Steve Clarke's 5 Scotland survivors as Cyprus comparison shows national team transformation

A little over four years on from Steve Clarke's first game in charge of Scotland, things are a little different.

After a disastrous return to the hot seat for Alex McLeish, Clarke's work at Kilmarnock in leading the Ayrshire club to third place and European football made him the stand out candidate to replace the former Rangers and Aston Villa boss and was one the Scottish FA couldn't really ignore.

It hasn't all been plain sailing and there have been bumps in the road, but there's no doubt the ex-Chelsea stalwart has got the national team moving in the right direction. That night in Serbia will live long in the memory, even if our displays and results during Euro 2020 won't. Returning to a major finals is the priority, then we can worry about doing ourselves justice. After an excellent start to the Euro 2024 campaign, we're on the brink.

It would take a big collapse now for Scotland to miss out out on one of the top two spots after four wins from our opening four Group A fixtures, including eye-catching wins over Spain and away to Norway. No-one is naive enough to dismiss that as a possibility, but it seems unlikely. Clarke has come full circle in that it's Cyprus up next - the same opponents he faced in his Hampden bow back in 2019.

We'd take the same result with what is at stake, but expectations in terms of performance are far higher. Only five players who started that day are still part of Clarke's group, with another couple coming off the bench. John Souttar was an unused sub.

Record Sport looks at who has lasted the course in what has been a big shift under Clarke.

The skipper is just about the first name on the team sheet for his country, arguably after one other. He hasn't always been at the top of his game in