Steve Clarke insists World Cup disappointment won’t derail Scotland spirit

Steve Clarke insists there is no such thing as a likelihood of final week’s World Cup disappointment upsetting the concord within the Scotland squad.

The Scots had been on an eight-game unbeaten run previous to dropping 3-1 to Ukraine in final Wednesday’s play-off at Hampden.

Whereas there was comprehensible disappointment within the camp after lacking out on a spot on the finals in Qatar later this yr, Clarke is adamant that his gamers can set about producing contemporary momentum as they put together to kick off their Nations League marketing campaign towards Armenia on Wednesday.

“It’s at all times good after we get collectively as a gaggle,” he mentioned, reflecting on the actual fact the squad have been collectively for every week between the Ukraine disappointment and the Armenia recreation. “We’ve constructed a extremely good spirit among the many squad.

“Everybody enjoys being away collectively. One defeat’s not going to alter that.”

Clarke has no issues about his gamers’ potential to evoke themselves for the three Nations League video games – dwelling and away to Armenia and away to Eire – over the subsequent week.

“It’s only a regular course of,” he mentioned. “We’ve all been concerned within the skilled recreation a very long time – some longer than others – and you need to be taught to take care of the disappointments.

“Not every thing’s going to be nice for you. You must take the knocks and transfer on.”

Clarke just isn’t anticipating a simple recreation towards an Armenia facet who bounced again from their 9-0 pleasant defeat by Norway in March once they defeated Eire 1-0 on Saturday.

“I assumed Armenia had been good on the weekend,” he mentioned. “I watched the sport dwell. You possibly can see that they had perhaps suffered a little bit bit from their heavy pleasant defeat in March.

“It took them perhaps half-hour to settle into the sport after which as soon as they settled, they had been good they usually deserved their win. They completed forward of North Macedonia to get promotion from League C to League B and North Macedonia are the group that knocked Italy out the World Cup so to do this is fairly first rate.”