Scotland 2-2 Austria: Scots will 'keep improving' - Steve Clarke
- Published
John McGinn (right) equalised for Scotland five minutes from time
Steve Clarke is "100% convinced" Scotland will keep improving after they twice fought back from behind to open their World Cup qualifying campaign with a draw against Austria.
A Grant Hanley header and a spectacular John McGinn overhead kick cancelled out goals from Sasa Kalajdzic.
And Scotland boss Clarke believes his side can return with three points when they travel to Israel on Sunday.
"It shows the character in the squad," Clarke said of the comeback.
"They want to be successful for their country, and although we wanted three points, having been behind twice we'll take the point and move on.
"You want to build confidence and momentum. We haven't lost here [Hampden] for a little while now. It gives us a foothold and a start in the group. We competed very well with a good Austrian team."
Hanley, back in after a three-year absence, headed home his first Scotland goal in eight years to get the hosts back on level terms.
But after Stuttgart forward Kalajdzic scored his second of the night, McGinn was the hero for Scotland.
The result ends a run of back-to-back defeats for the Scots with Israel, who went down 2-0 to Denmark earlier in the evening, and the Faroe Islands up next.
Steve Clarke post match press conference after draw with Austria
"My first impression was he [McGinn] was offside," Clarke said. "We all looked at the far-side assistant but he got the decision right - he was on. What we did well was keep the ball alive from a set-play. Ryan [Christie] helped it back in and John produced a great finish for us."
Clarke believed Scotland should have had a penalty when Christie appeared to be hauled to the ground by Austrian midfielder Stefan Ilsanker shortly after the opening goal, but he refused to be drawn on the referee's performance.
Instead, his focus now turns to Sunday's match with Israel in Tel Aviv, with Scotland smarting from a 1-0 defeat away to Israel in the Nations League in November.
He said: "If we can keep the performance levels high, normally results follow. If we play the way we did last time we were in Israel, where I thought we played well, and take tonight's level of performance forward, this team can keep improving, I'm 100% convinced.
"We go to Israel with the intention of getting three points."