Scotland’s nervy win was so long in the making it would be churlish to | Football | Sport

Surprisingly comfortable, for the most part at least, albeit not entirely convincing. Scotland got off to the start they absolutely had to here in Boston on Saturday night but if this journey is to reach some kind of historic final destination – at some point in the knock-out rounds – then the level of performance will have to be raised accordingly.

It wasn’t that they played poorly throughout this physically punishing, stamina-sapping opener. They did not.

But it was a night to be endured rather than enjoyed.

And the longer they sat on a slender one-goal lead, the more they became so cluttered and weighed down by their own nerves.

It was as if they knew exactly what was at stake and that very thought alone peaked their anxiety and drained their legs of energy.

Yes, when it came, the final whistle was a relief. And it left manager Steve Clarke and his players peering down from the top of Group C as the section’s only winners on opening night.

That’ll do us for starters. Of course it will.

And it should not be overlooked that keeper Angus Gunn hardly had a save worthy of mention even though nails were being gnawed down to the knuckles the longer this agony extended into the late Foxborough night.

It was enough to win a match at a World Cup for only the fifth time. It was also Clarke’s first tournament victory in seven attempts.

But Scotland can function a great deal more smoothly than they did throughout this slightly awkward, clunky first impression. And they’re going to have to when they come against sides of greater ability.

Haiti were everything Clarke would have expected them to be. Industrious, athletic, highly motivated, powerful and pacey. But they lacked any kind of quality in the final third which is why, ultimately, this win was more comfortable than it was made to feel.

When the dust settles along with the heart rates, the stats will show that Scotland offered greater threat and launched more attacks on their opponents’ penalty box than they have mustered in any group stage match in either of Clarke’s two previous major finals.

That they scored only once – when John McGinn’s shot clattered through a forest of legs – was ultimately all that mattered.

But it is to be hoped this win will settle some of the nerves before the next steps are taken against Morocco and then Brazil.

Having made absolutely no attempt to hide or disguise his tactical intentions over the course of the long build up to this opening match, Clarke’s starting line-up could have caught only the most ignorant and uninterested by surprise.

A straight up and down, old fashioned, 4-4-2, albeit with a tweak.

Lewis Ferguson was deployed in a deep role with Scott McTominay positioned a great deal further up the pitch. It didn’t work as Clarke had intended and was done away with at the interval.

McTominay started operating behind an attack spearheaded by the twin guns of Adams and Shankland, with Ben Gannon-Doak earning the right to supply the pair of them on the back of last weekend’s blistering work against Bolivia.

The most difficult decision – and perhaps the only one – was to tell Ryan Christie that his contribution would be limited to a cameo from the bench.

But Christie made way in order that Clarke could accommodate John McGinn in Scotland’s midfield and, had he not made that minor reshuffle, it might have sparked some kind of public enquiry back home.

No, Clarke did what he had to do in the knowledge that Christie would almost certainly be thrown into the action at some point.

But this was bold, aggressive stuff from a manager who has carried around suitcases of regret over acting with too much caution at his previous two finals. Quite clearly – and maybe even for one game only – a decision had been made to release the handbrake.

He may very well opt to yank it back up again when he picks his team and strategy for next week’s meeting with the Moroccans.

But now that three points have been posted on the Group C board, he may also feel inclined to give the North Africans the same both-barrel treatment next week back here in Boston. That’s for another day.

Saturday night’s setting was spectacular as the sun disappeared behind a humongous HD screen at one end of the pitch and the temperature dropped accordingly to a less lung-burning 25 degrees.

And Scotland started brightly too, carving out three decent half-chances in the opening six minutes but taking none of them.

Perhaps that’s why an unwanted nervousness began to creep onto the scene and, when it did, Scotland’s passing became worryingly laboured and predictable.

The Haitians sensed it too and began to get forward in bigger numbers. And as they poured over the halfway line, so the flashbacks from previous opening night disappointments began to swirl around in the mind’s eye.

McTominay could have eased some of those growing anxiety levels had he found the back of Haiti’s net rather than the base of their keeper’s left hand post in 17 minutes, after being superbly set up by Gannon-Doak.

It was McTominay’s pass which had released the little winger in the first instance and not before time. Too many of his team mates had failed to spot that Gannon-Doak was often drifting into acres of space on that right hand side, which must have been frustrating the life out of the Bournemouth man.

Whenever he was found with the ball he looked capable of terrorising his full-back but those moments were not coming as thick and fast as he would have wanted.

Clarke gathered his players around at the first half water break and urged them to move the ball faster and with greater purpose.

He may very well have told one or two of them to look for Gannon-Doak with a great deal more urgency.

In 28 minutes the moment arrived as Scotland netted a first goal at a World Cup Finals since Craig Burley’s against Norway in Bordeaux in 1998.

And, yes, Gannon-Doak played a huge part in it, sliding a low cross into the six yard box for Adams after the striker had held up play for long enough to feed him in down the right flank.

Adams almost applied the final touch too but, when it was cleared off the toe of his boot, it dropped to McGinn who fired for goal, and then watched his shot as it ricocheted its way into the back of the net.

It wasn’t perfect. In truth, it was far from it. There were scares and close things along the way before Clarke got them back inside at the break with his team holding onto that one goal lead.

The second half was no more easy to watch as the stress levels began to soar. But Scotland got there in the end.

And, given this victory has been so long in the making, it would seem churlish to complain too loudly about the manner in which it was secured.