Steve Clarke in heated Scotland exchange with Michael Stewart as 'negativity' probe lands firm slapdown by boss

Irked Steve Clarke clapped back at Michael Stewart questioned some of the fixtures the Scotland have played in recent friendly clashes.

The heated debate came after the Scots looked to have secured the the perfect send-off for Euro 2024 against Finland - with Arttu Hoskonen diverting Andy Robertson's cross into his own net before Lawrence Shankland 's header. However, Bejnamin Kallman would pull a goal back before substitute Craig Gordon gave away a penalty on his landmark 75th cap. That allowed Oliver Antman to level and send Scotland off to Germany with a draw before their opener against the host.

It means that Scotland have won just one of their last nine fixtures in all competitions - including glamour friendlies against France and England. Clarke was asked on Premier Sports by host Emma Dodds about his previous comments on "negativity" around the Scotland team going into the tournament.

Clarke said: "I'm not sure why people want to be so negative about a couple of friendly matches which are basically training matches for the tournament. Let's look forward to the tournament, and there with a little bit of swagger and see what we can do."

The camera cut to Stewart who chipped in: "Obviously the expectation was through the roof six months ago. You look to the game in Seville where it looked like they could do now wrong, but there has been some results against big opposition which...."

But Clarke wasn't having it and cut in: "Yeah, but that's my fault. I chose those games and made those difficult games. We now know when we go to the tournament that when we play against the top sides how good we have to be to get a result."

Stewart: "You say it's your fault, I don't think you could say it's a fault. It's your decision. We have played against some top opposition, ok there is a bit of momentum that has gone out of things but hopefully that is no bad thing because it was through the roof going into that game against Spain. If we go into the games in Germany and get that bit of luck we know we have got a team capable of competing against top opponents. I have got no doubt about that, i just hope if falls our way."

Clarke appeared to cool adding: "Michael, that is what we think as well. That is the feeling within the dressing room. We are going to go there and be as competitive as we can be, and if we play to the best of our abilty we believe the results will come."