IMPROVE OR PLAY-OFF PAIN AWAITS SCOTLAND

SCOTLAND’S 3-2 win over Israel last weekend remains the most ludicrous, dramatic, fantastical game we’ve witnessed at Hampden since Robert Duvall turned up with a film crew and a certain Ally McCoist pretending to be a Celtic legend.

That jammy late winner off Lyndon Dykes’ chest or belly or whatever it was in the Faroe Islands a few days later was just the cherry on the gateau.

Now the giddiness has worn off, though, it is time for a spot of reality. Both performances were deeply, deeply flawed. At stages, verging on awful.

Defensively, we looked brittle all the way through the double-header.

The first half against Israel, in particular, hammered home why we must play through midfield and use Billy Gilmour at all costs.

It is unfair to be too critical as it was his first camp, but there is also, clearly, a lot of improving to do with regard to set-pieces under new coach Austin MacPhee.

Scott McTominay taking corners and Dykes taking throw-ins might be the start of something revolutionary, but let’s just concentrate on smoothing out the basics first, please.

It is great to be sitting one win in Moldova away from the World Cup play-offs.

The idea is to try and get through them, though, and performances like those turned

in during last week’s doubleheader simply won’t be good enough. Sorry.