Scotland 0-1 Northern Ireland: Three things we learned

By Laurie Finlayson

Over 33,000 fans were in attendance to see Scotland take on Northern Ireland

Scotland fell to a 1-0 defeat to Northern Ireland at Hampden, extending Steve Clarke’s side’s winless run to seven matches. Let’s look at the key talking points from the friendly:

Northern Ireland neutralise Scotland

Scotland came into this one off the back of a demoralising 4-0 defeat against the Netherlands in Amsterdam on Friday night. That was a game in which, despite the scoreline, Scotland played well for large parts, except for a late second-half collapse. Northern Ireland drew 1-1 with Romania in their previous outing in this international break.

The Tartan Army were expecting their team to bounce back from Friday’s disappointment, but it was clearly still hanging over the team. The home side dominated possession but were wasteful and let errors creep into their game.

One of those mistakes would eventually prove costly for Scotland when out of favour Everton full-back Nathan Patterson cheaply surrendered possession to Liverpool youngster Conor Bradley, who scored his first international goal with the help of a deflection beyond Scotland goalkeeper Angus Gunn after 32 minutes.

Michael O’Neil’s side were rewarded for their solid defence shape which proved effective in countering the attacking threat that the Scots posed. Despite it not being a competitive fixture, this is something of a historic victory for the visitors as it’s the first time they’ve tasted victory in Scotland since 1974.

The stats don’t tell the full story

If you weren’t at or didn’t watch the match and based your opinions solely on stats, you would be forgiven for thinking that Scotland were somewhat unfortunate to lose the game. After all, they did have 82% possession and had 14 shots while Northern Ireland just hit four.

However, Scotland were wasteful with those 14 attempts, only managing to get two on target, both of which were in the second half. The visitors only had one. But what raw stats don’t account for is Northern Ireland’s collective effort. They defended as a unit, stuck to their task valiantly, struck when it mattered and got the result their endeavour merited.

O'Neill can be proud of his team’s showing (Image: Getty Images)

Scotland need to step up before the summer

It is, of course, a big summer for the Scotland National Team with the European Championships in Germany fast approaching. In recent times, there has been a feel-good factor around the team and the country as a whole, after an impressive qualifying campaign, but that optimism is waning with the recent downturn in form.

The team are without a win in seven, albeit four of those matches have been friendlies. Non-competitive matches should be used to experiment and try out new things, especially ahead of a major tournament as having a ‘Plan B’ is important. Scotland appears to lack one of those at the moment with a distinct absence of natural wide players in the squad as Clarke appears married to the narrow back three shape which has brought success in recent years.

Clarke has plenty to ponder over the coming months (Image: Getty Images)

To make matters worse, captain Andy Robertson was forced off with an ankle injury after 37 minutes. Clarke and the Tartan Army will be hoping this is nothing sinister and the Liverpool left-back will be fighting fit for the flight to Germany in June.

Before hitting the streets of Germany, Clarke’s side have two warm-up matches: One against Gibraltar in Portugal on June 3 and one at home to Finland on June 7, a week before opening Euro 2024 in Munich.

SportLaurie Finlayson