Scotland manager Steve Clarke has warned his players not to undo all their hard work with a poor performance tonight against the Faroe Islands as they close in on a World Cup playoff place.
Two wins from the next three games will secure Scotland’s playoff berth and Clarke’s side could even seal it tonight if results go their way, prompting the national team boss to remind his players what is at stake.
. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Saturday’s 3-2 win over Israel has the Tartan Army dreaming of a Scotland returning to a World Cup for the first time since 1998 but Clarke tried to cool things, insisting the Israel win was only three points.
“The thing that I’ve always tried to take from my career is that if you get one big result, there is no point in messing it up in the next game,” Clarke said.
“We spoke about that after Austria. The next one was Israel at home and it was, ‘Don’t waste the good work we’ve done in Austria’.
“So now we can add the Israel game to that.
“We left it late but, thankfully, we can add the Israel game to that.
We can say, ‘Two great results, don’t let yourselves down by not getting the points you require in the upcoming game against the Faroes’.
“I’ve got to be the old guy that tries to calm everybody down and say, ‘Look, it’s just another step on the way to second position’.
“That’s all it is. Three points against Israel. All it did was keep us in second place. We’re in control of second place.
“When we come away from the game against the Faroes, we want to still be in control of second place — and hopefully have cemented second place.
“That’s the aim.”
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