John Souttar accepts Scotland deserved Tartan Army booing as wagons circle around Cieran Slicker

Daily Record

13 hours ago

The fans were lessed than impressed by yet another Hampden friendly defeat as Iceland ran out 3-1 winners over Steve Clarke's men
Cieran Slicker must have felt like the loneliest man in the world when he walked off the Hampden pitch.
He'd just earned his first Scotland cap against Iceland but the young keeper froze on the night.
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After replacing injured Angus Gunn after just six minutes, he was always going to be under pressure. And unfortunately for him and Steve Clarke, the 22-year-old Ipswich stopper buckled under it.
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Slicker was at fault for all three Iceland goals as the Scots suffered yet another friendly defeat.
Goals from Andri Gudjohnsen, Victor Palsson and a Lewis Ferguson OG inflicted a painful loss. And by the end, you had to feel sorry for Scotland's kid keeper.
But as he trudged out of the national stadium, he at least had the backing of his team-mates.
John Souttar should have been talking about his second international goal after he pulled it back to 2-1 in the first half.
But instead, the Rangers defender was invariably asked about Slicker and refused to put any of the blame on the goalie's shoulders.
It's a team game, after all. And Souttar was honest enough to admit Scotland as a whole were nowhere near good enough.
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Even Clarke's best players failed to turn up for a warm-up game that did nothing to boost confidence before the World Cup qualifiers which kick off in September.
Souttar insists they were ALL culpable, not just young Slicker. He said: 'I haven't spoken to Ciaran yet but tonight was a collective and everyone has to take responsibility.
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'Will it be a learning experience for him? I'm sure it will be and everyone has had it in their career before.
'But the result is collective. I don't think any of us could say we were great in the game so it's on all of us tonight.
'We were poor. I don't think we did enough on the ball and we didn't create enough chances.
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'Iceland kept the ball better than us and moved us about.
'Games like this at Hampden, we want to dominate, press high and get the crowd going. But tonight we didn't do that.'
Maybe in Scotland we're guilty of reading too much into friendly games. But our record in these matches is abysmal. Clarke has been boss for 12 now - and won just two against Luxembourg and Gibraltar.
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Clarke's side looked jaded and as if they're desperate to be on a beach somewhere at the end of a long campaign.
But Souttar was refusing to use tiredness as an excuse. Scotland were jeered off at half-time and full-time by the Tartan Army and the centre-back admits it was justified.
He said: 'It's difficult because the boys have played all season but Iceland have been the same. Their players have been doing that too.
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'We have to go into the game on Monday against Liechtenstein and get some momentum back ahead of the internationals in September.
'It's not great (the booing) and you don't want to be part of that. But the fans are great, they pay their money so they can boo if they want.
'We weren't good enough in the first half. It's not great to hear but it's part and parcel of football. But the fans are great when we win.'
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Scotland have now conceded six goals in their last two games - a 3-0 defeat at home to Greece in the Nations League play-off and last night's loss.
Souttar prides himself on keeping the door shut at the back and that's why he's adamant it has to improve before Denmark away in September.
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Despite the ropey form, he's convinced that when the serious stuff begins in Copenhagen, Clarke's boys will be ready.
He said: 'We went through a spell where we were keeping clean sheets and defending well towards the end of the last campaign.
'Even against Greece in the first game over there we defended well. But the last two games haven't been good enough and everyone is well aware of that.
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'We need to be better, this was a friendly but it's important we put it right in September because that's the big one.
'I'm sure if we do that, there will be a much better atmosphere.
'You never want to go into a game wanting to lose, never. But if this time next year we are in a good position to go to a World Cup, then things will feel a lot better.
'The next few months are huge because the games are coming again in September. We need to get some momentum going again.'