Sulking Steve Clarke reveals Scotland players had to pick HIM up after Dutch drubbing

Sulking Steve Clarke admitted he needed his Scotland players to pick HIM up after the friendly drubbing against the Netherlands in Amsterdam.

The national team gaffer was gutted at the 4-0 scoreline in the Johann Cruyff Arena which wasn’t a reflection of the performance from Clarke’s men and he admitted the ruthless nature of the defeat to Ronald Koeman’s side illustrates the gap to Europe’s top nations, with Scotland facing the daunting prospect of taking on hosts Germany in Munich in their Euro 2024 opener.

Scotland can show an immediate response when they take on Michael O’Neill’s Northern Ireland at Hampden on Tuesday with friendlies against Gibraltar and Finland to come. And when asked if he had to pick his players up following the loss Clarke, speaking ahead of the the friendly and with his team now winless in six, said: "I think it's the other way around! They’ve had to pick me up. I tend to sulk a little bit longer than they do, they move on a little bit quicker. Because I have a bit more to think about than they have.

"Within 24, 36 hours, you're ready and looking for the next game. I get the feeling among the players that they just want the chance to get on the pitch on Tuesday night, improve, and put a few things right that went wrong in the last stages of the game on Friday."

When asked to assess the 'funny' game, Clarke said: "It wasn't funny to laugh at... I know what you mean, it was peculiar. There was a lot that we did like, not could like, but did like. A lot that we tried to do in training we transferred to the pitch. It worked well for a long time. When you stop doing what you've been working on and you switch off towards the end of the game,. against the top teams, you get heavily punished. And