'We know we've got to be better'

SCOTLAND remain on course to qualify for next year’s World Cup after tonight’s 2-1 home win over Belarus.

But the players themselves admitted afterwards that Steve Clarke’s side will need to play miles better if they’re to achieve that goal.

The Scots had been fortunate in coming from behind to beat Greece at Hampden on Thursday night.

They had been expected to have a much easier evening of it against Belarus, the whipping boys of the qualifying group.

But instead it was much of the same, with too much perspiration and not enough inspiration.

Che Adams’ first-half goal seemed to give Scotland the platform to go on and win comfortably.

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Instead, it was Belarus who continued to look the more dangerous.

There was a heart-in-the-mouth moment when the visitors looked to have equalised through Evgeni Malashevich.

But Scotland enjoyed a let-off when VAR ruled it out for a foul on Scott McTominay in the build-up.

The Napoli ace then sealed the win with his side’s second after 84 minutes.

There were still some nervy moments late on after Gleb Kuchko got one back for the visitors.

And there were boos all around the stadium once the final whistle sounded.

Scotland can book their place at the World Cup with two wins against Denmark and Greece next month.

But McTominay admitted they would need to play MILES better than they’ve shown this week.

He told BBC Scotland: “This camp’s been good in terms of points picked up – but we know we’ve got to be better.

“We need to show much more than we are at the minute, me included. It’s difficult to put into words how much quality I see in training.

“Sometimes in games it comes out here and there, but we’ve got to give more.

“The manager had every right not to be happy at half-time. It’s down to us to show it on the pitch.

“He’s a fantastic manager and we want to repay him by getting to another tournament.”

Defender Scott McKenna revealed that Clarke had been raging with the team at the break.

He said: “At half-time we came in 1-0 up but the manager was furious with us and rightly so.

“We struggled to win first balls and we certainly didn’t win any second balls.

“We made life really difficult for ourselves.

“Belarus probably looked more dangerous than us across the 90 minutes.”

Skipper Andy Robertson admitted it felt more like a DEFEAT than a win.

He sighed: “It doesn’t feel like a win at the minute.

“I think you can see that by our reaction at the end which is hugely frustrating.

“The performance is nowhere near where we need it to be.

“At the start of the week we would have taken the six points and we can look back in November at where we are.

“But currently walking off the pitch it doesn’t feel good.

“We gave them far too many chances. I don’t know if we were tired from Thursday night, we put a lot into that one, but that’s no excuse.

“We weren’t good on or off the ball, at times we did well. We could have, with slightly better decision making, had a couple more chances.

“It’s a hugely frustrating night, we felt that in the stands, I didn’t quite understand it on Thursday but I understand it tonight.

‘We know we’ve got to be better’