THERE were no positives, none whatsoever, for Scotland to take out of their Nations League match against the Republic of Ireland in Dublin on Saturday night.
Steve Clarke’s side looked in disarray in defence, failed to gain any kind of foothold in the centre of the park and were wasteful with the scoring chances, such as they were, which they created up front.
It was as bad a display as Clarke has presided over during his three year reign as manager and as poor a result.
Yet, as he looked back at the humiliating 3-0 defeat in the Group B1 game at the Aviva Stadium yesterday, goalkeeper Craig Gordon was somehow able to find one small silver lining.
"It could have been worse,” he said as he prepared to fly out to Yerevan with the national squad ahead of the meeting with Armenia tomorrow evening. “We were that far off the game that it could have been worse.”
Gordon, like so many of Clarke’s men, did not perform at his best at the weekend. However, he still denied Alan Browne, Shane Duffy and James McClean in the first-half. Grant Hanley, too, cleared a Scott Hogan header off the line after half-time.
The showing that Scotland produced in the 3-1 defeat they suffered at the hands of Ukraine in the Qatar 2022 play-off semi-final at Hampden earlier this month was pretty dire.
But at least in that outing Andy Robertson and his team mates staged a spirited fightback, pulled a goal back and pushed hard for a late equaliser. At the weekend there was nothing at all to take heart from. The visitors were fortunate the scoreline was not 5-0 or 6-0 at the end of the 90 minutes.
Gordon, who had helped his country to keep a clean sheet and overcome Armenia comfortably at home three days earlier, was unable to offer an explanation for why they had failed to give a good account of themselves.
“I didn't expect it,” he said. “I didn't see it coming. I'm just struggling for words and I think everyone is. It was disappointing and not a good performance at all. "We were totally outplayed by Ireland in every aspect of the game. I can't put my finger on any positive whatsoever in terms of how the game went.”
Gordon added: "Regardless of how Ireland have been doing, their performance was very good. They've been trying to change their style for a long time and these things take time. "Maybe they are starting to see the benefits of that now. I thought they were very good and certainly a lot better than us in everything that they did. “We were well beaten by a team which totally outplayed us. Congratulations to them. But for us that was nowhere near what we are capable of. We need to figure out why and move on as soon as possible. "We need to bounce back from that and we need to win the next game. There's going to be a fair bit of soul searching and discussions about what went so badly wrong.”
Media pundits and members of the Tartan Army – who booed their own team off the park after the final whistle in Dublin – have volunteered several theories about why Scotland were so bad on Saturday.
So was it a game too far for Robertson, Hanley, John McGinn, Callum McGregor, Scott McTominay, Ryan Christie and Che Adams at the end of a long hard season? Was continuing to play with a three man defence in the absence of Kieran Tierney to blame?
Gordon refused to accept either explanation for one of the worst performances he has been involved in since making his debut for the national team 18 years ago in 2004.
"Tiredness was probably a factor,” he said. “But we are not looking for any excuses. We won't hide, we won't look for excuses.”
Asked if he thought it was time to abandon the 3-4-2-1 formation and revert to a back four from kick-off, Gordon said: "That's more a question for the manager.
“But we have good players who can play any system. It's up to us to go out there and carry it out. We need to figure out the situations on the pitch better than we did on Saturday. "It's quite an adaptable system, it can move around. Some players can get forward from there. We have good players in midfield who should be able to get on the ball and dictate the play. "For whatever reason Saturday wasn't our day. We weren't able to implement our style on the game and keep a hold of the ball.”
As the oldest and most capped player in the Scotland squad, Gordon, who made his 66th international appearance against Ireland, appreciates that he has an important role to play in next couple of days.
The 39-year-old promised to try and lift his team mates’ spirits ahead of the 2,000 mile flight to Armenia later today and the Group B1 match in the Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium tomorrow evening.
"All of the experienced players have to do their bit to get everyone together,” he said. “I'm positive we will all get back together. "We need to make sure we are one unit and keep fighting by giving it everything we've got in this last game. It's been a long season, but we have got to make sure we go out with a win. "We are disappointed, it wasn't good enough and we are so much better than that. We will get together and try to win this last game.”
The Nations League offers countries an alternative route through to the Euro 2024 finals in Germany if they come up short in qualifying and Gordon is adamant Scotland can still top their section despite the heavy Ireland reverse.
"We have made the campaign a little bit more difficult for ourselves off the back of this,” he said. “But we have to keep fighting to try and win this group.”
