Scotland star eyes two major moments to extend Steve Clarke era into new chapter as personal goal set
Dinamo Zagreb defender possesses a steely determination to make sure Clarke goes out on a high next summer in USA, Canada and Mexico
If this is to be the end of Steve Clarke’s reign as Scotland head coach, defender Scott McKenna plans on making it a long goodbye with a grand tour of USA, Canada and Mexico as the final swansong.
The Scots have two obstacles remaining to overcome in Group C as they bid to secure automatic qualification for next summer’s World Cup finals with already KO’d Greece up first in Athens tomorrow night before Denmark visit Hampden the following Tuesday.
Loyalty has been underlying theme of Clarke’s near six-and-a-half year spell in charge of the national team, with the former Kilmarnock boss building a club mentality with tried and tested campaigners mixed in with a number of up-and-coming stars of the future.
Dinamo Zagreb centre-back McKenna has pretty much been part of that journey throughout the whole process.
So when Clarke let rip inside the home dressing room at Hampden after the narrow and uncomfortable win over Belarus last month in a manner seldom witness during his tenure, it will have come as a surprise to many.
And while those angry parting shots are still ringing in their ears on the back of that double-header, McKenna admits there’s also an acceptance among the group that they let their boss down. Now there’s some making up to do and a steely determination to get the job done in style over the final two games.
“Yeah, absolutely,” McKenna responded when asked how eager the squad are to achieve qualification, not just for themselves but for Clarke too. “I think the gaffer’s been so loyal to all of us in his time in charge here. There’s been times - with myself included - when some of us have not been playing at club level.
“But he continued to put us in the squad, kept his trust in us and gave us minutes on the park. He’s also led us to two Euros, so we’ve all got to be thankful to him. Our performances on the pitch are the only way we can really thank him for that, and trying to qualify for a World Cup would be great.”
Scott McKenna determined to pick up 50th cap at World Cup finals
Like the vast majority of the squad, McKenna knows what Clarke has done for him over the last few years. It’s for that reason the imposing defender believes everyone will raise their standards significantly and give it one last push as they aim to avoid the jeopardy and anxiety of the play-offs.
Should Scotland produce the goods, McKenna would most likely earn his 50th cap over in North America next year having started out his international career by captaining his country across the pond against Mexico at the iconic Azteca in 2018.
“Yeah, of course that would be special but any personal achievement like that gets put on the back burner for now,” he added.
“Just going across to America, the size of that stadiums are going to be absolutely massive. They will probably be 80,000, 90,000, even 100,000 some of them. The amount of Scotland fans that will be able to get in those stadiums would be incredible.
“We will obviously focus on these two games first and foremost, though.”
Scotland aiming to raise standards in final push to avoid play-offs
While the Scots still managed to bank six points from two home matches in October, the performances in both games fell short of what Clarke demands from his players. On the flip side, the nation have often been in far worse places than the ne they currently find themselves in.
McKenna continued: “It’s absolutely a good thing to keep winning games even when we are not at our best. It’s maybe something we wouldn’t have managed to do in the past.
“And it’s probably a sign of how far the team’s come that we’re winning games and still disappointed. But we managed to stick together in the last camp and grind it out, no matter how bad or how ugly it was.
“We just need to prepare the same way we normally prepare. We beat Greece last month and we’ll be trying to do that again, and we also beat Denmark at home in the last World Cup qualifying campaign.
“We know we can do it, so I wouldn’t say there’s any added pressure on that. I don’t see any reason why we can’t get the result we need against Greece to make sure we’re still in the mix when we play Denmark.
“We’ve got to take confidence from the fact we didn’t play our best last month, and we’ve still got a result against them. Obviously, we try to improve on the performance level, and hopefully that can only benefit us.
“But we’re not even thinking about having the safety net of a place in the play-offs. We have the chance to qualify automatically - and that’s what we want to go and do.”