Scotland coach is ‘really frustrated’ by late wobble in Belarus win

Scotland beat Belarus 2-1 at Hampden Park to take another step towards qualifying for the 2026 World Cup, but coach Steve Clarke remained far from satisfied despite the result.

Goals from Che Adams and Scott McTominay secured all three points for the hosts, but Gleb Kuczko’s late goal sealed a tense contest and prompted Clarke’s scathing post-match assessment.

“Performance does not qualify you,” the Scotland coach began. “If I had said at the beginning of this camp that we would come out with six points, everyone would have been really happy.”

“But I have to be honest, tonight I was very disappointed in my team. I don’t think we’ve reached anywhere near the levels we can reach and that was really disappointing.”

The hosts started brightly, with Adams scoring the first goal after 15 minutes following an assist from Jack Hendry.

Scotland dominated for large periods of the first half, and a late McTominay goal in the 84th minute appeared to seal the win before Belarus scored deep into stoppage time.

“I’ll take a closer look at the two games,” Clark admitted. “In the first game, we did our best when things weren’t going our way. Tonight, the game was very open and we didn’t control the game without the ball, and we weren’t good enough with the ball. Both sides were wrong tonight.”

Scotland’s performance dropped significantly after McTominay’s goal, as the visitors took advantage of loose defending to pull one back in the dying moments. The lapse deprived the home side of what should have been a comfortable result and left Clarke questioning his team’s concentration.

“We came away with the three points, so that’s a small bit of comfort, but the rest is a bit of bewilderment (as to) why we were so poor.”

“We wanted to go and watch the game, and we brought Lennon (Miller) and Kieron (Boy) on to get a feel for it. In the end, we shouldn’t concede goals in stoppage time because that makes it more frustrating.”

Kutchko’s goal, which came six minutes into stoppage time, revived Belarus’ hopes and turned what seemed like a routine evening into a tense ending. Clark was frank about the defensive errors that led to the goal, calling for immediate improvement.

“We missed a goal that we shouldn’t have missed and we have to defend better,” he said frankly.