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To become longest serving
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Steve Clarke insisted a ‘draw wouldn’t be a disaster’ before Scotland’s pivotal World Cup qualifier against Greece but the nightmare scenario looked inevitable for an hour at Hampden. Scotland were utterly abject in front of a capacity home support and Clarke’s critics were sharpening their knives when Kostas Tsimikas fired the visitors ahead in Glasgow on 62 minutes.
Greece fully deserved their lead as they pinned Scotland back for large spells and dominated possession but falling behind appeared to be the catalyst for Clarke’s men to wake up and mount a spirited comeback. Just two minutes after Tsimikas’ opener, Hampden erupted as Ryan Christie equalised with Scotland’s first shot on target. It wasn’t pretty as the Bournemouth midfielder’s effort deflected past the Greek goalkeeper but it galvanised the hosts and inspired them to a famous win. Lewis Ferguson proved to be the Tartan Army’s hero with his first international goal before Lyndon Dykes added gloss to the scoreline to leave Scotland in a brilliant position to end 28 years of pain by qualifying for the World Cup.
Clarke’s relationship with Scotland fans seems to rise and fall in a cyclical pattern depending on what competition the national team finds itself in. While fans can certainly point to poor performances at international tournaments, with Scotland crashing out of Euro 2020 and Euro 2024 with just three goals scored and not a single win to their name across six games, few could doubt that the 62-year-old tactician has become something of an expert when it comes to guiding the national team through qualifying campaigns. And that’s evident when we take a look at Clarke’s record to date and Scotland could secure a play-off place for the 2026 World Cup on Sunday - when the former Kilmarnock boss will become the longest serving Scotland boss.
Steve Clarke's impressive Scotland record
When we break Clarke’s time with Scotland down into different competitions, we can see that the Scot clearly thrives in qualifying competitions. After this international break, the Scotland manager can boast an incredibly impressive record of 2.14 points per game in World Cup qualifying games. That should come as no great surprise to Scotland fans, with Clarke guiding the nation to a play-off spot in his first World Cup qualifying campaign, only to then lose said play-off to Ukraine. But the start to this year’s campaign certainly suggests that the nation may be in a good spot to qualify for their first World Cup since 1998.
That impressive record in qualifying games is almost matched by an equally strong average of 1.94 points per game in qualifying games for European Championships. As previously noted, Clarke guided Scotland to Euro 2020 and Euro 2024, winning dramatic play-offs against Israel and Serbia to qualify for the former to help Scotland get to their first international tournament in 22 years. Clarke’s record in the Nations League has notably dipped in recent years, but that’s largely because of the national team winning promotion to League A last year, where they won just two of their six games against top-tier opponents. As such, his record in these tournaments stands at a slightly lower average of 1.65 points per game.
Although fans may still wish to note the 0.3 points per game Clarke has average in international tournaments, as we can see from the graph above, the current Scotland manager still outperforms most of his predecessors in the job when it comes to winning qualifying games. Not only does Clarke have to contend with more games and perhaps even better opposition with regards to the Nations League, but he’s also got an impressive average of 1.91 points per game that bests all other Scotland managers since Craig Brown stepped down from the national team in 2001.
