We're still raving about Scotland's incredible comeback, Steve, but fans didn't deserve to be criticised for their initial reaction to performance

It's hard to recall the build-up to such a significant match being quite so dominated by what had come previously.

Inside Hampden on Wednesday, the spectre of that horrific 3-0 home defeat to Greece in the Nations League play-off in March loomed large.

Steve Clarke spoke of his regret at not making more personnel changes between the two legs. Ryan Christie said this was a chance to put things right.

Collectively, the Scotland camp were looking over their shoulders and pledging never to return to that dark place.

You just couldn’t escape it. There was no point in anyone dressing up how poor Clarke’s side were that night. A flat, error-strewn display was the low point of his tenure.

By their own admission, the Scotland team had given their supporters next to nothing to cheer. This time, the manager pledged, things would be different.

‘The fans are always important,’ he stated. ‘But we know when we come here, we have to give them something to shout about. So, we have to start the game on the front foot to get the fans onside.’

You don’t doubt that that message was repeated ad nauseam in the sanctuary of the home dressing room before the players strode out on to the Hampden pitch for Thursday night’s World Cup qualifier. For long enough, however, it just felt like an empty platitude.

Ivan Jovanovic’s outfit simply picked up where they left off. Dominating the ball, they were slicker and sharper than their opponents. They passed Scotland off the park.

Quite how Vangelis Pavlidis failed to score a tap-in from a few yards out was a complete mystery. Had he done so, the floodgates might well have opened again.

With no one apparently willing - or able - to take the ball on the half turn, Clarke’s men were unable to connect the game.

For an expectant home crowd, it was a painful watch, all too reminiscent of that drubbing at the same hands seven months ago.

With nothing to engage them in the first half, the Tartan Army jeered back passes from Grant Hanley and Lewis Ferguson. Harsh, certainly. Yet also understandable to a degree. They’re football fans, not happy clappers.

As Clarke himself had acknowledged the previous day, it was incumbent on his side to give the home faithful something to get behind. And they’d offered nothing to that point.

None of this should be airbrushed from history simply because the game flipped in quite astonishing fashion late on.

While you can’t give Clarke’s players enough credit for a scarcely believable three-goal salvo to win the day, nor can you castigate the supporters whose mood only reflected what they had witnessed up until the moment when Christie levelled.

The manager was entitled to his moment of satisfaction after such an unlikely triumph. But we could all have lived without the inference that the collective display didn’t get the acclaim it deserved.

‘Football is played over 90 minutes. People maybe forget that at times,’ said Clarke.

‘We got lucky with the chance early in the game where the ball was played across and the Greek boy should have scored at the back post.

‘But, in the second half, scoring the equaliser so quickly after Greece scored was important for us.

‘I have spoken about the attitude and character of this group. The Scottish public should love to have them. They never know when they are beaten.’

To be absolutely clear, the Scottish public *do* love them. This is a generation of players who have gone to two major finals and are well on course to reach the World Cup for the first time since 1998.

They gave the Tartan Army a never-to-be forgotten night when they beat Serbia away on penalties at the height of the pandemic. They have defeated Denmark, Spain and Croatia on occasions when the foundations of Hampden shook.

Together, they have scaled heights which were beyond the reach of so many sides who went before them. They have restored pride in the dark blue shirt by delivering.

But success changes things. It alters expectations. It leads to fans being hacked off at witnessing a dismal opening hour against Greece because they know the team are so much better than that. 

We saw as much in the final half hour, didn’t we? After we had been watching much of what passed beforehand through the cracks in our fingers.

‘We’re buzzing with the result, but know how frustrated we were on the pitch,” admitted skipper Andy Robertson.

‘If you want to complain about the performance, be my guest, crack on. We’re delighted with the three points.”

By the time Norwegian referee Essen Eskas blew his whistle, no one present could quite make sense of what they had witnessed.

How can a team be so ineffective for so long yet run out comfortable winners? Football can be strange, wonderful and cruel all at the same time.

There’s no question that the timing of Christie’s goal - coming just two minutes after Kostas Tsimikas’ opener - was key. In an instant, the visitors went from being self-assured to flaky.

No-one could quite believe it when Lewis Ferguson put the Scots in front just over 15 minutes later.

The contribution of Angus Gunn was also significant. His wondrous save from Konstantinos Karetsas arrived seconds before Lyndon Dykes wrapped up the win following a dreadful handling error from Kostas Tzolakis.

But the game changed primarily because the personnel did. Introduced for Ben Gannon-Doak just before Greece scored, Billy Gilmour’s presence proved transformational.

He took the ball under pressure in front of his back four and kept it. He saw the patterns and the angles. He swivelled and instigated attacks. He awoke his Napoli team-mate Scott McTominay from his slumbers.

It reminded you that, while one player does not make a team, they can certainly elevate its performance.

It would be wrong to suggest that Clarke doesn’t trust Gilmour. Since truly arriving as a Scotland player when he stole the show at Wembley in Euro 2020, he’s picked up 38 further caps. Only five of those have come from the bench.

You can also understand why Clarke is occasionally tempted to leave him cooling his heels. Bologna’s Ferguson has spent a long time doing all the right things. Christie has been a standout in a holding role at Bournemouth. With Gannon-Doak emerging, dropping Christie deeper is one solution.

Leaving Gilmour out against the Greeks, however, only created another problem. He is the most technically-adept player at Clarke’s disposal. As evidenced in the latter stages of the qualifier, Scotland are a better side when he’s front and centre.

With Ferguson and Christie suspended for Belarus at Hampdon on Sunday, there’s no dilemma for Clarke to wrestle with this time. Gilmour plays. And everything points towards giving the Tartan Army something to really cheer about.