Croatia 2-1 Scotland: Steve Clarke cut some slack but defeat still hurts

HORRIBLE? Sorry, Steve, but the word doesn’t begin to describe how being a Scotland fan feels this evening.

To deal with this many call-offs, to graft this hard against one of Europe’s best sides, to think we’ve pulled it out of the fire with the very last kick, it was all anyone could have asked of this Scotland side.

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So to have it all snatched away the way it was is as gut-wrenching as it gets.

One second you’re thinking that Che Adams – out of his sick bed to give it a go off the bench – has scuffed home the goal that rescues a point we’d have more than earned.

The next, Dutch VAR-mint Dennis Higler is whispering in Romanian ref Istvan Kovacs’s ear.

And on goes the agony, stretching out to one win in 15 across 13 hellish months.

But you know what?

Maybe this time, the stats can go hang.

Maybe this time, we need to give Clarke and his patchwork side a break from being battered with their rank-rotten record.

Because this time, we saw something close to real Scotland, to the team who stormed to the Euros. This time, we can genuinely say we were due more than we got.

Yes, we let the Croats back into the game just three minutes after Ryan Christie had put us ahead.

Yes, we could have done more to prevent what turned out to be the winner.

Yes, it’s now four defeats on the spin and no Nations League points out of nine.

For me, though, there were enough positives here to cut manager and players alike some slack – even if, for sure, they flew home under even more pressure to turn things around.

The biggest positive of all? No question, that was the breath of fresh air who is 18-year-old Ben Doak, as quick and tricky and direct a winger as £75million Manchester City left-back Josko Gvardiol will have faced in a long time.

It was Doak who set the tone for us being on the front foot in the first half and it was he who set up Christie for our opener just after the half hour.

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On a night when more experienced men around him took 20 minutes to realise this game was there for the taking, Doak grabbed it by the scruff from the off.

Inside ten minutes, he was robbing £75 million Manchester City left-back Josko Gvardiol and turning on the afterburners before aiming a cutback at Billy Gilmour that was cut out and cleared.

Soon after, the rookie picked up a loose ball 25 yards from his own goal, weaved through dark blue chequered shirts to drag us up the pitch and forced Mario Pasalic to take a yellow for rapping him on the shins.

Then, on 32, Doak caused chaos in the Croatian back line as Clarke’s men took a lead no one could say they didn’t deserve.

Scott McTominay strode over halfway, fed a ball wide to the right and next thing the 18-year-old was cutting past Gvardiol and onto his left foot for a curling cross that Luka Susic sclaffed into the path of Christie for a low drive that Duje Caleta-Car helped over the line.

High up behind the goal, the 2,000 or so Tartan Army troops – scattered around the tumbledown away end of what isn’t so much a national stadium as it is a demolition project waiting to happen – bounced up and down, loving what they were seeing.

It was a fervour that would be dampened again in the blink of an eye.

A switch of play from left to right, veteran wide man Ivan Perisic got behind Andy Robertson and when he produced a reverse pass, Igor Matanovic’s shot went through the lunging John Souttar’s legs on its way in low to Craig Gordon’s right.

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Now was the test for Clarke’s men, who’d led in Lisbon last time out only to run out of puff and lose in the final two minutes.

The manager had spoken on Friday night about the little details that had cost us their and in the last-gasp 3-2 home defeat to Poland before it, about how we’d have to learn from our mistakes and grow as a team.

Once, twice, three times early in the second half the Croats came on strong, the 41-year-old Gordon diving low and left to push away Matanovic’s long-range effort, then clawing away when Luka Modric curled for his far top corner before bravely punching away a cross that swung into a crowd scene from the right.

Next, Modric was skipping away from McTominay to arrow right-footed across Gordon’s diving frame wide of the far post. Bit by bit, the pressure was beginning to crank. Minute by minute, Clarke’s patchwork side were being tested more and more.

With 70 minutes on the clock, we caved.

Perisic crossed deep from the right for Borna Sosa to unleash a ferocious left-foot volley that Gordon did brilliantly to keep out – but the same can’t be said for Hanley, who was a statue on the line as the ball bounced up for Andre Kramaric to loop the simplest of headers over him and in.

It was such a cheap way to go behind. Yet it was also a moment summed up this run we’re on.

But not quite as much as what unfolded deep into stoppage time.

Robertson’s cutback, a scramble, a bobble and Adams – left out from the off because of illness – wheeled away in delight after somehow pushing the half-chance home.

Our luck was changing at last. Or so we thought, until Kovacs made ‘the sign’ that took the goal away and followed up with the final whistle.

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