Steve Clarke puts major Scotland milestone on back-burner as side stagger over winning line against Belarus

Steve Clarke will allow himself a moment to soak up a significant landmark with a “quiet beer” after surpassing Craig Brown as the country’s longest-serving manager by taking charge of his 72nd international match.

However, that major milestone wasn’t at the forefront of his mind in the wake off Scotland’s insipid 2-1 victory over Belarus at Hampden Park on Sunday night.

The hosts were made to sweat in the closing stages by the Group C bottom seeds, who were ranked 100th in the world and had shipped 13 goals in three games already.

Che Adams’ instinctive finish after 15 minutes and a second half strike from Napoli’s Scott McTominay had the Scots on course for an unconvincing win before a unexpected late fightback from the visitors saw Hleb Kuchko reduce the deficit in stoppage time.

That goal came after Evgeni Malashevich’s composed finish to make it 1-1 was ruled out after a VAR check as a mixture of jeers and applause greeted the full-time whistle.

“I haven't given (the record) a thought,” a stony-faced Clarke sighed when asked about the achievement. “I'm just standing here really disappointed. Maybe I'll go back to the hotel and have a quiet beer.

“We've had some great moments, and some quite disappointing moments. What we are is quite resilient, we can come back from a down. I'm confident in this group of players, that when it comes to the crunch we'll be ready.

Clarke: ‘We didn’t get anywhere near the levels we can reach’

Clarke continued: “Performances don't get you qualification. If you'd said at the start of this camp we'd come out with six points, everyone would've been really happy. But, I have to be honest, tonight I was really, really disappointed in my team. I don't think we got anywhere near the levels we can reach and that was really disappointing.

“I'm going to have to have a good look at the two games. The first game, we dug in when it wasn't going our way. Tonight, the game was far too open and we didn't control the game without the ball, and we weren't good enough with the ball.

“We've come out with the three points, so that's one small crumb of comfort but the rest of it is a bit of a headscratcher (as to) why we were so poor. We wanted to go and see the game out, and we put Lennon (Miller) and Kieron (Bowie) on to have a little feel for it.

“Ultimately, we shouldn't be conceding goals in injury time because that makes it even more disappointing. We gave away a goal that we shouldn't give away and we have to defend better.”

Clarke frustrated as Belarus allowed to dictate game

“There's very little preparation between the first and second game, in terms of being on the grass. There's not much you can do in there. We looked at all their recent games, when they played us it was a 5-3-2. They played Greece away with a similar system. Against Denmark they did the same.

“Tonight, they came and had a go, pressed us high up the pitch. Their press was good. I would expect our players to be able to handle that pressure, get on the ball, dictate the tempo. We didn't do that. They dictated it all night.”

What Belarus boss Carlos Alos has said

“It was a strange game with a lot of interventions from VAR. We can’t be happy about the result, of course, but I’m happy with my players and how they prepared for this game after last week’s result (6-0 loss vs Denmark).

“Our situation is not easy, but we showed our character and had chances. We kept going and fought until the end. In my opinion, we deserved at least draw from this game, but good luck to Scotland. They deserve to go to the World Cup.”