Steve Clarke says Scotland players understand what they have to do to reach World Cup

Steve Clarke says his Scotland players “understand what they have to do” to end the national team’s 28-year wait to take part in a World Cup.

Greece and Belarus are next up in a Hampden double header on Thursday and Sunday that could put the Tartan Army one step closer to the tournament being held in North America next summer.

If Scotland take all six points, it will put them in a commanding position with two games remaining in the qualifying section.

Speaking to the media on Wednesday, the manager said: “We are focused and determined, the players understand that every game in the qualification campaign is really important to get as many points as possible.

“Obviously, we managed to pick up four points from two away games last month, and we’d like to pick up as many as we can this month that would put us into a good place in November.

“The players understand what they have to do.”

Greece last played in Scotland back in March when they won 3-0 to overturn a 1-0 deficit from Athens that earned them promotion in the Nations League and consigned Clarke’s men to relegation.

Clarke insists they will have to put in a better performance this time around, but believes they showed enough over the two games to give them belief that they can cause their opponents problems.

He said: “We have to play better (than the last game against Greece at Hampden), in March we gave away goals that are not really part of our makeup, we don’t normally defend or give goals away like we did that game.

“There were some moments in the first 30 minutes when I think we showed we can be a threat to Greece, we’d obviously won the game over there.

“They looked a bit fresher on the night, that’s not the case this time, we have pretty much as strong a squad as we can have and the lads will be ready for it.

“So, hopefully a different game and a different outcome.”

The last manager to take Scotland to a World Cup was Craig Brown in 1998, when the team qualified for the tournament being held in France.

Clarke will equal Brown’s long-held record for the number of games in charge of the national team against Greece, before making the record his own in the game with Belarus.

And while he is honoured to reach the milestone, he insists the full focus is on the task at hand and the time to look back will be at the end of his career.

He said: “I’ve enjoyed it. When you take the job, you don’t think you’re going to be in for six and a half years, with as many games under your belt as I have.

“I’ve been lucky enough to work with a really good and consistent squad of players who have done ever so well for me, all the coaches have helped me, to get to this stage is really nice, but at the moment my only focus is on qualifying for the World Cup next year.

“I haven’t really thought too much about it to be honest, milestones and career marks, I had a pretty decent career as a player, and I’ve had a half-decent career up to now as a manager and I don’t think I am finished yet.

“Let me finish then we can look back on it and I’ll tell you exactly how I feel about it.

“Craig was great, obviously we lost him fairly recently, he was always very supportive and had good words of advice, and that was much appreciated by me.

“He’d probably point out that I hadn’t qualified for a World Cup yet and he had, of course he would, and he’d probably also point out that he should have dug his heels in and stayed a little bit longer, and then maybe he would have been the guy to qualify for three tournaments and set a different benchmark.

“Craig was a good man, we knew each other for a long time and I did forgive him for not picking me enough when he was manager of the national team.”