He failed as a player Rangers fc star was sent home from international duty after a brawl with a teammate on the pitch

Scotland reaction: Steve Clarke riles at boos, no opposition apology, rued Scott McTominay moment

The goals, glory and drama of November against Denmark felt like a very long time ago as Scotland were booed off the pitch after a 1-0 loss to Japan at Hampden.

The result continued the international side’s terrible home record in friendlies. It is now no wins in eleven since a 1-0 win over Denmark in 2016.

Manager Steve Clarke expressed surprise that the good vibes from the World Cup qualifying win over the Danes 130 days earlier had not earned his players more grace from the Tartan Army. Some fans were merciless in their condemnation at the end of a game where Junya Ito’s goal with six minutes left proved decisive in front of a healthy crowd of 44,644.

Yes – and disappointed me, I’ve got to be honest,” Clarke said afterwards, when asked if the booing had surprised him. “Look, it’s just the modern way. It seems to be, now, that if you lose a game you get booed. You’ve just got to deal with it. But it disappoints me.”

While disappointed to lose, Clarke said the quality of Japan had to be taken into account. “First of all you have to look at the quality of the opposition player. They are a top class team.”

He noted Japanese manager Hajime Moriyasu brought on experienced substitutes, including the 33-year-old scorer of the winning goal. All of Japan’s starting XI played their club football in Europe. According to Clarke, the in-game switches made them even stronger.

I chose to go the opposite way because I felt I needed to give players minutes on the pitch,” he said. He added that there would be “significant changes” against Ivory Coast in Liverpool on Tuesday night.

“I didn’t think it would be a low scoring game, it was,” Clarke continued. “Even the goal we conceded came from a bad choice to go forward too early and we were not organised after defending a set play. We can learn little lessons. It shows if you make bad decisions against top teams you get punished.

It’s not a game we wanted to lose but there is enough in it to still feel positive about what we are trying to do,” the manager accepted. “This is the level you have to reach if you want to get out of the group stages, you have to play to that standard,’ he added.

Clarke was not about to apologise for selecting tough opposition for friendlies. Another top side will be lining up against Scotland at Everton’s Hill Dickinson stadium. Ivory Coast defeated South Korea 4-0 in Milton Keynes at the same time as Scotland were struggling to break Japan down.

“I sometimes think my players look at me and think, ‘C’mon gaffer, what are you doing?’ But I always try and pick difficult friendlies. We have another really tough game on Tuesday night in Liverpool against Ivory Coast and we will try and get a positive result. If the performance is good then you can take things from the performance. You can also carry that forward as well. This is the level you have to reach and off you want to get the points to get out the group stage then you have to play to that standard.”

The manager rued Scott McTominay’s failure to score for the second match running at Hampden. The Napoli star had a more straightforward chance than the overhead kick he executed against Denmark late last year, but he watched goalkeeper Zion Suzuki deflect his close-range shot onto the post.

The one you are looking at is Scott’s chance near the start, it’s a big chance,” he said “If he scores that then maybe it would have led to more chances. Listen, Scott has enough goals, he gets in the right position. It was a good chance to to score but we did not do it.

“The end result is always important,” he said. “We spoke about that before the game. We spoke about how our record in friendlies is not as good as it should be. We also spoke about performance. I thought our performance tonight was OK. They are a good team but it is disappointing to lose the game. It is not a game we should have lost if I am being honest. We will go away and analyse the details. One or two things I thought were decent.

“We defended quite well, the two centre-backs (Scott McKenna and Jack Hendry), Angus Gunn was really good in goals. It is nice to see young Tommy (Conway) starting the game, he showed up well.”