STEVE CLARKE has admitted he’s finding Scotland’s current barren run ‘horrible’ to endure - as he eyes a victory against the odds in Zagreb on Saturday night.
A year after qualifying for the Euros, the side have won just one of their past 14 matches - a friendly against Gibraltar - with the last competitive win last achieved in Cyprus on September 8 last year.
For all that Clarke took on friendlies against top sides like France and England to prepare for the summer tournament, losses to nations including Northern Ireland and Hungary have added to the litany of recent disappointments.
And while he remains confident his injury-ravaged squad can buck that trend by taking a positive result from the Maksimir Stadium, the Scotland boss says there’s no escaping how difficult the current situation is. ‘It’s horrible — right.
Not winning games, it’s horrible,’ he said. ‘But I have to try and look at the big picture.
Head coach Steve Clarke admits he is desperate to end Scotland's winless run
Steve Clarke keeps an eye on training in Glasgow ahead of the Croatia match in Zagreb
Jack Mackenzie, Scott McTominay and Liam Lindsay share a laugh in training
‘I’m not saying we’re using this campaign to prepare for the next qualifying campaign. But there is an element of that, where we can use these matches to try and prepare ourselves.
Because the ultimate aim for me, I’ve already spoken about it, is I would love to go to a World Cup, the finals, with my country.
And that’s the challenge that I’m focused on.’
Already without a host of key players including Kieran Tierney, Jack Hendry and John McGinn, Clarke’s hopes were dealt another blow when James Forrest was left behind in Scotland after missing training through an injury.
Forrest hasn’t yet been ruled out of Tuesday’s match with Portugal at Hampden but it seems almost certain he will miss that, too.
‘He’s not with us,’ Clarke added. ‘He felt something in training the other day, so we decided he’s to stay at home. He’ll be assessed and then we’ll decide, his club will decide, whether we pick him up after we go back to Glasgow.’
Despite missing a raft of players, Clarke believes the team can still produce a performance which can see them spring a surprise.
‘Of course we can compete. If we didn’t think we could compete we could have stayed at home.
If we’re here to compete we’re here to get hopefully a win on the board, at least a point on the board. We have a good squad.
‘The injuries are there for everyone to see, but I don’t think there’s too much point in having to worry about injuries.
It’s better just to concentrate on the boys we have here.’
Meanwhile, Clarke expressed his disappointment that tonight’s game won’t be shown live on TV.
Viaplay hold the rights to all Scotland matches in a deal which runs until 2028.
But having scaled back their operation in the UK market last year, the Norwegian broadcaster opted to sell on the rights to last month’s matches against Poland and Portugal to ITV as well as allowing Premier Sports to take up some club matches.
It had been widely hoped that similar arrangement would be put in place to allow armchair supporters to watch Clarke’s men take on the Croats but neither ITV nor the BBC have stepped up.
Fans wanting to see the live action will only be able to access it on Viaplay’s YouTube channel with only those pubs equipped with Smart TVs able to screen it.
It’s understood that supporters of other nations experienced problems accessing reliable feeds in games played last week.
Clarke said: ‘You’ve got to be disappointed that nobody’s picked it up and put it on television.
‘It would be nice for them to sit and watch the team and hopefully we can play as well as we did last month and come out with good results.’
Asked if he found it curious that England’s games were on TV and not his own nation’s, he smiled: ‘I’m not getting involved with that.
But I have the same feeling for the Scotland fans back home.
That’s the first thing, to be disappointed.’