STEVE CLARKE was last night weighing up a late Euros call-up for Under-21 striker Tommy Conway after Scotland made heavy weather of breaking down minnows Gibraltar.
Second-half goals from Ryan Christie and substitute Che Adams secured a 2-0 win over the nation currently 203rd in the FIFA rankings.
In what was the penultimate warm-up game before facing Germany in the opening match of Euro 2024, the Scots had 24 efforts on goal, but managed just five on target.
As Clarke assessed his options after the loss of QPR striker Lyndon Dykes to injury, Conway grabbed a goal for Scot Gemmill’s Under-21 side in a 2-1 defeat to Turkey last night and, with Ben Doak struggling for fitness, will come under discussion when the coaching staff sit down over the coming days.
‘It was nice that Tommy scored,’ said Clarke. ‘He is a good boy and he is certainly in my mind. I’ve still got to sit down with John (Carver) and James (Morrison) and Austin (MacPhee) and Chris Woods and just have a little chat through and try to come up with something that will help us now going into this tournament.
‘But that’s for tomorrow. Can we replace Lyndon like for like? No. Would it have been a better performance with Lyndon in the team? Probably no, because Gibraltar dealt very, very well with high balls into the box. They defended the box really well.
Tommy Conway wheels away after hitting the opener in Scotland’s Under-21s 2-1 loss in Turkey
Conway celebrates with Dire Mebude and Lewis Fiorini after his opener win Istanbul
Che Adams’ bullet of a strike in Faro has put him in pole position to lead the line in Germany
‘So we just need to find a little bit more craft from certain players on the pitch to unpick that type of defence.’
Conway’s Bristol City club-mate Ross McCrorie made his Scotland debut in an unfamiliar line-up.
Watching the game from the stand of the Estadio Algarve, Clarke expressed concern over yet another injury after defender Liam Cooper limped from the fray 12 minutes from time.
‘I spoke to Liam straight after the game, it looks like a knee on knee collision, sore for a couple of days,’ said Clarke. ‘Fingers crossed it should be fine.
‘Of course I was worried. Every time someone goes down, you get a collision, you stay down.
‘You get some who try to pull the wool over the referee’s eyes but Liam doesn’t stay down very often. I was trying to get a message down — obviously, I watched the game from higher up — to the bench saying any doubt to get him off.’
Clarke was dealt a blow with the injury that ruled out ‘one-of-a-kind’ striker Lyndon Dykes
Ross McCrorie made his debut against Gibraltar as Clarke assesses his right wing-back options
Lawrence Shankland played the entire 90 minutes in Faro but is likely to revert to the bench
Clarke was pleased to secure a first Scotland win since Cyprus last September as Christie’s strike in the 58th minute finally broke the deadlock against a stuffy Gibraltar side.
‘What I would say, and I said this to the lads at half-time, if we want to keep improving as a team when you create that number of chances in the first half, and good chances, you have to score them,’ he continued.
‘That just takes the pressure off. It releases the tension around the place. We created… I stopped counting at six in the first half, what I would count as goal chances.
‘A better ratio would have been two or three at half-time and we can go out and play with a little more freedom in the second half.
‘Maybe we have to be a little bit better from set-plays. We created some chances, but not too much.’
