Steve Clarke blasts Tartan Army boo boys as Scotland boss responds to 'disappointing' crowd reaction after Japan loss
National team boss highlights the positives in narrow friendly defeat as he promises sweeping changes for Ivory Coast test
Steve Clarke expressed his disappointment at a small section of the Tartan Army for booing his side after Scotland kick-started their World Cup preparations with a narrow friendly defeat to Japan at Hampden Park.
In a game low on quality, the Scots succumbed to an 84th-minute strike from substitute Junya Ito as the visitors edged a dull encounter, prompting some supporters to let their feelings be known at full-time.
It was a stark contrast to the scenes of complete euphoria when World Cup qualification was sealed with a victory over Denmark back in November and head coach Clarke was unhappy at the response to this defeat from a small minority of fans.
“It’s disappointing to be honest,” Clarke said. “It’s just the modern way. It seems like if you lose a game these days you get booed.
“Look, this is the level you have to reach. There’s lots to take from the game against top quality opposition. Obviously one or two things we can do better. To lose it on the goal that we lost is disappointing.
“The game looked like it was going to peter out to a 0-0 draw but we made a mistake, probably trying to go forward too early and we got caught a little bit on balance in space on the right and they scored from it.
“We defended well in the game against a really good side. they move the ball well, pop it around and we knew they’d cause us problems. If I’m honest, I didn’t think it would be a low scoring game and it was, but that was good.”
Clarke ‘anticipates six or seven changes’ vs Ivory Coast
Clarke dished out World Cup auditions to the likes of Middlesbrough striker Tommy Conway and Everton full-back Nathan Patterson against a Japanese side ranked 19th in the world, but neither player really seized their chance to shine.
And Clarke has promised to rotate his squad against for the clash with Ivory Coast at Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium on Tuesday night, with “six or seven changes” expected.
He continued: “We played a lot of good stuff but we can still e a bit more progressive to get to the final third, but against top opposition that can be difficult.
“Tommy did the job that I thought he would do. I’ve been watching him at Middlesbrough quite a bit since November. He’s played his way back into the squad and he didn’t do himself any harm tonight.
“Now we’ll recover and we’ll get the next team ready to do. I anticipate six or seven changes. There will be quite a lot of changes and there’s some personnel I want to see on the pitch, so it’ll be a little bit different to the team that played today.”