Roberto Martinez sees Scotland going 'from strength to strength' as Belgium boss praises Steve Clarke's training ground turnaround

Battered twice by brilliant Belgium at a half empty Hampden, Scotland were looking like a lost cause to an increasingly apathetic nation.

But Roberto Martinez, the orchestrator of the agony for both Alex McLeish and Steve Clarke, disagreed.

The manager of FIFA ’s top ranked country has been impressed by the transformation in Scotland’s fortunes since winning 4-0 in Glasgow in September of 2018 and 2019.

But he’s not surprised.

For former Motherwell midfielder Martinez noted potential amid the pain that his team of superstars inflicted upon their hapless hosts.

And he has been thrilled to follow Scotland’s progress since – reaching Euro 2020 and on the brink of the 2022 World Cup Finals in Qatar.

The former Wigan and Everton boss also has a vested interest as his wife Beth is Scottish.

And his coaching sidekick with Belgium for three-and-a-half years was Shaun Maloney before he left to become the new manager of Hibs.

Watching Scotland on TV with Maloney at international camps was a sore experience for too long for Martinez.

But the Spaniard always believed that with talent like Scott McTominay, John Souttar, John McGinn, Kieran Tierney and Andy Robertson – all of whom featured against his side – there were far better times ahead.

All that shrewd operator Clarke needed, said Martinez, was training-field hours to make it click.

He said: “As a manager in international football, you always need coaching time and hours on the training ground.

“You can see with a national team, that coaching the players takes longer than at club level.

“It’s difficult to change the mentality straight away, that is totally normal. So I knew Steve Clarke would need that quality time to make the team progress.

“When we played Scotland the