Steve Clarke claimed he had no choice but to select Cieran Slicker after the keeper endured a nightmare on his Scotland debut.
A dismal 3-1 defeat to Iceland in their Hampden friendly led to jeers from the Tartan Army, and intensified the pressure on the manager ahead of the World Cup qualifiers in the autumn.
Thrown on to replace the injured Angus Gunn after eight minutes, Slicker was at fault for each goal, but the 22-year-old wasn’t solely to blame as Clarke’s side turned in a lifeless and flat performance.
Called into the squad despite playing just nine minutes of competitive football for Ipswich this season, his first involvement was a poor kick which led to Andri Gudjohnsen’s opener, with another error amid a static Scotland defence leading to Lewis Ferguson’s own goal after John Souttar had equalised.
He then failed to keep out a routine header by Victor Palsson. Asked why he had turned to the young keeper, Clarke said Robby McCrorie had injured his thigh in the warm-up, and admitted the experience simply came too soon for Slicker.
‘It was a difficult night,’ he said. ‘It didn’t get off to the best of starts when we lost our No2 goalkeeper in the warm-up, then two minutes into the game our No1 gets injured as well. It was a tough night and I feel a little bit for young Cieran.’
Clarke says he played Slicker because his other back-up keeper, Robby McCrorie, was injured
Slicker was at fault for all three of the goals Scotland conceded against Iceland at Hampden
Scotland’s players look on as Slicker allows a Victor Palsson header to slip through his arms
Asked how Slicker could recover from such a catastrophic debut, Clarke added: ‘I’ll sit with him over the next couple of days and have a little chat about it. I’ll give him reassurance because he probably went in when it was too early.
‘He wasn’t quite ready for it. That wasn’t his fault. That’s the circumstances that dictated that. We’ll now try and support him as much as we can.
‘Listen, he’ll get over it. Goalkeepers are a resilient bunch. His character is good in and around the squad. He’s comfortable.
‘This was probably just an opportunity that came a little bit too early for him.
‘Listen, we could talk about Cieran and what happened for him, but it’s a circumstance I pointed out in March. I could see something like this possibly happening.
‘The only crumb of comfort to take from it is that it happened in a friendly match. And hopefully we can be better prepared when it comes to the autumn.’
Gunn and McCrorie now join Craig Gordon, Liam Kelly and Zander Clark on the list of injured Scotland keepers.
Clarke will add Bournemouth teenager Callan McKenna to the squad that travels to face Liechtenstein on Monday.
‘I’ll also have a little scout around and see if anybody is not on the beach and is available to come,’ he said. ‘Our options are not exactly jumping off the page at me. We will go away and see how he reacts, how he is overnight, how he is tomorrow and at training on Sunday.
‘It is pretty unusual to have your five first-choice goalkeepers all injured. Not everyone plays regularly at their club. It is something we have to address and look at. But it is not going to change in a click of the fingers. It is more for the long term, and the next head coach and the next head coach after that. ‘
Clarke admitted the overall display fell well short of expectations. ‘After the disruption at the start, we were quite lacklustre,’ he said. ‘It took us a while to get into the game.
‘We made a few chances, their keeper made some good saves. We got ourselves back into it and then like the last game v Greece, we conceded a bad goal just before half time. We need to eliminate that type of concession and be more solid going into the half. That is something we can work on.’
