Steve Clarke refuses to blame Grant Hanley error as late penalty costs Scotland

Steve Clarke refuses to blame Grant Hanley error as late penalty costs Scotland

The hosts appeared to have rallied for a draw when the Scotland defender gave up a penalty kick in extra time.

Steve Clarke declined to assign blame to Grant Hanley for giving up the penalty in added time that allowed Poland to defeat Scotland 3-2 at Hampden Park.

The first half of the Scots’ debut in the elite Nations League saw them lose to goals from Robert Lewandowski’s penalty kick and a strike from Sebastian Syzmanski.

But midfielder Billy Gilmour cut the lead within one minute of the second half, and Scott McTominay scored the equaliser in the 77th, capping a stunning comeback in the League A Group I opening.

However, Nicola Zalewski was clattered inside the box by defender Hanley in the sixth minute of additional time, which ignited the comeback.

Clarke said: “Everyone’s disappointed. we lost a game that we shouldn’t have lost.

It is not about singling out certain people. I haven’t done that before, and I won’t start now.

“As a team, we succeed and fail. We’ll go, discuss the game in camp, and then return.

We shouldn’t have lost this game, but if you make mistakes at this level, you will pay a heavy price, and we paid a heavy price for our mistakes.

A lot of positive things, but it’s still a loss. If I were to assess the performance, I believe I would have to say that it was satisfactory.

For a head coach, that provides a tiny bit of solace. We were short on time when it came to working on the training pitch.

“We knew the system that Poland would play would cause us one or two different issues to me with what you would normally face.

“I thought we dealt with that well. I thought the team shape was good. The attitude, the energy was excellent but like I said before, if you make small mistakes at this level, you get punished.”

The 28-year-old Ryan Gauld and the 18-year-old Ben Doak, who made their debuts at 2-1 and assisted McTominay in tying the score, impressed Clarke with their contributions.

“I believe they added excitement to the game at a point when the game had opened up,” he remarked.

“The game was positively impacted by each substitution that was made on the pitch.

“Obviously, it’s beneficial for everyone when a replacement results in an immediate goal.

It returns us to a scoreline that, at the conclusion of the game, ought to have been the lowest one we encountered.

The score should have been 2-2 at most. At this stage, mistakes are penalised, as I mentioned earlier.

Scotland’s next task is to better their present record of one win in 13 games when they play Portugal in Lisbon on Sunday.

“If you just want to report on the scoreline, it’s negative and disappointing for everyone,” he stated.

There are many positive aspects of the performance that we can build on, if you examine it objectively.

It goes without saying that there are some things we must remove from our performance, and that is what we must aim to do.

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