They say sometimes it’s darkest just before the dawn. Well, let’s hope they know what they’re talking about.
Steve Clarke may well have endured worse nights in his five years as national boss. But it felt hard to think of any from the moment Liverpool kid Conor Bradley lashed the visitors into a lead they never looked like giving up. With the chance to kick-start some momentum ahead of the serious business this summer, now was not the time to tinker around with things that do not require to be fixed. He wanted more of the same – a performance high on both intensity and aggression – and three minutes in he got exactly that.
Gilmour was doing his best to quicken the tempo and pick passes from the base of midfield – and he was clattered by Ali McCann with the former St Johnstone man earning a deserved booking. But for the most part, Scotland were struggling to create much more than scraps against an Irish defence with all hands on deck.
And here we were, 1-0 down to the first attack of the night and without our inspirational skipper who Clarke replaced with Lewis Ferguson, switching formation to a flat back four in the process. It could have got even worse had Shea Charles hit the target soon after rather than curl one wide.