Welsh woe a painful reminder Scots squandered Qatar opportunity

STEVE CLARKE and some of his Scotland players came across a little salty when they returned from their latest bout of big-game stage fright to kick off the new Nations League campaign in September.

They weren’t enamoured with the reaction to them forgetting to turn up for their

World Cup play-off semi-final with Ukraine in June and missing a winner-takes-all clash with Wales. Clarke saw no worth in dwelling on the past. Watching the Welsh flounder in Qatar now their best two players are past it, though, leaves only one solid conclusion to draw from the summer’s misadventures — missing out the finals was a costly, catastrophic failure.

Clarke remains a worthy manager. He is capable of coaxing fine performances from his squad. Yet, he should be. Scotland have many fine players performing in big leagues and younger reinforcements such as Lewis Ferguson, Aaron Hickey and Josh Doig gaining huge experience in great environments.

Scotland imploded at Hampden against a Ukraine side with six guys who hadn’t played competitively in half a year. Just like they imploded against the Czechs in Euro 2020. The real big games where it’s all on the line.

It can’t continue. They should be doing much better. They should be playing England in Group B on Tuesday night instead of the gang of has-beens and jobbers who did make it. And they must surely feel that themselves.