Steve Clarke and two Scotland heroes flip the Tartan Army script as familiar stoic mentality is a Greek myth now

There was an ancient Greek philosopher from around these parts called Zeno and apparently this wise old beardy fellow founded the Stoic school of thought.

It’s all about achieving virtue but putting up with all kinds of guff without complaining. Well, stuff all that. We’ve tried being stoic with Scotland for 20-odd years but Steve Clarke and this band of brilliant players have started their own new school of thought around the national side. And it involves having a rock solid winning mentality.

Now it’s party time. Soon it will be the party to end all parties in Germany come the summer. Cyprus boss Temur Ketsbaia said Scotland were already at the Euros before a ball was kicked on Friday night. Clarkey shot that talk down sharpish but even he will feel we’re just about there now. And the thing is, Scotland haven’t scraped their way through this group – they’ve strolled it.

They’ve made a brutal looking section look a breeze. It was fitting the AEK Arena was just a couple of miles outside the Larnaca bay holiday resort because life’s a beach right now.

The punters could have headed up to Ayia Napa at half-time. There’s a famous boozer up there called Bedrock but there was no Barney Rubble for the Scots.

The Tartan Army packed the bars of Larnaca and beyond from early doors so by the time they filed into the AEK Arena, a good whack were feeling no pain apart from the odd touch of sunburn. It was all worth it, though. You could never accuse these fans of being fair weather supporters.

And they turned up here in huge numbers, taking up more than half the seats in the stadium and giving it big licks all night. There is a different feeling around them these day, mind you. For years, the pre-match bevvy was the best part of