Scotland: Wedding issues, absurdity of axe, spare thought for one man and Craig Brown's Elvis regret

Scotland should be well set when they return to action in September. They will be rested. Kieran Tierney will hopefully be back. Nathan Patterson might be starting more Everton matches. And fewer footballers tend to get married in the Autumn.

Something that didn’t seem like it would be a problem became a very real one on Tuesday, when Scotland were forced to play Jack Hendry at left centre-back against Armenia. Scott McKenna was ruled out with injury and Liam Cooper, the obvious candidate to step in, had left the camp early – following last week’s Armenia game – to attend a wedding. Well, at least it was his own.

Cooper wasn’t the only one. Goalkeeper Zander Clark was similarly double booked. It was supposed to be the close season after all. But it did seem strange that this was even a potential issue at this level.

Scotland got away with it in Armenia although it didn’t look like that would be the case in the opening half-an-hour. The hosts seemed able to break through at will. Hendry looked especially vulnerable as a new back-line tried to bed in.

But ill-discipline in the hosts’ ranks played into the visitors' hands. Scotland responded with a thoroughly professional performance after such a shaky opening.

Divorce proceedings have been halted. Clarke will enter his 60th year – he turns 59 in August – as the manager of Scotland, not that there was surely any doubt.

His contract was extended as recently as August. Since then, Scotland have won eight out of ten competitive fixtures. Contemplating changing manager would be absurd in any case, but what is effectively a mini-qualifying campaign looms just over three months' time.

Win all three games, or even just the first two and draw the third, and Scotland have the