STAIR WAY TO SEVEN
| Published date | 27 March 2024 |
| Publication title | Daily Star (England) |
This was their first warm-up game at the National Stadium but it was an evening to forget as Northern Ireland - 40 places below Scotland in the world rankings at 74 - brought a few nightmares to life for a blunt outfit.
What should have been a morale booster turned out to be a night to forget for all in the Tartan Army.
The star of the show was a Liverpool full-back but it wasn't Scotland's Andy Robertson as visiting right-back Conor Bradley outshone his left-back clubmate to net the only goal of the game.
Cue even more to consider for Clarke ahead of the June 14 opener in Munich against Germany.
He only has Gibraltar and Finland to go in June to boost confidence ahead of facing the hosts, Hungary and Switzerland in the finals.
In fairness, Clarke has ramped things up in friendly losses to England, France plus the Dutch, as well as a qualifying defeat to Spain.
But the national boss would expect so much more at home.
His players need to up their game - unlike Aberdeen-linked Michael O'Neill's Northern Ireland side who, with little possession, created far better chances and should have won by a bigger margin.
Clarke chose not to make big changes after what had been a good display in 60-odd minutes in Amsterdam before collapsing to a 4-0 loss to the Dutch, bringing in Lyndon Dykes and Liam Cooper for Lawrence Shankland and Ryan Porteous.
God Save the King was booed by the Tartan Army, with the travelling fans doing their best to return the favour at Flower of Scotland - all making for a spicy atmosphere.
The Northern Irish sat deep, letting Scotland dominate possession.
But they found it difficult to break down O'Neill's defence.
Billy Gilmour - winning his 25th cap - was keen to mark the occasion in style and did well to win a ball in midfield four minutes in and force it on to Ryan Christie but he fired wide.
Robertson went down heavily in 30 minutes after a challenge with Trai Hume but was back up soon after.
Nathan Patterson, without a lot of game time at Everton, had a moment to forget in the 32nd minute when losing possession to Brodie Spencer.
He won the ball back in his own box before trying to nutmeg Bradley, instead passing it straight to him.
The Liverpool ace stepped inside and, with the aid of a slight deflection offJack Hendry, curled the ball into the top left of...
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