'Understated start shows Clarke's Scotland are back in the game'

As ever, Steve Clarke was heroically deadpan, talking up his team's honesty and work-rate in securing a valuable World Cup qualification point against Denmark in Copenhagen, but only going so far.

Clarke does praise, but in moderation. He approaches such things with suspicion. He can smell hype at a thousand paces. He salutes his players for their endeavour and their pride, but perspective is never far away when he's around.

He smiled - we think - at a promising start to Scotland's bid to make a first World Cup since 1998. He said nothing of the potential psychology of the night, but it was obvious.

In taking a point from the Parken, Scotland have damaged one of their two main rivals in the group. In what is more of a sprint than a marathon - six games all told - they've already put Denmark on the back foot.

The Danes have to go to Greece on Monday and they'll be underdogs now. Greece are an emerging force who did Scotland 3-0 at Hampden in March before taking care of Bulgaria 4-0 and Slovakia 4-1. They hammered Belarus 5-1 on Friday.

Come Monday, if Greece continue their excellent form, Denmark's campaign might be in considerable trouble with one point from a possible six. Scotland could have four, if they do the necessary against Belarus in Budapest.

We're projecting here, but there's no harm in that. Clarke's team have Greece and Belarus at home in the next window. If they go into it with four points from six they'll be feeling good about themselves. There's no need to be giddy, but there are reasons to be hopeful.

This is not all that normal when it comes to Scotland and World Cup qualification. Too often since their last nod in 1998, their aspirations have suffered early on.

In the qualification for the 2018 World Cup they won one of their first four games. Four years before that they started with two home draws and effectively took themselves out of the running. Four years before that they lost to Macedonia in their first game and won only one of their first four.

It was even worse in qualifying for the 2006 World Cup - the lights went out early with a home draw against Slovenia, a home loss against Norway and one from their next two games. Done.

Clarke's never too up and never too down. Against a Denmark team that is ranked 26 places above them in the rankings, Scotland worked like demons and deserved their point. A draw on the road against the supposed best team in the group was a sound start.

When his team was announced there would have been confusion about the inclusion of Lyndon Dykes - he was impressively combative throughout the night - and probably more of the same anger that greets every Scotland team that has Grant Hanley in defence.

Clarke picks him nearly every time - and Hanley was outstanding. An old school defender who loves defending. "A magnet to the ball," said former Scotland captain and centre-half Willie Miller in the BBC Radio Scotland Sportsound studio. And if you are minded to disagree with the great man better bring your A game.

What was admirable was that a number of these Scotland players have not had easy beginnings to their season. Angus Gunn has not played a club game since last May. Lewis Ferguson has been an unused substitute in Bologna's two games this season. Che Adams is in and out with Torino. Dykes has started one of Birmingham's six games.

Aaron Hickey, has just returned to football after nearly two years out injured. With Brentford he had 77 minutes of action under his belt since October 2023 before facing Denmark. In his 70 minutes with Scotland it looked like he'd never been away. His performance was massively impressive and reassuring, He's still only 23 years old.

Andy Robertson has had to deal with the loss of his Liverpool team-mate and friend, Diogo Jota. He spoke about that the other day - and it was powerful. Robertson, and his team, stood up really well in Copenhagen. It wasn't all-singing, all-dancing. Nobody can claim it was a thing of wonder, but it was a performance built on grit and it was a point that could matter a great deal in the next few months.

It's difficult to keep track of the number of times Clarke has been written off as Scotland head coach, so let's just say that we've been in the movie once or twice since his appointment more than six years ago.

There were those early games - played four, lost four, goals for one, goals against 13. There was the disappointment of a winless Euros in 2021, the World Cup exit at Hampden at the hands of Ukraine in 2022, followed by the mind-alteringly poor 3-0 loss to a Republic of Ireland team that couldn't buy a win before arriving at Hampden.

There was one win in 16 games between 2023-2024 and four losses in a row, the worst of them being that soulless defeat by Hungary at the Euros in Germany. Calls for Clarke to go really did hit a crescendo that summer.

And then there was the new wave of disbelievers when Greece and Iceland came to Hampden and won 3-0 and 3-1 and weren't flattered by their margin of victory. If you'd asked Scotland fans about the trip to Denmark they might have said they were travelling more in hope than expectation.

That's still a wise mindset when thinking about how the rest of this group might pan out - confidence laced with caution, positivity laced with prudence. They're up and running, though. Clarke, the man with so many ups and downs in this gig, is back in the game.

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