Ben Doak doesn't need a nickname as £77m man discovers Scotland have a star who can damage you – Keith Jackson in Zagreb

Of course it is to be hoped there will be much bigger and better things ahead for Ben Doak in a Scotland shirt.

But even so, as far as first starts go, what the little man came up with here in Croatia last night was enough to justify the notion we might finally be blessed with a player who really was born to do some damage at this level. Look, let’s not get ahead of ourselves or pile unnecessary pressure on the shoulders of an 18-year-old who has probably played more top- team football in the last three weeks than he has in the previous three years.

For now at least, the kid can do without being rebranded as our very own McMessi. Even if in the fullness of time, the Liverpool winger just might turn out to be. It wasn’t as if he ran riot in Zagreb either. Nor did he cap his big introduction with a goal or even an assist. Not on UEFA’s records at any rate. But, nonetheless, on a night when Scotland was subjected to another instalment of unspeakable last-minute cruelty – suffering a third straight single-goal Nations League defeat – what he did do was every bit as impressive as boss Steve Clarke could possibly have hoped for.

Just ask big £77million man Josko Gvardiol. The most expensive defender in world football history would have been utterly relieved to see the back of the teenager when he was replaced by Ryan Gauld 15 minutes from the end in Zagreb. When a man of Gvardiol’s colossal standing struggles to cope with a kid half of his stature, then it constitutes a night which Doak should remember fondly even though it ended the way his first two cameo roles did.

With yet another galling hard-luck story. But, throughout it, Doak showed he has the physicality, the technique and the temperament to flourish at this level