Steve Clarke reserves big praise for 'outstanding' Rangers star who did something unexpected in heroic display
The Rangers star has been praised by his national team manager.
Steve Clarke had praise for a Rangers star after a huge Scotland win.
Fans in Warsaw were left delighted as the national team secured a 2-1 victory over Poland. Scotland were heading for relegation from Nations League A after finding themselves in a tough section that alongside Poland, included Portugal and Croatia.
Rangers defender John Souttar chipped in the cross for Andy Robertson to head home in second half stoppage time. The Ibrox man was one of Clarke’s top performers and Rangers will hope to see similar performances play out domestically.
Alongside Norwich City’s Grant Hanley who also earned acclaim after heroic defending, Scotland boss Clarke hailed the Ibrox man even if he was surprised after Souttar unexpectedly floated in a brilliant cross for the winner. He said: “I'm really pleased for the supporters, a good way to end this part of the Nations League campaign.
“Obviously we've got a little bit longer now that we've managed to secure a playoff, so look forward to the games in March. It was a very open game, a game of a lot of chances. So we always felt that maybe one more chance would come, maybe not from the source it actually came from, but fantastic cross from John Souttar who was outstanding defensively, him and Grant Hanley.
“Fantastic cross, great header for the captain and nice way to finish the game. The more you play at this level the better you get. We started with three defeats, three narrow defeats with good performances. The players didn't lose belief, I didn't lose belief in the players and they end up taking seven points for the last three games which gets us into that playoff.
“I think when you look towards the end of the game we've made five changes. Players are coming onto the pitch, I think the depth of squad is good, we're still missing another three or four players who can probably add to that depth of squad. So hopefully going into next year they're all fit and they make my job hell of a difficult.”
Victory means Scotland live to fight another day in Nations League A, with a play-off to come as they look to preserve their status. They also have an outside chance of moving from Pot Three to Pot Two for World Cup qualifying.