Steve Clarke drops Lyndon Dykes successor clue as Scotland boss 's*** himself' over ANOTHER injury scare
The boss looks set to add to his attacking options for Euro 2024 with the tournament opener against Germany just days away.
Steve Clarke is considering sending out a striker SOS for young gun Tommy Conway.
The hitman was on target for the Scotland Under-21s in Turkey last night while the senior side struggled to break down Gibraltar. Clarke’s men eventually saw off the minnows 2-0 but it took an hour before Ryan Christie made the breakthrough and Che Adams smashed in a second late on. The national boss is still weighing up his attacking options after the brutal body blow of losing Lyndon Dykes for the Euros.
Clarke is yet to make his call but he admitted Conway has shot to the top of his list after finding the net for Scot Gemmill’s kids. He said: “It was nice that Tommy scored. He is a good boy, Tommy, and he is certainly in my mind. Can we replace Lyndon like for like? No. Would it have been a better performance with Lyndon in the team?
“Probably no, because they dealt very, very well with high balls into the box. They defended the box really well. We just need to find a little bit more craft from certain players on the pitch to unpick that type of defence.”
Clarke admitted his side will need to be more clinical in Germany after wasting a glut of chances against Gibraltar. But the manager was happy with the victory after going seven games without a win in the midst of Euro qualification. Clarke – who opted to sit in the stands in the Algarve – said: “Yes, we won. It has been a long time. Nice to win, nice to get a clean sheet obviously. I don’t think Zander Clark had too many touches of the ball, maybe a dozen at most.
“We came here as a training exercise and created a lot of chances. What I would say and I said this to the lads at half-time, if we want to keep improving as a team, when you create that number of chances in the first half – and good chances – you have to score them.
“That just takes the pressure off. it releases the tension around the place. We created… I stopped counting at six in the first half, what I would count as goal chances – not just chances, goals.
“A better ratio would have been two or three at half-time and we can go out and play with a little more freedom in the second half. I told them not to panic at half-time and they didn’t panic. We scored two good goals – well, one good goal, Che’s was a good goal, Ryan’s was a bit scrappy.
“But it was the kind of goal that was going to open up the game, or a set-play. Maybe we have to be a little bit better from set-plays, we created some chances but not too much.”
Clarke admitted he suffered a major scare when Liam Cooper limped off but he is hoping there will be no more bad news. He added: “I spoke to him straight after the game. It looks like a knee on knee collision, sore for a couple of days. Fingers crossed it should be fine.
“I s**t myself. Of course I was worried. Every time someone goes down, you get a collision, you stay down. You get some who try to pull the wool over the referee’s eyes but Liam doesn’t stay down very often.
“I was trying to get a message down – obviously I watched the game from higher up – to the bench saying, ‘Any doubt, get him off’. That’s what we did.”
Clarke didn’t risk 18-year-old attacker Ben Doak while handing Ross McCrorie a debut. On Liverpool kid Doak, the gaffer said: “He has had a little reaction to the two training days, so we just decided not to risk him.
“Ross was good. He acquitted himself quite well. He was up and down the line and he was always available for the ball. One or two crosses could have been a little bit better but he’s not the only one on the pitch you can say that about.”