Desire to end World Cup hiatus is palpable but squad starts qualifying campaign on Friday with clear weak points
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n extra layer of poignancy was associated with the death of Jimmy Bone this week. An individual who made a huge contribution to Scottish club football, the robust forward’s solitary goal for his country came in Copenhagen’s original Parken. Denmark 1 Scotland 4 in October 1972. The Scots, then briefly under the management of Tommy Docherty, had set themselves on course to qualify for the 1974 World Cup, ending an absence of 16 years.
Come Friday, Copenhagen is again the venue. The painful wait this time stretches back to 1998. Togo, North Korea, Panama, Saudi Arabia and Wales have featured in the World Cup since Scotland last did. Steve Clarke will shortly become the longest-serving Scotland manager by games overseen. Scotland have a Ballon d’Or nominee – in respect of Scott McTominay’s country represented if not of birth – and six games to determine their 2026 fate.
Is this to be Clarke’s slowest of final steps or a lusty skip into the pantheon of Scotland greats? The answer will be apparent by November. Clarke has 540 minutes to deliver automatically what would by a distance be the finest achievement of his career. Nobody should underestimate the scale of this task.
