Steve Clarke staves off Scotland attack dogs for now as self respect starts to replace Euros stage fright – Keith Jackson

Another two defeats have been added to a regrettably burgeoning collection. That’s one win from 14 games now for anyone who’s still counting.

But Steve Clarke very probably returned to base on Monday believing a major victory has been added to the scorecard over these last five days. And it might well be a win big enough to keep him at the wheel when the journey to the next World Cup begins. Make no mistake, the pressure was mounting on Clarke going into a Nations League double header with Poland and Portugal and the prospect of him losing both of these opening games might have placed him on the managerial Green Mile.

In terms of his international career, Clarke could have been a dead man walking by now. But, on the contrary, by sticking firmly to his own principles and by showing the courage of his convictions, Clarke oversaw two performances which were light years ahead of anything he delivered during the Euros in Germany.

Yes, there’s a significant sense of frustration in there too. How could there not be? The whole country is still attempting to fathom how this team of his fluffed its lines so horribly over the summer when it was struck down and crippled by a severe case of stagefright.

Yes, they talked the talk going into that tournament and made big, bold promises. But when push came to shove, what they offered up was so timid and toothless that they appeared to be terrified of their own shadows, let alone those cast over them by the Germans, Swiss and Hungarians.

For all the world it seemed as if these players had been overloaded by information and instructions from a manager who had tied them up so tightly in tactical chains that they completely forgot how to play according to their own instincts. That, when they