Scotland edged past Belarus 2-1 at Hampden Park to take another step toward World Cup 2026 qualification, but head coach Steve Clarke was left far from satisfied despite the result.
Goals from Che Adams and Scott McTominay secured all three points for the hosts, yet a late strike from Gleb Kuchko ensured a nervy finish and prompted a scathing post-match assessment from Clarke.
“Performances don’t get you qualification. If you’d said at the start of this camp we’d come out with six points, everyone would’ve been really happy,” the Scotland boss began.
“But, I have to be honest, tonight I was really, really disappointed in my team. I don’t think we got anywhere near the levels we can reach and that was really disappointing.”
The home side started brightly, with Adams firing in the opener after 15 minutes following Jack Hendry’s neat assist.
Scotland dominated large spells of the first half, and McTominay’s late strike in the 84th minute appeared to have sealed the victory before Belarus struck deep into stoppage time.
“I’m going to have to have a good look at the two games. The first game, we dug in when it wasn’t going our way. Tonight, the game was far too open and we didn’t control the game without the ball, and we weren’t good enough with the ball. Both sides of the ball were wrong tonight,” Clarke admitted.
Scotland’s performance dipped notably after McTominay’s goal, with the visitors capitalising on loose defending to pull one back in the final moments. The lapse denied the hosts what should have been a comfortable conclusion and left Clarke questioning his side’s concentration.
“We’ve come out with the three points, so that’s one small crumb of comfort but the rest of it is a bit of a headscratcher [as to] why we were so poor,” he continued.
“We wanted to go and see the game out, and we put Lennon [Miller] and Kieron [Bowie] on to have a little feel for it. Ultimately, we shouldn’t be conceding goals in injury time because that makes it even more disappointing.”
Kuchko’s goal, arriving six minutes into stoppage time, reignited Belarus’s hopes and turned what had seemed a routine evening into a nervy finale. Clarke was candid about the defensive errors that led to the goal, calling for immediate improvement.
“We gave away a goal that we shouldn’t give away and we have to defend better,” he said bluntly.
