Scotland 2 Armenia 0 – Anthony Ralston & Scott McKenna’s first goals for county lift gloom in ideal Nations League start
THERE may not have been any trains running to get supporters home.But at Hampden last night Scotland got back on track.
Scotland’s Anthony Ralston celebrates scoring their side’s first goal
A week on from the World Cup campaign hitting the buffers and being derailed, it was all aboard the Nations League.
And never mind ScotRail.
It was Scott-Ral who were just the ticket for the Tartan Army.
Steaming in at the back post like two locomotives.
Arriving bang on time.
Tony Ralston and Scott McKenna were just the ticket in this 2-0 victory over Armenia.
And this much-needed win gave Steve Clarke a platform to build on now ahead of games against the Republic of Ireland on Saturday and Armenia again next week.
This was the comfortable night he needed on his third anniversary as Scotland boss.
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After last week’s dismal display against Ukraine, his players simply had to perform.
Anything less than a victory here and his critics would have been lining to annihilate him.
But it was clear from early on that Scotland would be winning all three points.
Let’s get it right, Armenia are a poor, poor side.
It beggars believe how on earth they managed to beat the Republic of Ireland last weekend.
Yet Scotland still had to turn up. They still had to find ways through a team that had ten men behind the ball virtually at all times.
Scotland’s Scott McKenna celebrates his goal
That’s often been the downfall of our national teams in years gone by.
Scotland tend to struggle to break weaker teams down when they’re so defensive.
Yet the way Clarke’s side handled this game was worthy of real credit.
There was no-one in dark blue feeling sorry for themselves after last week’s World Cup misery.
Of the ones who started against Ukraine – like John McGinn, Callum McGregor and skipper Andy Robertson – there was a real intend.
While fresh legs like Stuart Armstrong, John Souttar and scorers McKenna and Ralston brought added energy.
Chances are there will be more changes to the line-up for this weekend’s clash with the Irish in Dublin.
But this team did everything asked of them here.
Scotland could have been two or three goals to the good inside the first 15 minutes.
Stand-out performer Armstrong struck the post with an early shot before Robertson had a drilled shot saved. Next Jack Henry and McGinn came close to hitting the net.
There was a lull after that.
Stuart Armstrong rattled a post early on
Armenia had so many bodies back defending that Scotland had to keep the ball moving quickly to carve them open.
But there was always the right balance between patience and urgency.
It just felt inevitable that the team would take the lead.
What was maybe surprising, right enough, was where the opening goal came from.
Big Ralston had had a sensational, fairytale season for Celtic and did score a handful of important goals.
But even he wouldn’t have been expecting to mark his first Scotland start a goal. Yet didn’t he just.
With 28 minutes on the clock he timed his run perfectly to get on the end if a superb cross from Armstrong.
Planting his header down into the ground, and back across the goalkeeper, it was 1-0 Scotland.
❌ “He’s a lucky boy to be on the pitch.”The frustration was evident for the Armenian players as a bottle seemingly gets thrown in the direction of the linesmen! 🤯 pic.twitter.com/9rfTjXJeXa— Premier Sports (@PremierSportsTV) June 8, 2022
Everyone could settle after that.
The way Armenia were set up, there was virtually no chance of them getting back in the game.
If there were any fans still concerned, Scotland’s second goal certainly made sure of the victory.
It came after 40 minutes with another unlikely scorer.
Towering McKenna just wasn’t going to be stopped from powering a McGinn corner into the net.
It was his ball from the moment it left the Aston Villa midfielder’s boot and there wasn’t an Armenia player capable of getting in his way.
It was dreamland stuff for the Nottingham Forest centre-back who went into this game on the back of his promotion to the Premier League.
It could have been even better too.
McKenna had the ball in the back of the Armenia net deep into stoppage time at the end of the first-half.
Only this time when the VAR took a look at it the goal was disallowed for off-side.
The second half was a foregone conclusion in many respects.
The game was won and the points in the bag.
The only question was whether Scotland would add to their goals tally.
Che Adams had certainly enough sights of goal to get on the scoresheet.
But this was a night when his best efforts came to nothing.
The Southampton striker got himself into some great position and put a shift in for the team.
But his finishing wasn’t sharp enough when opportunities came.
The closest Scotland came to adding a third goal came in the final ten minutes.
McGinn looked desperate to score and he unleashed a thunderbolt of a shot which was heading for the roof of the net before the Armenian keeper got his fingernails to it.
The Scotland fans’ favourite had another go in the dying moments but curled an effort which was just too high.
McGinn just wasn’t going to get his goal despite his desire.
In the end, though, the 2-0 victory was more than enough to send the supporters home happy. Albeit not on the train.
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