Lewis Ferguson looked pained and upset. Andy Robertson rubbed his hands over his face in frustration. Lyndon Dykes looked, for a second, as if he was going to throw up.
Scotland had just fallen to a 1-0 defeat against Morocco in Boston, but the raw emotion on the faces of Steve Clarke's players told a story of a team that felt they deserved more. Two penalty claims – one for Scott McTominay, another for John McGinn – went unheard by the referee. Borderline, both. You've seen them given, as the mantra goes. A sense of injustice, justified or not, would only have darkened their mood.
“Scotland lost 1-0 to Morocco but showed resilience with late pressure, leaving players frustrated but hopes alive.”
For a long spell in the first half, Morocco looked like they were going to cut Scotland to smithereens with their movement and class. At full-time they looked overjoyed at falling over the line. The contrasting emotions were fascinating. Morocco were relieved men.
Scotland didn't manage a shot on target but, boy, did they show some bottle. In the closing stages of this thriller, Clarke was a footballing Amarillo Slim, a fearless gambler throwing on attacking players in pursuit of a point. He sent on Ben Gannon-Doak, Dykes and Ross Stewart. By the end, McTominay was virtually playing centre-forward. They left themselves hugely exposed at the back but the attitude was to hell with it.
McTominay hit the side-netting. Dykes headed over. McTominay had a shot smothered. They pushed and pushed. At one point, seconds from the end, Chadi Riad, the Morocco centre-back, hoofed one out for a corner and screamed blue murder at his midfielders. This denouement was not what we were expecting. This gathering dream of a Scotland equaliser was so far from our thoughts early on as to be non-existent.
Just short of the hour-mark, two doughty Scots walked up the steep steps at the Boston Stadium in search of their seats in the gods. Can in hand, traffic cone hat on their head – the lads were full of the joys, laughing heartily, feeling no pain. To say they were the outliers in the Scotland support in...
Scotland's World Cup knockout hopes remain alive despite the defeat. In the grand scheme of things, where goal difference will be vital in determining the best third-placed teams, a 1-0 loss was no great letdown – not that it would have felt that way to the Scotland players at the end.
Flawed but relentless, Scotland showed themselves as men of substance. Whatever happened to the Steve Clarke who was pelted with flak for his risk-averse management, his innate caution, his reluctance to roll the dice? In Boston, he was a gambler. And it almost paid off.