.
As the game neared its conclusion, the Northern Ireland fans in the crowd chanted, “You’re going to the Euros, you’re having a laugh”. It was no laughing matter for their Scotland counterparts. There were boos at the end of the game.
Here are five talking points from a desperately disappointing night for Steve Clarke’s men.
Lawrence Shankland’s form up front for Hearts this term – he has been on target 27 times for his club – has led to calls from many Tartan Army footsoldiers for the striker to be brought in to lead the line for his country.
Have they forgotten about Lyndon Dykes’ heroics for Scotland up front in the games against England, Austria, the Faroe Islands, Israel, Ukraine and Norway? The Queens Park Rangers forward might not have been as prolific as his compatriot in recent months. But he can still be a highly effective weapon in attack.
The Australian-born player, who did not get on the field over in Amsterdam, was given the chance to show what he was capable of. Unfortunately, for the 6ft 2in target man, he received next to no service from his team-mates.
He nodded an Angus Gunn clearance down to substitute Lewis Ferguson shortly before half-time. But that was about his only significant contribution. He was replaced by Che Adams with 20 minutes remaining. The substitute fared no better.
If, and it is a big if given that he has been sidelined with a hamstring injury since way back in October, Aaron Hickey is fit when the Euros roll around this summer then he will start for Scotland at right-back.
But should the Brentford defender, who Clarke is hopeful will return to training in the coming weeks, not be available then Patterson will be given the nod.
The former Rangers youngster will have to perform far better than he did in this double header for the national team to have any chance of making it through to the knockout rounds of a major tournament for the first time in their history.
He passed the ball straight to Bradley inside his own area before the Liverpool youngster fired, with a little help of a deflection off of Jack Hendry’s outstretched leg, into the top corner. He then allowed the visitors to launch a counter after under hitting a pass to Billy Gilmour.
The 22-year-old has had some exceptional games for Scotland in the past and is far better than this. But he has not featured much for Everton in recent weeks. He needs to get back to his best with his club in the coming months.
Robbo blow
Scotland’s hopes of staging a comeback suffered a serious setback when captain Andy Robertson limped off injured after twisting his ankle following a challenge by Trai Hume. He was replaced by Ferguson as Clarke switched from a 3-4-2-1 formation to a 4-2-3-1 set-up.
The left wing-back returned from the shoulder injury he suffered against Spain in Seville in November back at the end of January and has enjoyed a good run of games for Liverpool since. It is to be hoped the problem that forced him to leave the field is not too serious.
Cooper chance
The only other change that Clarke made was at centre-half – he brought in Liam Cooper of Leeds United for Ryan Porteous of Hibernian in the middle of his back three.
Cooper has won just 17 caps since making his debut for his adopted homeland in a 2-1 defeat to Russia ion Euro 2020 qualifier at Hampden back in 2019.
He has been unfortunate that he has such stiff competition for a start – he has vied for a dark blue jersey with the likes of Grant Hanley, Hendry, Scott McKenna, Scott McTominay, Porteous and Kieran Tierney in the past five years.
But the 31-year-old is still a vastly experienced defender who will not be overawed if he was given the nod to face Germany, Switzerland or Hungary in the Group A games in June. He was not to blame for the Bradley goal and did his cause no harm with an assured personal showing.
Be afraid
The final scoreline against the Netherlands last week was harsh on Scotland – they had dominated the opening hour of the match in the Johan Cruyff Arena and conceded three late goals after Clarke had made six changes.
But this was cause for concern. The fact that Northern Ireland goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell was not seriously tested during the course of the 90 minutes was alarming.
Clarke took off Billy Gilmour, Ryan Christie and John McGinn and put on Kenny McLean, Shankland and Stuart Armstrong in the closing stages. Shankland had a shot blocked by Brodie Spencer. But the changes made little difference against their ultra-defensive opponents.
Clarke has to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it before Scotland play Gibraltar in Portugal in June.