Steve Clarke defended Grant Hanley after the Norwich City defender’s rash challenge denied Scotland a confidence boosting comeback draw at home to Poland.
Instead, they slipped to a 3-2 defeat in a game they had hoped might bring some succour following such a disappointing Euro 2024 performance.
It almost did. The Scots showed character to come back from 2-0 down at half-time but the night still contained a sting. Poland were awarded a penalty seven minutes into time added on after Hanley dived in with his wrong foot when challenging Nicola Zalewski near the byline.
The Polish attacker picked himself up and scored from the spot to steal all the points and leave Scotland contemplating a forbidding trip to face Portugal on Sunday night in their next League A Nations League league outing.
Clarke’s last competitive win is now a long 12 months ago. They have not won any of their last five internationals at home, their longest such run since late 2008.
“Everyone’s disappointed, we lost a game that we shouldn’t have lost,” said Clarke. “It’s not about picking out individuals, we never do that, I’ve never done that. I’m not going to start now, we win as a team, we lose as a team. We’ll go away, we’ll analyse the game and we’ll speak in camp.”
It was so close to being a positive night for Scotland, who would have accepted a 2-2 draw having conceded the opener just eight minutes in after Sebastian Szymanski beat Angus Gunn with a dipping shot off the post.
A Robert Lewandowski penalty just before half-time after Anthony Ralston barged into Zalewski meant Scotland trailed 2-0 at the interval and it looked like being a long way back.
But goals from Billy Gilmour and Scott McTominay restored parity and the hosts, who had brought on Ben Doak and Ryan Gauld for debuts, looked the likelier team to secure all three points.
“They brought energy to the game at a time when the game had opened up,” said Clarke, with reference to Doak and Gauld. “All the substitutions that went on to the pitch made a good impact on the game. Obviously it helps when you make a substitution and you score immediately, that helps everybody. It gets us back to a scoreline which should have been the worst scoreline we faced at the end of the game. It should have been at worst 2-2. But like I said, you get punished for mistakes at this level.”
Clarke praised the fans, who turned up in their numbers and offered Scotland stout support. “They were fantastic,” he said. “Even in the first half when the goals went against us, I always felt that the supporters were with us. At the start of the second half we get the early goal. I think the supporters enjoy watching their team when they play like that.
“Obviously they don’t enjoy going home on the back of a disappointing defeat. But I think they can see that we were trying to do something a little bit different, we were trying to play a little bit different, we tried to put some positive energy into the team. The supporters were fantastic in the summer. For me the supporters when they come to Hampden are always great.
“Full house tonight, there could have been a lot who said ‘I’m not going to go’ after the disappointments they had in the summer. They’ve all turned up, they got behind us. It was a fantastic atmosphere. I’m just sorry that they’re going home sad again.”
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