'My job': Steve Clarke stands firm over major Scotland World Cup call and reveals texts with snubbed star

Fletcher was given the nod over Miller, as well as Rangers’ Connor Barron and Sparta Prague’s Andy Irving, after Gilmour was forced to withdraw from the squad with a knee injury. With the 19-year-old Man Utd starlet already in the camp and impressing against Curacao on his debut, Clarke decided he was the man to come in at the 11th hour.

While Clarke endured a sleepless night on Saturday after Gilmour’s injury as he mulled over his replacement, the manager admitted he has been impressed with the way Fletcher has handled himself since linking up with the senior squad last week and backed him to make his mark on the World Cup if called upon.

“I’m comfortable with the decision I made,” Clarke told reporters at Scotland’s training base in Miami. “But there was a lot of thinking to do. I didn’t sleep much on Saturday night.

“There was a lot of thinking around the three boys who I had on stand-by. Three really good boys who had been part of the squad before. But then you look at young Tyler who had come into the squad and trained really well. In the lead up to the game all the coaching staff were really impressed. I think you saw a little snippet from him in the second half on the pitch against Curacao.

“To move him above the other three was difficult. But, after 62 years and a long time in the game, I have to trust my judgement. And at this moment in time I just felt that Tyler had shown in that camp that he can be a big player for now and a big player for the future. Including Tyler was a tough decision but like I say, I have to trust my judgement.”

Clarke has come under fire from some quarters for picking Fletcher, who made his debut at the weekend, over more established players - especially Miller. “My job is to make decisions,” he countered. “Every player I had a doubt about I spoke to in March because I wanted to do it face-to-face. Over the phone is not a good way to do it. But I had a little text conversation with Lennon and he’s fine. People around about him maybe not - but he’s fine.”

On Fletcher, Clarke added: “He’s just a proper midfield player. He knows when to pass the ball, knows when to run with it, knows when to drive forward and knows when to let the ball run across him - and he tackled a few of them in training as well. He wasn’t fazed. He had the physical tussles if he had to have them.

“Obviously I spoke to his dad [Darren, former Scotland captain] a little bit at the weekend and I spoke to Michael Carrick. Michael said that from February onwards that he just saw a big step forward from Tyler in training with the first-team squad. He was looking to give him more minutes off the bench at United but in the situation they were in, chasing a Champions League place, it took him a little bit longer to give him minutes on the pitch.”

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