Steve Clarke insists the time for Scotland to peak is in June.
The national team head coach was disappointed after his side lost 1-0 to Northern Ireland at Hampden on Tuesday night. However, the 60-year-old refused to get too low in his typical sort of fashion, as he pointed out that the time for the team to turn up is still months ahead.
Asked about the performance, he said on Viaplay: "Yeah, okay. Decent. Moved the ball. We had to create a little bit more in the final third - we had a lot of the ball.
"We played against a very good, very organised Northern Ireland team. They got the deflection for the goal to give them a platform to defend even more than what they were before, and they were good on the night. We didn't quite create enough to get the goals back.
"Sometimes in the bad moments you learn more, so, let's see where we're at. You learn a lot about your players, team and what you're going to do in the summer. The time for us to peak is in June.
READ MORE: God Save The King met by Scottish boo boys treatment
"I don't see signs that things are going terribly wrong. Football games can be decided on small margins. Tonight was decided on a small margin. We have to look at ourselves, try to be better and move on to the next games.
"We'll have a little chat after the game. I definitely won't speak to them en masse until we're back together in June. That's the next time we'll speak."
Andy Robertson rolled his ankle during the first half of the friendly encounter.
It's a worry for the defender ahead of the title race run-in with Liverpool in the months ahead, but also with the European championships commencing in around 11 weeks.
Clarke said: "He's obviously come off with an injury so we'll assess it and see how he is, he'll go back to his club and they'll look after him."
Then asked what his hope is for the next international camp, he added: "Everybody fit and well, ready to go. That's it. Short, sharp and simple. I'll watch games and I'll get my selection. Hopefully, I make the right selection and hopefully, I've got a full squad of players to choose from, then we go to the tournament."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel