Get nasty! Clarke urged his players to rediscover their mean streak ahead of kick-off to World Cup campaign

Steve Clarke has revealed how he ordered his players to get back to being horrible to play against ahead of their World Cup qualifying campaign.

The national team bulldozed its way to Euro 2024, winning five straight games at the outset, before a drop-off in form which bled into the finals in Germany.

Keen to get back to basics, Clarke last week reminded his players what had brought them such success — with an opening night draw in Denmark their instant reward for a change in approach.

‘In the lead up to these two games, we spoke about being more solid defensively and working harder as a team without the ball to make sure we give ourselves the best chance to win the game,’ Clarke explained.

‘Horrible in a good way. Horrible in that they make it really difficult for the opposition.

‘You have to do the football that’s nice to do, the bits that catch the attention, the shots and good play, plus the basics, the nuts and bolts of football, the dirty stuff.

‘You have to do the hard yards off the ball. If we can do that across the six games then I think we can get enough points.

‘I don’t think we lost it. I just don’t think we executed it as well as we can do. We have to make sure we execute that side of the game as well as we can.’

Ahead of the match against Belarus behind closed doors in Hungary, Clarke has no fresh injury concerns on the back of the goalless draw in Copenhagen.

Evidently preparing to take the handbrake off against a side which lost 5-1 in Greece on Friday, he added: ‘When you are going to Denmark, you are going to play a pot one team away from home.

‘You know you are probably not going to have the majority of possession and you know you’re going to have to defend really well.

‘Tomorrow, hopefully, we can have more of the ball, we can use it better and create more clean chances. We still created chances in Denmark, but if we can create more clean chances with the ball, that should help us get the result we want. So, yeah, two different games.’

Clarke doesn’t dismiss the threat posed by Belarus despite the heavy defeat they suffered in their opener.

‘Any team of professionals that get beat like they got beat the other night, there’s normally a reaction,’ he warned.

‘They will try to create a little siege mentality. They will certainly not want to concede a lot of goals again. We expect a tough night.

‘They are a competent side. I was a little bit surprised that they lost by the margin that they lost by in Greece.’

Meanwhile, John McGinn has revealed that he’s got no intention of following the likes of Callum McGregor and retiring from international football now that he’s the wrong side of 30.

‘No, never,’ he stated. ‘I understand why boys do it. There’s probably a few performances in the last couple of years where I should probably have went ‘I’m knackered, give yourself a break”.

‘But it took me a few years to get into the national team and what a privilege it is every time you come away. You hear the anthem, you see your family proud as punch in the stand and for me personally, I’ll stop playing for Scotland when the manager decides I’m not good enough and I’m not helping the squad.

‘So, hopefully you’ll see my face for another few years.’

McGinn says he’s driven to reach the World Cup and avoid ending his career with such a glaring omission from his c.v.

‘For a lot of us, it might be out last chance,’ he added. ‘I remember being in the dressing room when certain players realised that it was the last chance to qualify for a World Cup. I saw it on their faces.

‘I could feel their pain and I don’t want us to go through that same experience.

‘I think we know what’s at stake. We’re not stupid. We’re not going to be playing forever. But there are a group of us that feel we owe it to ourselves.

‘The exciting thing for Scotland fans is you’ve got players like Doaky (Ben Doak) coming through, players who are helping us, like big Kieron Bowie.’