SORE POINT
Scots toil to another draw — but Clarke is keeping faith
STEVE Clarke insists Scotland can still plot a route to the World Cup finals despite last night’s failure to win in Israel.
A 1-1 draw in Tel Aviv leaves the Scots, who fought back from a goal down, with just two points from their opening two Group F fixtures.
With Denmark flying at the top of the table and Austria recovering from the loss of a shock early goal to beat the Faroe Islands last night, Clarke’s men are already adrift — although they will surely beat the Faroese at Hampden on Wednesday.
Clarke said: ‘I can’t foresee the future. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. I know Austria play Denmark
in midweek so one or both of them will drop points.
‘We have to pick up three points against the Faroes at home — and then the group’s open again.
‘It’s two points from two games. Let’s see what happens later in the group.’
Three days on from producing late dramatics to bag a 2-2 draw at home to Austria, Scotland again had to come from behind in Israel.
Hailing his team for their spirited second-half fightback, Clarke — who switched from his favoured back three to a flat back four at the interval — said: ‘At half-time, you make the change you think can affect the game.
‘I think it did affect the game. What you say to the players is you’re losing 1-0, we’ve lost the last twice we were here.
‘So we asked the players to step up, show a little bit of character and get something out of the game That’s what they did. So credit to the players.
‘I would be disappointed (with the result). We didn’t start well, got better control after making a slight tweak approaching half-time.
‘I made the changes at half-time but it was disappointing to lose the goal just before the break.
‘This group showed character, as they always do, we were really good in the second half.
‘With a bit of luck, we could have got everything. But it’s another point on the road we want to go on.
‘There were times in the first half when it was too easy for the Israelis to get out the opposite side. Normally we work the press quite well. Credit to Israel, they got out, caused us a few problems with the width,
‘When we made the switch to a more flat back four, we occupied the pitch better, controlled the game better.
‘If we could have got to half-time, maybe we could have won it in the second half. But we take the point and move on.’
Che Adams marked his first start for Scotland with an assist for Ryan Fraser’s equaliser before being replaced by Lyndon Dykes late in the game, with Clarke saying: ‘Che did well. He was good.
‘It’s obviously a different type and level of football, difficult to make a first start, I’d imagine.
‘He did really well on the goal. I just spoke to him there and he’s a bit disappointed he didn’t get one himself.’
Goalscorer Fraser insists that Scotland can take heart from their second-half display.
The Newcastle winger squared the match 11 minutes after the restart as Clarke’s men shrugged off their poor start in Tel Aviv.
Adamant the improved performance is something to build on, Fraser said: ‘We were a lot better in the second half. We took a little while to get going in the first half.
‘I thought when we got to grips with them in the second half, we dominated the game and should have won in the end.
‘We have been beaten here on our last two visits, so to come away with a point is okay.
‘There are still a lot of points to play for and now we just need to make sure we win the Faroes game.’
As against Austria, Clarke’s side took some time to get to grip with the challenge.
Fraser added: ‘I thought we maybe got our press wrong at times and sometimes it doesn’t go the way you plan it to go.
‘I think we showed character and at half-time the manager said we needed to stand up and do a lot better.
‘I thought we did that man for man. We could have gone into our shell at 1-0 but we came out fighting.
‘I thought some of our passages of play were brilliant and we had 12 shots.
‘Our final ball could have been better but we did a lot better after the break.’
Reflecting on his third goal in Dark Blue, Fraser said: ‘I love coming away with Scotland and you can’t get the smile off your face.
‘To score another goal is really pleasing but we wanted the win tonight and I would have given away my goal for the win.’