Scotland 1 Poland 1: Kieran Tierney’s opener cancelled out by controversial penalty for Poles

THE final result was enough to drive Steve Clarke up the Pole.

At Hampden, Scotland were denied their seventh straight win with a late, late controversial penalty.

But the last gasp drama still shouldn’t distract from another impressive performance from the men in dark blue.

Craig Gordon was ruled to have brought down Krzysztof Piatek in the third minute of stoppage time with the diving Hertha Berlin striker picking himself to score from the spot with virtually the last kick of the ball.

This should have been a night when Kieran Tierney’s 68th minute header was the winner.

Yet it wasn’t to be.

Let’s hope this friendly disappointment isn’t replicated when it really matters because there was more than enough in this display to be positive about.

It really couldn’t have been a friendlier friendly.

The atmosphere inside Hampden was terrific as two nations came together for the benefit of another.

The Tartan Army turned out in force with Poland also backed by an impressive following.

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They weren’t just seated in one section of the stadium either with pockets of Poles everywhere.

For the poor people of Ukraine, football simply doesn’t matter right now.

Yet the men, woman and children who are fleeing or fighting for their lives in their war-torn country were in the thoughts of everyone here.

With an attendance of almost 40,000, the tenner from every ticket initiative will see around £500,000 go to kids charity UNICEF once all the donations are raked in, and that in itself made this game worthwhile.

The end result of this fixture was always going to be completely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

Yet in pure footballing terms Clarke can be more than satisfied with the performance he got from his players.

Sure, Poland probably weren’t giving maximum effort given they have their World Cup play-off final early next week.

But Scotland still looked like a side which is gearing up for its own Qatar qualification.

It’s actually a pity these players have to wait a few months before they get to decide their own fate because in many ways they look like they’re ready for it right now.

There is a confidence to the way Clarke’s side play these days, the way they keep the ball on the deck and shift it to feet.

It wasn’t easy with the Hampden pitch watered far too heavily and the ball initially being held up in soaking surface. 

But there was a clear strategy to get it zipped around the pitch.

In midfield Callum McGregor and John McGinn – who wore the skipper’s armband in the absence of Andy Robertson – teamed up brilliantly with Billy Gilmour.

Ryan Jack was probably disappointed to start this game on the bench given his influential performances from Rangers since returning from injury.

But he’s got a job on his hands getting into this line-up given the way the players ahead of him are performing in dark blue.

For all the positivity on the first-half performance, the downside was that Scotland weren’t able to take the lead.

Clarke’s side certainly had enough chances. 

The first real effort came from Nathan Patterson who had a sensational run and shot after 10 minutes which made you wonder why the hell he can’t get into a struggling Everton team.

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Bursting forward half the length of the pitch, he cut inside onto his left foot after shifting through the gears and just couldn’t get enough power on his effort to trouble the goalkeeper.

But it was brilliant to see and it set the tone.

Next Callum McGregor blasted over the top after being set up by McGinn.

Poland only showed glimpses of their attacking threat in the first-half, albeit the one big chance they did have saw them miss an absolute sitter.

Big defender Bartosz Salamon leapt like a Salamon and should have buried his header, but somehow managed to miss the target from point blank range.

But really, Scotland went from strength to strength in the first 45 minutes.

More than anyone, Patterson looked like a player eager to impress.

It’s been such a tough few months for him since moving to England and his confidence has no d0ubt taken a hit. You just wouldn’t have known it.

The home fans were willing him to get a goal to really make his club boss Frank Lampard sit up and take notice.

And Patterson certainly gave it everything he had.

The 20 year-old had another sight of goal in 43 minutes and smashed a volley on target which was beaten away by Lukasz Skorupski.

The Bologna No1 reacted a split-second later to save a follow up effort from Gilmour as Poland escaped yet again.

The pattern of the game didn’t change much into the second-half and in 57 minutes Scotland could have been awarded a penalty had McGinn not been Mr Honest.

Gilmour won possession brilliantly in the middle of the park and threaded a perfect ball through to the Aston Villa midfielder who bombed into the box.

Keeper Skorupski raced from his line and clawed at McGinn’s boot but the stand-in Scotland skipper stayed on his feet when he could have gone down and been awarded a penalty.

Scotland began to show signs of tiredness with 25 minutes to go and a slip from Scott McTominay saw Poland break forward but Gilmour made an unbelievable last ditch clearance off the line to keep it at 0-0.

But in 67 minutes the breakthrough came for Scotland when McGinn whipped a free-kick into the box that he won himself with Tierney glancing his header into the net.

It looked like being the winner.

But in the dying seconds Poland stole a draw when they were awarded a shock penalty from the Irish referee.

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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk