Steve Clarke admits Scotland winless run must end as he defends Lawrence Shankland over Netherlands miss

Even Dutch manager Ronald Koeman admitted that, for the first hour, Scotland were the better team.

The Scots acquitted themselves superbly well for the most part but suffered for late collapses in concentrations as the hosts racked up another three goals after Tijjani Reijnders handed them a first-half lead against the run of play.

Shankland found himself with just ‘keeper Mark Flekken to beat on 62 minutes after Scott McTominay robbed Mats Wiefer on the edge of the Dutch player’s own box. The Hearts striker lifted the ball past Flekken but saw it hit the top of the bar and go over. Had he scored it would have made it 1-1. He also saw an earlier header loop over on an otherwise positive 67-minute outing.

“He is a striker,” said Clarke. “People forget that strikers miss a lot of goals as well as score a lot of goals. You have to be in the right position and do the right thing. Lawrence will score goals in the future. I thought his all-round play tonight was good, he didn’t let himself down.”

Ryan Christie also saw a header tipped onto the bar by Flekken when it was still goalless. “We had the same amount of shots (13) as the Netherlands," pointed out Clarke. "They were clinical, we weren’t clinical enough. That’s something we can work on.

"If we get the 1-0 with Ryan Christie's header it can be a totally different night but there is not point talking about it we have to go on the pitch and do it. We will learn our lessons and move forward."

Clarke addressed the stark statistic that details 18 goals conceded in Scotland’s last six outings. That three of the four lost in Amsterdam came during a period when both sides were making multiple substitutions had to be acknowledged. He challenged his team to be more streetwise, starting against Northern Ireland on Tuesday night at Hampden as the Euro 2024 opener against Germany edges ever closer.

“We have to stop the run of no wins,” he said. “No wins in six so we have to stop that on Tuesday night. It’s a lot of goals and if you concede that many you are not going to win games. We know we have to tighten up. For 70 minutes it was 1-0.

"The reaction to the second goal was something we need to think about. How we dig in, how we make sure we are really hard to beat in the last 20 minutes. Even if it finishes 2-0 it finishes 2-0. We have to be a little bit more streetwise against the top teams and they (the Netherlands) are a top team, don’t underestimate them.”