Clarke insists ‘there is work to do’ for Scotland following World Cup ‘failure’, Ireland loss

Steve Clarke has admitted that Scotland’s 4-1 win over Armenia in the UEFA Nations League does not turn their June campaign into a success.

The Scotland boss praised his side for overcoming fatigue to beat Armenia – who ended up with nine men – on Tuesday evening.

Clarke believes his team still have a “realistic chance” of finishing top of their Nations League group even after losing 3-0 to the Republic of Ireland over the weekend.

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Scotland have six points at the halfway stage but face a double-header against World Cup play-off conquerors Ukraine either side of a Hampden clash with the Republic of Ireland in September.

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Looking back at the four-game programme, Clarke said: “It was a difficult schedule for the players. It was difficult, but we haven’t made excuses until now.

“There’s no excuses for the two games that we lost. Two wins against Armenia are not going to make this international camp a good camp, because it wasn’t.

“We failed on our primary objective – to get to the World Cup. We failed on that and we had a really bad performance in Dublin, which put us on the back foot again. It’s nice to bounce back but there is work to do.”

"Very happy with those finishes, and more importantly very happy with the win."

Af