Lady Luck sticks her stiletto where it hurts for Steve Clarke but he has one Scotland defence left – Keith Jackson

Steve Clarke must have spent the entire three hour flight back to Glasgow on Saturday night wondering how many times one campaign can boot him square in the balls.

Because despite what anyone may say about the Scotland boss and this excruciating, eye-watering run of recent results, there can now be no more doubt that Lady Luck is also taking considerable delight in sticking her stiletto right where it hurts. Yes, one win from 15 games is the kind of record which would get most managers the sack at this level of the international game.

And, undoubtedly, there will be accusations of industrial scale turd polishing made against anyone who argues that there have been signs of encouragement to take from another three defeats on the bounce in this new Nations League campaign. Such is life in a business where often it is better to be lucky than good. But that would be to ignore what we have seen with our own eyes throughout this albeit traumatic experience in the top flight of European competition.

Two last minute losses suffered against Poland and Portugal, followed by a VAR intervention to deny Scotland what would have been a richly deserved draw with the last kick of the ball in Zagreb at the weekend. That alone paints a picture of Clarke’s rotten misfortune. And yes, the sooner Scotland are relegated out of this elite level and returned to a safer, less punishing place the better it will be for his stats column.

But it doesn’t come close to explaining the steps Clarke and his players have been taking together ever since being oxtered out of Germany this summer as the most powderpuff performers at the European Championships. It seems fair to say Clarke didn’t much enjoy the volley of criticism that came his way after