Scotland manager Steve Clarke: let’s make sure we don’t trip ourselves up now

Manager Steve Clarke is aware of those precedents and he and his players are determined that history will not repeat itself next week.

“As a manager you want to be involved in games that are meaningful and these two games are certainly meaningful in the context of qualification for a major tournament,” he said. “Up until now it’s been a decent campaign but we have to make sure we finish it off properly. There’s always a little bit in the back of my mind that keeps saying: ‘Yeah, but we’re Scotland!’.

“It’s always there. And we have to be mindful of the fact that we have had various squads down the years that have been in similar situations and have managed to trip themselves up. We have to make sure it doesn’t happen to us. Andy Robertson has mentioned Georgia a couple of times: that’s probably the most recent one. So we’re mindful of the fact that we can still trip up. We’re going to treat Moldova and Denmark with equal respect and try to get the points that we need, first and foremost to qualify.

“The second part is to get enough points to be seeded for the play-offs. We want to do that as soon as we can. Obviously, we don’t know the points tally we’re going to need to secure second place but if we come out of Moldova with 20 points then we’ll be there. That means it’s in our own hands.

“Since we lost to Denmark in Copenhagen, for me every game has been a step on the road to Qatar. Every game has been a must-win. We’ve won four in a row and now we need to make it five in Moldova. If we do that we’ll have a play-off secured and can approach the Danish game with a little bit of freedom and, hopefully, get something from that to give us a seeding. So every game is tough, they are all big games.”

As tends to happen when teams are successful, there have been no call-offs for Clarke to fret over, although some of his selections have not been playing regularly for their clubs. Billy Gilmour, on loan to Norwich City from Chelsea, has become a peripheral figure at the Premier League’s bottom club while Rangers right-back Nathan Patterson has frequently been sidelined, starting only four of their 21 games this season.

“I think the two young ones, they just want to play football as often as possible,” Clarke said. “So if they’re coming away with us they know they’re going to get game time, they’re going to be excited, no matter what’s going on at their clubs.

“Obviously, when they’re at their clubs, they still have to work hard in training. They still have to try and impress the manager, they still have to do as well as they can when they do get minutes on the pitch. So far it doesn’t seem to have affected their performances for Scotland, so long may that continue.

“Billy hasn’t played since the last two Scotland games and that’s only three weeks ago. It’s not as if it’s a massive gap. If you were going from the December camp to the March camp and they weren’t playing, then that’s a different story.”

Of course, Scotland having an opportunity of reaching their first World Cup finals for 23 years is another reason to be cheerful.

“We can see they genuinely enjoy being with the squad,” Clarke said of the atmosphere. “Obviously, there’s also the continuity, which I like. It does help that you’re picking and meeting up with the same people.

“That’s one of the things I picked up on quite early when I came in, that there were always a lot of changes. Players being players, if they don’t really know somebody then they don’t communicate with them, they don’t get together, they don’t sit together. Now, though, we’ve got a group of players who you see mixing all the time with different people. That’s good for us and good for them as well.”

Scotland squad

Goalkeepers: Zander Clark (St Johnstone), Craig Gordon (Hearts), Jon McLaughlin (Rangers)

Defenders: Liam Cooper (Leeds United), Grant Hanley (Norwich City), Jack Hendry (Club Brugge), Scott McKenna (Nottingham Forrest), Stephen O’Donnell (Motherwell), Nathan Patterson (Rangers), Andy Robertson (Liverpool), Kieran Tierney (Arsenal)

Midfielders: Stuart Armstrong (Southampton), Lewis Ferguson (Aberdeen), Billy Gilmour (Norwich City, on loan from Chelsea), John McGinn (Aston Villa), Callum McGregor (Celtic), Kenny McLean (Norwich City), Scott McTominay (Man Utd), David Turnbull (Celtic)

Forwards: Ché Adams (Southampton), Jacob Brown (Stoke City), Ryan Christie (Bournemouth), Lyndon Dykes (Queens Park Rangers), Ryan Fraser (Newcastle United), Kevin Nisbet (Hibernian)

‘Smith always left you with a smile’

Scotland manager Steve Clarke has paid a personal tribute to Walter Smith, one of his predecessors in the post, before his funeral. Former Rangers and Everton manager Smith died, aged 73, last week after a long illness.

Clarke’s relationship with Smith, who also briefly served as Rangers’ chairman, stretches back almost four decades — when Clarke was a full back with St Mirren and Smith was assistant to Jim McLean at Dundee United during the most successful era in their history — and, like most people within football, he has nothing but fond memories of him.

“Obviously, I’m sad for Walter’s family, first and foremost,” he said. “He’s not someone I came across very often in the game but any time I did I found him to be a really good man. He always had a great sense of humour and was insightful, offering good advice at the right times.

“Any time you bumped into Walter, he always had time for a good conversation and he’d always leave you with a smile on his face. He was a good man and he’ll be sadly missed.”