Scotland 1 Iceland 3: It's a Hampden horror show for Steve Clarke as end-of-season friendly falls flat
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The scenes of celebration which so many of Steve Clarke’s players have been central to across the past three weeks have been nothing short of staggering.
Across England, Italy and Austria, silverware has been raised, ticker tape has exploded from cannons and glasses have been charged. Scott McTominay even tripped the light fantastic following Napoli’s stunning Serie A triumph.
Frankly, had any of those concerned seen a couple of end of season international friendlies far enough, it would have been hard to wave a finger of condemnation. Kudos to them all then, for not taking the easy option.
The lingering fear, of course, was that those who’d recently scaled such dizzying heights would experience some sort of adrenaline crash. And so, it proved.
While we can’t lay the entire blame for this dismal show on the boogie, it was hard to escape the feeling that a little overindulgence may have had something to do with it. To say that some of the star men in Clarke’s side looked a little jaded would be putting it mildly.
It was not, truthfully, a night that many in Dark Blue will recall with much fondness.
For Cieran Slicker, a third-choice keeper with Ipswich Town, it was an international debut to forget.
Thrown on early as a replacement for the stricken Angus Gunn, he was at fault for each of Iceland’s three goals. You would need a heart of stone not to have felt some sympathy with him.
He was not the only man for whom sleep would not have come easy. So many of the stellar names just didn’t perform.
Having turned up to the camp, there was no question of Clarke not starting those who’d enjoyed such outstanding ends to their club campaigns.
Fresh from Liverpool’s title win, Andy Robertson played at left wing-back as Clarke reverted to a back-five for the first time since facing Hungary at the Euros. Max Johnston, a title winner with Sturm Graz, played on the right.
Scudetto winning Billy Gilmour sat at the base of the diamond with Napoli team-mate McTominay playing more advanced beside Lewis Ferguson, the man who skippered Bologna to the Coppa Italia.
Johnson, who provided an assist, and Robertson, may have scraped pass marks. But Gilmour and Ferguson just couldn’t get going. As for McTominay? He looked like his mind was still on an open top bus in Naples.
The upshot was a disjointed and ragged display. Scotland lacked cohesion and rhythm. They looked vulnerable at the back and punchless in the final third.
It said much that their only response came via a set-piece as John Souttar headed an equaliser. They could offer no complaints.
Clarke spoke on Thursday about how he and Gordon Strachan had recently tried to get to the bottom of Scotland’s wretched record in friendlies. Neither the current or former national team manager could come up with an answer.
It’s a pretty staggering sequence of failure. Prior to this affair, Scotland had won just three of the past 21 friendlies they’d participated in.
Those victories all came on the road - in Hungary, Luxembourg and against Gibraltar in the Algarve.
You had to go back to March 29, 2016, for the last such victory at Hampden. Matt Ritchie scored against Denmark that night in front of 18,385.
Within eight minutes, you feared this was going to be another one of those bleak nights.
Gunn really can’t buy a break now. Having spent much of this season injured, he was freed by Norwich and turned up at the Scotland camp as an unattached player.
If he thought he was due a change of fortune, he was badly mistaken. With Iceland’s first surge up the field, he took a dull one from Andri Gudjohnsen and fell to the turf. Seemingly hurt by his awkward fall, he signalled that he couldn’t continue.
Slicker couldn’t have envisaged his international career starting like this. Although you had to cut the Ipswich man some slack for being suddenly thrust into the action after just nine minutes of club football at Portman Road this term, his first involvement was the stuff of nightmares.
A weak kick up the park only went as far as Stefan Thordarson who nodded the ball forward. Gudjohnsen gathered it on his right foot and worked it onto his left.
An outstanding finish from 20 yards was one his famous father Eidur would have approved of.
Slicker looked shaken. His next clearance also found a white shirt. The one that followed went straight out of play.
The keeper was also unconvincing in preventing Jon Thorsteinsson claiming Iceland’s second.
But it wasn’t as if anyone else in the side was faring much better. Scotland were all over the place.
The one moment of hope came when John McGinn chipped the ball to the far post. George Hirst had the goal gaping yet somehow headed over.
The Ipswich forward did much better moments later, though, with a strike that would have found the top corner had Elias Olafsson not stretched out his arm.
It would be wrong to suggest the equaliser had been coming. With the Scots struggling to create anything from open play, a set-piece was their best hope.
The delivery from Johnston’s corner was terrific. Souttar was going away from goal yet managed to get enough purchase on his header to take it past the keeper.
Any small positives Clarke may have taken from a marginally better display in the next 20 minutes were washed away by another moment of calamity on the cusp of half-time.
Albert Gudmundsson’s corner could have been claimed by any one of five Scotland players, yet no one took command of the situation.
The ball bounced off Grant Hanley then ricocheted off Ferguson and started moving towards the target. Slicker ought to have saved it but jumped over the ball. It was a ghastly goal to concede.
There was just no end to the keeper’s misery. Seven minutes after the re-start, Victor Palsson got his head on Gudmundsson’s free-kick. It was a tame effort. Slicker threw up his arms. Somehow the ball evaded him.
As this point, Clarke must have been tempted to take him off for his own good. It was painful to watch.
It was a night of precious few positives. Lennon Miller earned his first cap from the bench.
Hirst was probably the main plus point, denied a first Scotland goal first by another excellent reflex save by Olafsson then by a VAR awarded offside. Beyond that, perhaps the less said the better.
