Scotland 6-0 San Marino: Steve Clarke says players showed resilience
- Published
Hopefully we've turned a corner - Clarke
Scotland showed a "resilient streak" to respond to four consecutive Euro 2020 qualification defeats with a 6-0 win over San Marino, says Steve Clarke.
John McGinn's hat-trick and goals by Lawrence Shankland, Stuart Findlay and Stuart Armstrong helped Scotland's bounced back from a 4-0 loss in Russia.
The win puts the Scots one point behind Cyprus in Group I before travelling to face the Cypriots next month.
"If this is the first stage of turning a corner, great," boss Clarke said.
"Russia went to Cyprus and won 5-0 - told you they were a good team. We go to Cyprus now with the chance to go above them, and that gives us an opportunity to finish third which is the next objective."
Scotland went into this game following back-to-back defeats against Belgium and two losses at the hands of Russia.
They now face Cyprus - who they beat at Hampden in June - before hosting Kazakhstan next month in their final group game before the Euro 2020 play-offs in March.
The win over San Marino gave Clarke plenty of cause to be optimistic, and the head coach was pleased to send home the 20,000 crowd happy.
"They showed they've got a good resilient streak," said Clarke, who has now won two of his six games in charge. "It's been a tough week for us. It was important we won but it was also important we won well.
"Everybody was telling me it was going to be no attendance at all. There were a lot of young ones there and they've seen their team score six goals at home so hopefully they'll come back for the next game.
"Hopefully it repairs a little bit of the fragility that was in the squad after the four games against top opposition. It was difficult run of fixtures. I see some smiles in the dressing room and it's nice to see."