Scotland booed off the pitch after a woeful home defeat against Northern Ireland
Scotland were booed off the pitch at Hampden on Tuesday night after crashing to a woeful home defeat against Northern Ireland.
Steve Clarke’s side have now gone seven games without a win and also suffered an injury scare when skipper Andy Robertson hobbled off in the first half.
Liverpool wing-back Conor Bradley struck the only goal of the game to secure victory for a Northern Ireland side ranked 74th in the world.
Scotland are now facing a crisis of confidence ahead of the Euros in Germany after a performance which was flat and unimpressive throughout.
Afterwards, Clarke couldn’t shed more light on the extent of Robertson’s injury, saying: ‘We’ll assess him. He’ll go back to his club and they’ll assess him. Hopefully he’s back soon.’
On the game itself, the Scotland boss added: ‘Northern Ireland did everything we expected them to do. They defended with their lives. They were good, we weren’t quite good enough to break them down.
‘I think a lot of the players tried to grab the game by the scruff of their neck. We just didn’t create the clean cut chance that would have got us back in the game. We huffed and puffed a bit, but it wasn’t our night.
‘It’s obviously better if you’re winning, but the key is to peak in June, not March. Hopefully we peak in June.
‘It’s been a long time since we’ve had as much possession as that. I’d be very surprised if we have a game like that in the finals in the summer.
‘We had chances. You can’t criticise them for trying. March hasn’t been our best international camp.’
Northern Ireland boss Michael O’Neill still believes Scotland can have a strong campaign in Germany against teams less likely to pack men behind the ball.
‘That system is one Steve has really nailed,’ he said.
‘We looked closely at how
Read on m.allfootballapp.com
