Scotland to assess three keepers in Turkey as Steve Clarke spells out 'cup final' scenario

Gunn, who has played all of the Scots’ previous Group C matches so far, was a notable absentee in Clarke’s squad on Monday lunchtime after he failed to recover from a knee injury picked up while at Nottingham Forest.

Falkirk’s Scott Bain has been drafted in and could play for Scotland for the first time since 2019. He is competing with 42-year-old Hearts veteran Craig Gordon and Liam Kelly, the 31-year-old at Rangers. Both keepers are back-ups at club level, while Bain is playing regularly for the Bairns since his summer switch from Celtic.

Bain has three caps to his name, while Kelly has only featured once for Scotland. Gordon has 81 appearances for Scotland and held the gloves earlier in the year during the Nations League campaign. He has battled neck and hamstring injuries of late and hasn’t played competitively since early May. Nevertheless, his and Kelly’s lack of match practice may not be a deciding factor for Clarke.

“We were in the same position in September when Angus hadn't been playing either,” said Clarke. “He went in and he didn't do too badly. Like I said, always with the goalkeepers, it's a different position, quite often they're the number two or the number three. As long as you know you've got boys who train well, work well, they should be ready for the game. So that's my thinking on that.

“Craig's obviously got the amount of caps that he's got, he's never let his country down. Liam Kelly's an experienced goalkeeper, Scott Bain made a big decision to come out of Celtic and go and play regular first team football. Now that he's in the squad, this is probably a reward for that decision.”

Scotland will head to Belek in Turkey for a warm-weather training stint before heading to Piraeus to face Greece on Saturday, November 15. They host Denmark at Hampden three days later.

“As always, we'll look at all three of them in training. I'll lean heavily on Chris Woods, my goalkeeping coach, and we'll come to the decision and decide who starts,” added Clarke.

‘Cup final’ wish for Clarke

The national team boss has urged Scotland to set up a “cup final” against Denmark by securing a positive result away to Greece. The Scots have 10 points after four Group C games but are behind the Danes on a goal difference of six which means that Clarke’s men, already guaranteed a play-off spot next March, likely need to take at least a point against the already-eliminated Greeks to set up a shoot-out against Denmark.

The Danes host pointless Belarus in their penultimate qualifier and are expected to take all three points before they come to Glasgow and the Scotland boss outlined his aims for the qualifying finale.

“I think we all need to remind ourselves that we would have been delighted to be in this position, coming into the last two games of the qualifying campaign, having already eliminated one of the major threats in the Greeks,” said Clarke, who has also drafted Lawrence Shankland, Ross McCrorie and Josh Doig into his squad, with Kieron Bowie dropping out.

“So they can’t be involved in the play-off. They can’t be involved in the shake-up for first place. That doesn’t mean to say it’s not going to be a difficult game in Greece, because I’m sure they will be fired up to prove that they’re better than Scotland. But we’re in a good position.

“What we have to do is make sure we get the result we need in Greece to make the Denmark game here a cup final. I thought they (Greece) were pretty dangerous last month at certain times in the game (Scotland won 3-1). They’re a very good team. Will they be more fired up? I don’t think they’ll be more fired up. I think they’ll be just as fired up as they were here at Hampden.”