Steve Clarke doubters need frogmarched back in time as the stats show he's up there with Scotland's greatest EVER - Keith Jackson

Let's be brutally honest. The hard core masochists among us probably know how this all ends.

Anyone foolish or fatalistic enough to invest emotionally in Scotland watching ought to have learned our lesson long before now. After a double billing of pride inducing heroics at Hampden Park, Steve Clarke and his players have hauled themselves to within 90 minutes and a single point of Nations League promotion.

And, more importantly, a safety net play-off place for the next Euros. In fact, to take 12 Nations League points from a possible 15 is a fairly spectacular return by anyone’s standards let alone Scotland’s. So it’s hardly a plot spoiler to suggest that the party might be about to be pooped tomorrow night in Poland. We have been in this movie before after all. It was Ukraine who blocked our path to the World Cup Finals in June and now, tomorrow night, these same warriors in yellow shirts will be standing in our way all over again.

Motivated once more way beyond any kind of sporting norm. Should they crush Scotland’s spirit in Krakow, for the second time in four months, then knee jerk recriminations will come thick and fast. Clarke’s credentials will be called into question and some will call for the manager to be tossed aside as a consequence of another failed campaign.

And those malcontents should be frogmarched immediately back in time and forced to relive the blunder years of Wee Berti and ‘right f****** up for it’ Burley. Because if they can’t see - or are simply unwilling to acknowledge - the enormous progress that has been made under Clarke then they deserve to be strapped into a chair and reminded of what it felt like to be Scottish when we really did have a manager worth moaning about.

So, even if it does end