Scotland boss Steve Clarke insists he’ll show his full respect to the Queen at Hampden - and hopes the Tartan Army will follow his lead.
The SFA have confirmed they have been given permission from UEFA to hold a minute’s applause for the late monarch ahead of the Nations League showdown with Ukraine. The move comes after a weekend of high profile domestic flashpoints involving Celtic and Dundee United supporters ahead of Monday’s state funeral.
And, while Clarke stopped short of demanding a better level of behaviour from Scotland’s fans, he admitted he’s hoping to avoid being caught up in the eye of another storm of controversy. He said: “For me I will do my usual and show the respect that should be shown on such an occasion. For other people? I don’t think it is for me to judge. But hopefully it goes off and it is a respectful moment before the game.”
Celtic and United have been widely condemned for failing to slam their own away support for protests over the space of a week. Celtic fans unfurled a banner at their Champions League clash with Shakhtar Donetsk last Wednesday before following that up with another ahead of kick-off in Paisley on Sunday.
And a section of United’s support chanted during a minute’s silence in the build-up to their side’s top flight game against Rangers on Saturday afternoon. Jeers also rang out at Easter Road before Hibs hosted Aberdeen.
Asked for his take on the scenes at Ibrox and St Mirren over the weekend Clarke said only: “You can ask, but you won’t get one. Because, like I say, I am always very respectful on these occasions and I give the respect that’s deserved. We have got three great games coming up. Let’s move on to the games.”
A win tonight will fire Scotland back into contention to top their League B group - ahead of two last matches to come against Republic of Ireland and table topping Ukraine.
Scotland go into the triple header sitting in second place in the section after banking six points from two games against Armenia at the end of last season and suffering a shock defeat in Dublin in between.
They will get the chance to avenge that result when the Republic of Ireland visit Hampden on Saturday night, hot on the heels of tonight’s showdown with Ukraine.
But Clarke admits one more loss in either of these games the will end his chances of claiming top spot - and securing a potential backdoor route into the next European Championships Finals.
He said: “We are in a good position. We picked up the six points we needed.
“It wasn’t a good performance and it wasn’t a good result in Dublin, but we all know that so let’s move on.
“What I would like from this week is to go to the last game against Ukraine in Poland with a realistic chance of topping the group.
“If we do that and give ourselves a chance to be top of the group that would be a good outcome.
“Mathematically it’s not a certainty that we need to win them both, but we certainly need to win one and not lose the other one. You can work out from that how many points we need.”
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