It may not have felt like it at the time as Scotland were being despatched by the likes of France, England and The Netherlands - certainly for the Tartan Army - but Steve Clarke believes that short-term pain for Scotland is now finally reaping gains over the longer term.
The choice of some particular friendlies prior to the European Championships were questioned by many, and even cited as a possible factor in the poor showing of the Scots both in that tournament and for a while beyond.
Until beating Croatia in November, Scotland had won just one of their previous 16 games, a 2-0 friendly win over Gibraltar in Faro that was supposed to get the momentum behind Clarke’s team once more, but turned into something of a struggle in the end too.
Clarke admits that those trips to face France and The Netherlands in particular, where his team shipped four goals in both matches, were tough to take at the time, but the displays away from home since in venues like Warsaw and in Piraeus on Thursday evening show that putting his men ‘through the mill’ proved invaluable in the end.
“We’ve been to France, we’ve played England, we’ve played Holland,” Clarke said.
“I put them through the mill with those games but eventually you get the experience.
“So, when we went to Greece the other night, we knew what to expect and the players were able to handle that.
“There’s a little anomaly in that I think we're improving as a team, but you go down the world rankings.
“It's just experience.”
Clarke is often noted for his loyalty to his players, but part of the thinking behind that has been to get more of that precious commodity – experience – into the Scotland line-up.
Captain Andy Robertson is now third in the all-time appearance list on 80 caps, while John McGinn will pick up his 75th cap against the Greeks. Scott McTominay will make his 60th appearance, and if Kenny McLean is selected, he will earn his place in the Scotland roll of honour.
“I said right at the very start, we didn't have enough caps within the squad,” Clarke said.
“It's something we set about addressing and we've certainly done that. I think we had something like 550 caps in the team on Thursday night.
“Then when you go away to a difficult place like Greece, where not many teams win, we go there and win.
“The reason we give them cap after cap after cap is so when we go to those places, they understand what they have to do.
“As a team we have improved and the players have improved at this level too.
“We understand what it takes to win a game at this level.
“Thankfully, recently we have been able to show we can do that.”
While Clarke’s focus is primarily on securing the result tomorrow night that will allow Scotland to prevail in the tie, he is also looking forward to being able to join the Tartan Army – who will unveil a tifo honouring Denis Law – in paying tribute to one of the nation’s favourite sons.
“It is the first chance we have had to commemorate Denis’s passing so I am sure the crowd and the team and everyone will appreciate it,” he said.
“It’s a game we want to win and we have that 1-0 lead from Thursday.
“But we are going to set up to try to win the game.
“Hopefully we can put a marker down for the World Cup games coming up.”
