Steve Clarke will mark his 72nd game as Scotland manager against Belarus on Sunday, surpassing Craig Brown as the nation's longest-serving manager in terms of matches. Despite the milestone, Clarke insists the focus remains on World Cup qualification.
“I’d be a bit daft if I wasn’t proud because I’m the first guy to reach that amount of games,” Clarke said. “It’s nice, but that’s a little personal thing at the moment. It shouldn’t be about me. It’s about the team and it’s about trying to get to the World Cup.”
Scotland’s 1-0 win over Greece on Thursday leaves them level on points with Group C leaders Denmark, trailing only on goal difference. With matches against Greece and Denmark still to come, Clarke stressed the importance of taking full points from Belarus, who conceded six goals to Denmark in their last outing.
“If you want to qualify, these are the games you have to win,” Clarke said. “You have to give yourself a platform to play against the bigger nations. If you drop points to the teams ranked below you, it makes qualification very difficult.”
Clarke acknowledged that Belarus would be organised and difficult to break down, but urged his players to approach the game properly and create chances to excite the crowd. “The crowd need to back the players, the players need to give the crowd something to shout about,” he added.
