Clarke seeks drastic Scottish improvement on Dublin display

Scotland manager Steve Clarke is hoping his team can atone for a below-par summer performance in Dublin when they take on the Republic of Ireland at Hampden on Saturday night.

Last night's 3-0 victory over Ukraine moved the Scots two points clear of Ukraine at the top of their Nations League table ahead of the visit of Stephen Kenny’s side, which comes before the final fixture against Ukraine in Poland next week.

In June, goals from Alan Browne, Troy Parrott and a Michael Obafemi thunderbolt gave the Boys in Green a resounding 3-0 victory and Clarke says the hosts are seeking a drastic improvement from that limp display.

"Now we have to go away and reset and get ready to go again on Saturday," he said.

"We rest and recover and get ready for a tough game against Republic of Ireland on Saturday.

"Obviously we went out there in the summer and didn’t do ourselves justice (0-3 defeat) and we want to do ourselves justice on Saturday."

After a goalless first half at home to Ukraine, striker Che Adams and midfielder Stuart Armstrong missed good opportunities to put the Scots ahead and some frustration could be felt in the stands.

However, in the 70th minute skipper John McGinn fired in a drive before substitute striker Lyndon Dykes headed in twice from fellow replacement Ryan Fraser’s corners.

"When you are on the sidelines and you are watching and your team is creating chances, you know your team has good forward momentum, you are just waiting," he said.

"You are actually expecting one of them to go in because you are creating so many good chance that you believe in your players and trust them to get the goal and that’s what happened.

Clarke admitted the first-half injury to Everton right-back Nathan Patterson – which saw him taken away