SPIRITED SCOTS

Christie’s spot-kick completes battling fightback against Irish in feisty clash

FOR too long this looked like Dublin all over again but Steve Clarke’s Scotland eventually found a way to fight Eire with fire.

Bullied for long spells by a Republic of Ireland team working off the muscle memory of the last meeting of these teams in June, Scotland fell behind to a set-piece goal and only got going after halftime, eventually prevailing through Ryan Christie’s late penalty.

With the promise of Nations League promotion homing into view this was no time for a regression in form, far less a bruising encounter in which referee Sandro Scharer took a softtouch approach to some hard-hitting play from the visitors.

Yet having identified a soft centre at the heart of Scotland’s play just a few months ago, one couldn’t really blame Stephen Kenny for deploying the same weapons all over again.

Just as Scotland found an extra gear in the midweek win over Ukraine, so Clarke’s side applied extra quality and aggression to their second-half endeavours to beat Ireland at their own game.

A Jack Hendry header achieved parity and it was from a cornerkick that Scott McTominay forced a handball from Alan Browne to set Christie up for his match-winning moment.

With Ukraine also winning by a handsome margin in Yerevan earlier in the day, the win restored the two-point cushion that means a mere point in Poland this Tuesday will be sufficient to claim a play-off place for Euro 2024.

After his aerial assault from the bench against Ukraine, there were two very obvious reasons for starting Lyndon Dykes here.

Yet a third, the need to protect Che Adams ahead of Tuesday’s all-important clash in Krakow was probably the most compelling.

Adams had a hard time of it leading the line for 75 minutes before making way for his Australian-born buddy last midweek and another physically taxing assignment awaits in Poland.

Dykes also offered some resistance to the Irish’s party piece of piling in high and heavy at corners and free-kicks.

Yet Kenny’s approach is not merely one-dimensional. At the

Aviva his team also got great joy from a feisty frontline, which saw Troy Parrott playing off Michael Obafemi.

Kenny threw both at it again and the danger of Parrott in particular was writ large after ten minutes.

Dara O’Shea’s pass sent the Preston forward haring into space behind Hendry and, even after apparently taking too many touches inside the box, he managed to scoop a finish over Craig Gordon and in off the bar.

A late — yet correct — flag from assistant Bekim Zogaj for offside, meant the goal didn’t count.

Yet Scotland didn’t heed the warning. Parrott definitely did take too many touches on his next foray forward. A pass to the waiting Jason Knight might have been more productive but the award of a corner off Hendry’s intervention was good enough.

James McClean, booed by a section of the crowd as he lined up to take the set-piece, exacted some instant payback to the graders with an inswinger that had Dykes stretching to half clear.

Faced with an already airborne Jayson Molumby, Callum McGregor didn’t stand a chance of getting to the second ball.

Yet the fact the next two touches — a set-up from Nathan Collins and John Egan’s hard finish — came from Irish boots was an indictment of Scottish defending that was Dublinesque.

It will be forever impossible to know exactly how discombobulating Scotland’s World Cup play-off defeat to Ukraine was to the minds of Clarke and his players at the end of a long season.

There were no such excuses this time.

If Clarke wanted to keep Adams back for Ukraine, he must have harboured similar concerns over Kieran Tierney.

With Andy Robertson out, the importance of the Arsenal left-back cannot be understated. Yet he wouldn’t make it to half-time. Felled by an earlier flailing arm from Matt Doherty, the defender was down again as he attempted to lose Parrott at a set-piece.

Having lost his footing on the way down, he was then clipped by his tumbling opponent who appeared to catch him on the shoulder.

That was the end of his game and, even as the interval approached there was time for his replacement Greg Taylor to feel the force of an Irish challenge, Doherty leaving a boot in on the full-back’s calf as he shepherded the ball out for a goal-kick.

As for attack? You could barely call Scott McTominay’s early shot a genuine chance and when the abnormally-subdued John McGinn emerged from his shell to meet Stuart Armstrong’s cross, his finish was all askew.

Clarke got the half-time response he craved.

Less than five minutes after the restart, Taylor picked out the previously ineffective Christie on the left and the Bournemouth winger took Doherty for a dance as he feinted to go one way and then jinked forward on the outside.

The cross was inviting and this time it was an airborne Scot who got there, Hendry placing a precise header just inside Gavin Bazunu’s post.

Suddenly Scotland were full of conviction, McGinn driving a low shot just wide and Dykes being denied by a fine piece of back-post defending by Collins.

Yet in their mad dash to score a second, Scotland left themselves exposed.

Parrott should have taken advantage of this lack of awareness when picked out by Obafemi on the break but, played through on Craig Gordon, he fluffed his finish, allowing the Scotland keeper an easy save with his feet.

Gordon himself did his best to help the visitors as he made a similarly poor connection with a Hendry back pass. Had Chiedozie

Ogbene been on longer than a few seconds, he might have done better with the interception.

By this point, Scotland had lost yet another full-back. Aaron Hickey appeared willing to try and continue after a dose of treatment but Clarke sent for Tony Ralston to play on the right, with Ryan Fraser joining the Celtic man in place of Armstrong further up.

The Newcastle United man’s commitment to his country has not always been obvious but he made a difference here, stinging Bazunu’s palms with a shot from distance and arcing over a corner from which McGinn’s flick-on narrowly sneaked past the far post.

A Scotland corner proved decisive. McGinn swung over the ball and McTominay’s strong leap forced substitute Browne into his handball offence.

Christie slotted away the penalty to a Hampden roar of relief.