The national team captain wasn't making any excuses but offered a defence after back-to-back friendly defeats
06:00, 02 Apr 2026
Scotland captain Andy Robertson
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Scotland captain Andy Robertson(Image: Getty Images)
When Andy Robertson emerged from the dressing room at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, it wasn’t just Scotland’s result on his mind.
The skipper was also acutely aware of the score from Wembley too. England 0-1 Japan. It turns out the team Scotland lost narrowly to at Hampden on Saturday aren’t that bad a side after all.
For some of the Tartan Army, a defeat to the Japanese was so unpalatable they felt Steve Clarke’s team deserved to be booed off the park because of it. So what does that say about Thomas Tuchel’s all-conquering, previously unbeaten Three Lions?
Robertson wasn’t making excuses for the weekend loss - or the 1-0 defeat to Ivory Coast on Tuesday night. He merely highlighted England’s result to offer punters some perspective.
It’s been an international break where everyone seems to have gotten a bit carried away. Scotland are going to a World Cup, for goodness sake. For the first time in 28 years.
This summer’s American extravaganza will be our third major tournament out of four under Clarke. Other European nations must wish they were in Scotland’s shoes.
Just ask Italy, who lost on penalties to Bosnia in a play-off on Tuesday night to ensure they missed out on their THIRD World Cup in a row. Poland also crashed out, as did Denmark who we seen off in spectacular fashion in qualification.
Last week, it was heartbreak for Wales, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland, who will also be watching from afar as Scotland take part in the greatest show on earth. Of course, our two warm-up games against Japan and Ivory Coast didn’t exactly go to plan, when it comes to scoring goals and winning games.
But Robertson, an experienced campaigner, called for a bit of calm.
He said: “In the Japan game, there was some good stuff and some not so good stuff from us. But they’ve just gone and beaten England at Wembley so they’re a fantastic team.
“Ivory Coast are a good team as well. They’re used to qualifying for tournaments and that’s the level we need to get up to. That’s why the gaffer takes those games. We could easily take on friendlies where we’ll win 3-0 or 4-0.
Japan celebrate their win at Wembley
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Japan celebrate their win at Wembley(Image: Getty Images)
“But we want to play games that will challenge us, test us and cause us problems. And for large parts, I think we stood up to that.
“There’s stuff to work on for us, but there was also real positives. In the last half hour against Ivory Coast I thought we were really good.
“The fans reacted off that and got right behind us. Look, we hate getting beat and we don’t want to get beat. But we also have to try things.
“We made nine changes on Tuesday night and tried a system that’s worked for us in the past but one we’ve not played in a while. That’s why we had a few issues in the first half.
“But in the second, we were really at it. We kept going right to the end. Should we have got an equaliser? Yeah, we should have.”
Clarke used the Ivory Coast fixture on Merseyside as a trial run for a 3-5-2 system. He’s gone with three at the back before - it helped us qualify for Euro 2024 - but using two strikers in that system was different.
And it might have offered up a clue as to what he’s planning for Scotland’s World Cup opener against minnows Haiti on June 14 in Boston.
On Tuesday night, the Scots DID have more attacking threat but still lost out to Nicolas Pepe's first-half winner. Robertson knows how useful it is to have the ability to switch for different opponents.
He said: “It’s important going into a tournament to have different formations we can switch to, of course it is. Every game is different. We’ll play three differnet teams and our aim is to get out of the group stage.
“So we’ll have to play different systems and that’s why Saturday and Tuesday were important. You never know what might happen with injuries and suspensions over there. We always need to be ready to react. We’ve used two systems now and come the summer, we’ll be able to do both.”
Clarke’s team created more chances against the Africans than they did when Japan visited Hampden. But goalscoring continues to be a problem for Scotland.
Fans were spoiled in that glory game against Denmark when Scott McTominay, Kieran Tierney and Kenny McLean produced three of the best finishes in the national team’s history.
Scotland frontman George Hirst
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Scotland frontman George Hirst(Image: Paul Currie/Shutterstock)
That was a rarity for Scotland on the type of night which might never be repeated.
Ahead of the World Cup, Clarke would gladly take a couple of tap-ins to get us scoring again.
And against Ivory Coast, young Ipswich striker George Hirst impressed up front.
Robertson believes the front-man can be an asset for his adopted country - and told supporters the team WILL hit the goal trail again.
Hopefully, that will be in our big Hampden send-off game against Curacau in March.
He said: “I thought George was excellent on Tuesday night. He was a guy wanting to show the manager what he’s got. He’s full of energy and he caused Ivory Coast problems. He’ll be frustrated he didn’t hit the target with a couple of things.
“But he was a threat up top and we’re happy with big Hirsty. There were a lot of good performances on Tuesday night, despite the nine changes.
“Come the summer, everyone will be positive. We’ve shown in the past there’s goals in this team.
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“Of course, it’s frustrating to lose two 1-0 games and we don’t score, especially after the excitement of November when we scored some ridiculous goals.
“We wanted to score more but we created chances and just couldn’t get it in the back of the net.
“Hopefully the lads were saving it for the summer and it will come. “That’s the plan, hopefully when we get over there we can show that in front of goal.”