ANTHONY RALSTON suffered with his team-mates as Scotland crashed 3-2 to Poland in their Nations League opener at Hampden last night.
The Celtic right-back now hopes to get the nod to face Portugal in Lisbon on Sunday as Steve Clarke’s side bid to get back on track after yet another disappointment.
The Scots went into the match against Robert Lewandoski and Co looking to make up for their awful performances in the Euros 24 in Germany where they were thrashed 5-1 by the hosts, flopped 1-0 to Hungary and managed to achieve a 1-1 draw with Switzerland.
However, a last-minute penalty-kick scuppered even the opportunity of getting a point at the national stadium.
MAKING A POINT…Anthony Ralston in action against Poland.
Ralston, the only Hoops player in the squad after the double withdrawal of Greg Taylor and James Forrest earlier in the week, looked composed at the start, but the home fans were silenced when Sebastian Szymanski slammed a low drive past Angus Gunn.
The Parkhead defender was then forced into an awkward challenge on Nicola Zalewski in the box and the referee unhesitatingly pointed to the spot. Lewandowski made no mistake.
Earlier, Scott McTominay had seen his effort disallowed for handball.
Immediately after the turnaround, Billy Gilmour pulled one back and then Ralston set up McTominay to level from close range.
EURO WOE…Steve Clarke suffers as Scotland slump at Hampden.
With the Scots on top, Grant Hanley made a clumsy and wayward lunge in the box and Nicola Zalewski fired in the Polish winner with another spot-kick four minutes into stoppage-time.
Agonisingly, the Scots have won only once in their last 13 games.
A disappointed Clarke said: “If you make errors at this level you get punished and we got punished severely for errors in the game.
“I think if I analyse the performance I have to be happy, so that’s a small crumb of comfort for a head coach.
“We knew the system that Poland would play would cause us one or two issues that we wouldn’t normally face, but I thought we dealt with that well.
“The team shape was good, the attitude and energy of the players was excellent but if you make small mistakes at this level you get punished.”
PICK IT OUT…Robert Lewandoski sends Scots keeper Angus Gunn the wrong way from the penalty spot to put the Poles 2-0 ahead at Hampden.
The international gaffer, speaking to Sky Sports, added: “We’ve got to keep working hard, it’s the only thing you can do and ask a little bit more out the players to not make those errors.
“Hopefully, as we move forward, that will be the case.
“If you want to just report on the scoreline it’s negative, it’s disappointing for everybody. If you want to look objectively at the performance there are a lot of good things that we can take forward.
“I just feel disappointed for the players because I felt their efforts deserved at least a point out the game.”
