Scotland’s fightback in vain as Poland snatch win with last gasp penalty

IT was a result to drive you up the Pole.

A night that went from misery to pride and then back again.

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Steve Clarke’s Scotland looked like they’d battled back from two goals down to earn a deserved draw at Hampden.

But incredibly a third goal FIVE MINUTES into stoppage time saw the visitors celebrate.

New Napoli boys Billy Gilmour and Scott McTominay levelled this Nations League clash with superb second-half strikes.

And with teen sensation Ben Doak brought on to make his international debut anything seemed possible.

But in the end the Tartan Army trudged off into the night wondering what might have been.

The supporters would have cursed the Swedish referee for awarding Poland two spot-kicks but the whistler got them right.

They were bad mistakes by defenders Tony Ralston and Grant Hanley and they both knew it.

The fans may even have asked why Clarke didn’t make changes sooner.

But it still felt like an injustice for this team to lose again and take their run to just one win in 13.

The last thing Clarke needed was to see his side concede a goal inside the first ten minutes.

Especially one so cheap and easy.

Gilmour and Kenny McLean were primarily in the team to be the two-man protective shield in front of the back four.

But they combined to lose possession and were made to pay for it.

McLean played a poor pass that asked too much of Gilmour who was bundled over and robbed.

The Norwich midfielder tried to salvage the situation with a sliding tackle, but was nowhere near it.

Sebastian Szymanski still had plenty to do to beat Angus Gunn from 25 yards. Or so it seemed.

Unfortunately the Fenerbahce star fired off a shot that the Scotland No1 couldn’t stop.

Okay, it went on off the post.

But Gunn will surely feel he could have done more to prevent the Poles from taking the lead.

It wasn’t quite as bad as the opener he conceded against Germany in Munich in the miserable Euros curtain-raiser back in June.

But it’s the kind of shot Scotland goalkeepers just have to save if the team’s to be successful.

There and then it felt like it was going to be a long old night.

In fairness, Clarke’s side did show signs of responding at that stage.

McTominay played off striker Lyndon Dykes and the new Napoli signing lacked nothing in terms of effort of commitment to the role.

It looked like he’d made it 1-1 in 23 minutes.

But a VAR check, after he bundled a free-kick into the net, showed he’d used his right hand to control the ball.

It pretty much summed it all up.

McTominay had another big chance in 36 minutes but chose to pick out a team-mate after bursting into the box when he should just have smashed a shot on target and hoped for the best.

Dykes then missed an even better opportunity at the back post when he sliced his shot into the side-netting.

John McGinn was waiting for a tap-in right in front of goal.

But Dykes couldn’t be blamed for taking the volley on. He just had to do better when he did.

Scotland can’t afford to pass up those kind of chances at home to teams like Poland.

Yet no-one could say Clarke’s side were playing dreadfully at that point. They weren’t.

Had any of those chances gone in then it would have been game on again. But how many times have we said that about Scotland games down the years? 

Clarke stood out on the touchline all night and his frustrations was there for all to see.

But it was to get even worse with Tony Ralston conceding a penalty just a couple of minutes before the half-time break.

The Celtic squad man was actually having a decent game at right-back. 

But there was absolutely no question that he tripped attacker Nicola Zalewski as he burst into the box.

Up stepped Lewandowski to make it 2-0.

As the half-time whistle blew there were boos from a section for the Tartan Army and they must have been expecting changes before the second-half kicked off.

But Clarke knew better.

Whether it was through faith of stubbornness, he kept with his starting line-up – and within just 20 seconds was rewarded.

Gilmour doesn’t score many goals but his strike here gave new hope to a match that seemed lost.

Suddenly the Scotland support was back up on its feet and roaring the team on again.

For the next ten minutes, though, it was Poland who were the better team.

Szymanski was inches away from scoring again with a tremendous curling effort from outside the box.

It was then that Clarke started to look at his bench and tell his substitutes to warm-up.

Finally, in 67 minutes Lawrence Shankland, Ryan Gauld and Ben Doak were all shouted over by assistant boss John Carver and told to get stripped.

Dykes, McLean and Ryan Christie were the three men sacrificed for the final 20 minutes.

And soon Scotland were level.

Doak combined with Ralston down the right with a ball flashed across goal for McTominay to sweep into the net.

It was just the impact Clarke hoped the young Liverpool kid could have.

Suddenly the home support were believing comeback victory was on its way.

An ugly collision between Doak and Ralston looked worrying for a minute or two as both players required treatment.

But there was worse pain to come.

In the fifth minute of stoppage time Hanley’s trip on Zalewski saw the Poles awarded another penalty and again there was no debate.

Up stepped the same player to slam past Gunn to nick the victory.

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