Ryan Christie and James Forrest were left on the bench last night as Scotland crashed to a 4-0 defeat against Russia.
It was a fourth successive defeat for Steve Clarke’s side with the former Kilmarnock boss opting to start with Robert Snodgrass and John Fleck ahead of the Celtic duo.
In truth it was a match best avoided with Christie sent on to join Callum McGregor with the score at 3-0 when he replaced Ryan Fraser of Bournemouth.
With three matches left to play Scotland are sitting in fifth place in Group I behind Cyprus and Kazakhistan who have to be faced in the closing fixtures next month.
Explaining the decision to select Snodgrass and Fleck ahead of the Celtic duo Clarke told the Daily Record:
I don’t think we went out of the game for the personnel or the team shape, or the way we set up the tactics. We went out the game because we switched off from a corner and the fragile in confidence let the game run away from us.
Over the next two days Clarke will have the job of trying to talk up the value of a Sunday tea-time clash with San Marino.Last night San Marino crashed to their second 9-0 defeat of the campaign when they lost to Belgium in Brussels.
It took Belgium until the 28th minute to open the scoring, if that is repeated at a half empty Hampden on Sunday the Tartan Army may be on the point of complete desertion.
Five goals in two matches from Forrest allowed Scotland to top their Nations League group ahead of Israel and Albania to create a back door play-off route to next summer’s European Championship Finals.
