Time for Steve Clarke to look in the mirror and ask if he's doing enough to keep his job - Keith Jackson

Let's not mince our words here because the sense of lingering national embarrassment demands that some home truths are aired.

Steve Clarke and his players were cut plenty of slack after being turned over by Ukraine and denied access to a World Cup because they had earned it after all the progress that’s been made over these last three years.

There is no shame to be shouldered at being outplayed by a superior opponent. But what happened in Dublin on Saturday evening was something entirely different.

This was a Scotland side being outfought and then annihilated by a vastly inferior one. And for that there can be no excuses.

This was not just a substandard performance, it was a truly appalling display and Clarke cannot absolve himself by pointing to the woefulness of his players even though there is no doubt they let their manager down in spectacular style.

No, Clarke too has to look in the mirror and ask if he is performing at the level required to remain in his position as this was 90 minutes which made him look horribly confused and a result so wretched it leaves the manager at his most vulnerable.

It doesn’t take hindsight either to wonder what Clarke is thinking right now because even before kick-off at the Aviva it did seem as if he might have been guilty of getting himself into another muddle.

For some unfathomable reason, for example, Billy Gilmour appears to have been scapegoated for the play-off defeat by Ukraine, with the youngster starting the last two games sat on Clarke’s bench.

Granted, Gilmour failed to turn up for duty at Hampden when the Ukrainians swatted Clarke’s players aside and left them in a ditch on the road to Qatar but he was far from the only one who could not find his A-game when it was