‘Understated start shows Clarke’s Scotland are back in the game’

As ever, Steve Clarke was heroically deadpan, talking up his team’s honesty and work-rate in securing a valuable World Cup qualification point against Denmark in Copenhagen, but only going so far.

Clarke does praise, but in moderation. He approaches such things with suspicion. He can smell hype at a thousand paces. He salutes his players for their endeavour and their pride, but perspective is never far away when he’s around.

He smiled – we think – at a promising start to Scotland’s bid to make a first World Cup since 1998. He said nothing of the potential psychology of the night, but it was obvious.

In taking a point from the Parken, Scotland have damaged one of their two main rivals in the group. In what is more of a sprint than a marathon – six games all told – they’ve already put Denmark on the back foot.

The Danes have to go to Greece on Monday and they’ll be underdogs now. Greece are an emerging force who did Scotland 3-0 at Hampden in March before taking care of Bulgaria 4-0 and Slovakia 4-1. They hammered Belarus 5-1 on Friday.

Come Monday, if Greece continue their excellent form, Denmark’s campaign might be in considerable trouble with one point from a possible six. Scotland could have four, if they do the necessary against Belarus in Budapest.

We’re projecting here, but there’s no harm in that. Clarke’s team have Greece and Belarus at home in the next window. If they go into it with four points from six they’ll be feeling good about themselves. There’s no need to be giddy, but there are reasons to be hopeful.

This is not all that normal when it comes to Scotland and World Cup qualification. Too often since their last nod in 1998, their aspirations have suffered early on.

In the qualification for the 2018 World Cup they won one of their first four games. Four years before that they started with two home draws and effectively took themselves out of the running. Four years before that they lost to Macedonia in their first game and won only one of their first four.

It was even worse in qualifying for the 2006 World Cup – the lights went out early with a home draw against Slovenia, a home loss against Norway and one from their next two games. Done.