Mcleish job prospects still shaky

● Controversial selections and uninspired play has put manager under increasing scrutiny and Russia’s ruthless demolition of Kazakhstan has not helped his cause

Booed off at half-time, booed off at fulltime. It is a message the Scottish Football Association hierarchy will ignore at its peril. This result wasn’t the one the Tartan Army expected. It was not the response Alex Mcleish needed following the nadir of Nur-sultan.

A goal difference return of minus one fromtwogamesagainstkazakhstanand San Marino, combined world ranking 328, is certainly not what was predicted this time last week when Scotland arrived in central Asia for a double header that was expected to yield six points and goals aplenty.

Mcleish’s job prospects remain shaky. He knows that. He is aware his critics wanted far more than a goal in each half from last night’s game. In addition, another scoreline served to damn him: Kazakhstan 0 Russia 4. Rather than provide relief, the international interlude signals danger to his hopes of remaining in his position. Scotland are not in action again until June.

Mcleish can make the reasonable claim in his defence that Scotland secured their standard result when playing in San Marino. As far back as 1991, when players as talented as Gordon Strachan and Gary Mcalliser were pulling the strings in midfield, Scotland left with a 2-0 win, results replicated in 1995 and 2000.

In nearly 20 years it’s reasonable to expect San Marino have improved while it’s obvious Scotland have regressed. But the Sammarinese are still the last ranked team in the world. Scotland are probably flattered by their ranking of 40 but hopes of a multi-goal victory, particularly having gone ahead so early, did not seem like an absurd demand.

Mcleish’s teamsheet could be viewed as him trolling his detractors. He dropped James Forrest, admittedly poor against Kazakhstan but a hat-trick hero in his last but one appearance for Scotland. He again overlooked Scott Mctominay’s claim for a starting spot, though he may have been suffering the after-effects of a stomach bug that forced him to rush off the park at the final whistle against Kazakhstan.

Perhaps most controversially of all, Mcleish handed the Scotland No 9 role to Callum Paterson, pictured. Now, the fabled properties of said shirt have dimmed somewhat since the days of Joe Jordan. But it’s still tempting to think it means something, that there is still some status attached to it.

Former Welsh international forward Nathan Blake has already claimed that Paterson playing up front for Cardiff City is an insult to the club’s other strikers. While it was an observation intended to say more about them than Paterson, it gets to the nub of the problem with the former Hearts right-back, the position the player himself considers his natural one. Paterson is nothing more than an auxiliary striker, who hasn’t scored a goal since the end of last year. “Callum Paterson is not a centre-forward. No, no, no, no. And no again,” wrote Blake in a column. “The regular strikers on Cardiff’s books need to be taking a hard look at themselves.” Blake’s assessment from earlier this season seems relevant when contemplating the same player being pushed into service at No 9 by his country.

What did it say about forwards Oli Mcburnie, Marc Mcnulty, Oli Burke and Forrest? Perhaps only the first two

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