Steve Clarke issues Scotland standards reminder as 'irked' boss makes goalkeeper confession

Steve Clarke has urged his Scotland stars to get back on the victory trail and hit top gear for Germany.

The national gaffer is stewing after five games without a win since securing their place at the Euros. Scotland lost to Spain and drew with Georgia and Norway in the final qualifiers and suffered bruising losses to England and France in friendlies. The Scots have not failed to win in six since 2008 and Clarke is craving a victory against the Netherlands.

He said: “It would be nice. It’s obviously not crucial because it’s a competitive friendly but we don’t like the fact it’s five games since we had a win. We think we’re better than that. We want to get wins on the board as quick as we can and this would be a good time to start. In the first five competitive games last year we scored 12 goals, conceded one, and won five games.

"In the second five games we scored seven and conceded 14. You don’t win many games if you concede 14 goals. So it’s something to work on.

“You can make allowances but you always have to be responsible for your own standards. That’s why the two competitive games irked me a little bit more than losing the friendly matches against England and France.”

Clarke is hoping to build momentum for Germany – with Northern Ireland up next week and Gibraltar and Finland in June. He said: “We know it’s another one of the better European nations that we’re playing against so it’s going to be a tough night.

“But hopefully we can show that we’ve learned a little bit from the games against France, England and Spain and we can be really competitive here and get that win. If we don’t get it here then we’ll try to get it on Tuesday.”

Clarke wants his men to put in to practice what they learned in the clashes