By Scott Greer

Scotland are two wins away from making their first World Cup since 1998. With an away game against Greece and a home match against Denmark being all that stands in their way.

Steve Clarke’s men are coming off the back of two positive results beating Greece and Belarus last week, however, performances did little to instil confidence into the Tartan Army going into their last international break of 2025 in November.

It wasn’t just the fans that were downbeat, particularly after the Belarus result, as the usually optimistic Clarke expressed his dismay with how his team played last Sunday: “I’m really disappointed. Really, really disappointed.

“It’s possibly as disappointed as I’ve been over the whole 72 games. We just didn’t turn up.“

While Scotland’s dismal two performances clearly annoyed Clarke, he is valid in making the point that “performances don’t get you qualification. And tonight (Sunday) was certainly not a performance.“

Speaking with Scotland fans at Hampden on Tuesday, as emotions had calmed down and fans turned their attention back to their clubs, there was clear hope that Scotland could get to the Americas (USA, Mexico and Canada) next summer, but it was also met with realism and some tentativeness considering who is still to be played.

Neil Harkins, a Scotland fan that attended the game on Sunday against Belarus, expressed his optimism but also shared his cause for concern: “I think we can get there, what’s worrying is the lack of control in a game, we don’t see it for a full 90 minutes and that carries risk but you’ve always got to be optimistic.“

When asked on what needs to improve for the next time games, he said: “I think we need to learn from each performance, but its the balance between creativity and defensively we just look shaky at times.

“But Scotland over the years, we always surprise ourselves and when we do have period of not playing very well, we do have a good game in us so hopefully that is in us.“

From an outsiders perspective Scotland are in a great spot and should be full of hope, ready for the last two games to try and get a space into the World Cup.

I spoke with an Englishman, Roger Jones, who was up for work for that outsiders view: “I realise the game against Belarus was not well received, but they’re still getting decent results.“

When asked for his thoughts on the next two key games he said: “Its a strong Danish squad, it’s doable but it would take a few things going the right way.“

Scotland face two make or break games for their World Cup dreams against Greece in Athens on 15th November and then their last match against Denmark in Glasgow on 18th November.