John Carver has called for a dose of realism over the national side’s performance at the European Championships, saying that critics have to remember that Scotland is a small country in football terms.
The Scotland assistant manager says he was as hurt as any member of the Tartan Army by the failure of Steve Clarke’s side to qualify for the knockout stages of the competition in Germany last summer, but he insisted the fans he has spoken to since have been supportive of the squad and the management team.
Carver also thinks that any disappointment that Scotland supporters did feel over the team’s performance in the summer should also be offset by bearing in mind just how much progress has been made under Clarke’s watch.
“When you raise expectations, that’s what happens,” Carver said.
“It’s quite incredible, because the amount of people I’ve met since the Euros who have come up to me, and not one person has come up to me and said they were disappointed.
“They’ve actually said how much of a great time they’ve had, it’s been a great journey, so that gives you a little bit of a lift the fact that people are saying that.
“I know you are going to have people who are going to criticise and they have got a right to say that, but I listen to the ones who have come face to face with me and tell me what they thought.
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“And they thought the journey that they have been on, the experience, they haven’t had it for so many years, even when they qualified the previous time they were maybe too young to travel.
“So yeah, there is disappointment there, but people are realistic as well.
“Let’s not forget how big our nation is. It’s a wonderful place up here but we are not a huge country when it comes to football. What’s the population, 5.5million? It’s not a huge population and there are other sports.
“But we are striving to try and improve it and give more success, if we can, to the people.”
Carver also pointed to external factors conspiring against Scotland that the coaching team had no control over.
“I think if you put it into perspective, there was an awful lot of mitigating circumstances,” he said.
“If you look at the guys we lost before we went into the tournament, during the tournament we obviously lost Kieran Tierney as well, we lost big players for this national team.
“When you lose your big players I think any team struggles.
“So, we had a lot of things that went against us.”
Scotland will be looking to banish any lingering hangover that does remain from their Euros disappointment when they take on Poland at Hampden on Thursday evening, the first game of a tough section in Nations League Group A1.
The Scots have just one win across their last 12 matches, defeating Gibraltar unconvincingly in a warm-up match ahead of the Euros, and they have a difficult task ahead to get out of that rut with Portugal – who they take on in Lisbon on Sunday - and Croatia also in the group.
Carver hopes they can arrest that recent slump though, and is relishing the prospect of taking on these higher ranked nations.
“Let’s not forget that our recent games have been against top sides,” he said.
“And top sides in the world, not just in Europe. So let’s have a bit of realism here.
“It’s going to be tough because the next six games are going to be exactly the same, coming up against top nations. But would you not rather have that? I would.
"I would rather be playing against Portugal and Poland and Croatia in the next six games because that is challenging.
“it’s going to be tough, we know that. But I’m sure if you are Tartan Army you want to play games like that.”
