TIME FOR A QUICKIE

Breakneck, six-game shootout to achieve World Cup dream but Clarke insists it not a must-win in Copenhagen

- FROM KEITH JACKSON IN COPENHAGEN

LET'S be honest, it does feel for now as if no one's been paying even the slightest bit of attention.

Steve Clarke gathered his Scotland players together at their base in Glasgow city centre on Monday afternoon, when the rest of the game in this country was entering into a state of collective meltdown on transfer deadline day.

The dust has not yet settled on Celtic’s decision to provoke their own manager as well as stick two fingers up at their supporters by doing almost nothing of note before the market closed down for business.

And there are Rangers fans who still can't quite fathom why Kevin Thelwell signed off on a potential £10million deal to recruit a striker from his old club who, apparently, has forgotten how to score goals.

No wonder Clarke and his players have been quietly going about their preparations this week in a relative bubble back home before slipping out of town yesterday afternoon.

They've hardly raised as much as a second glance even though they are about to embark on a sprint to the line which might be one of the most important and ferociously intense campaigns in the history of our national game.

It's been 27 agonising years since Scotland last made it on to the biggest stage of all at France 98. By any metric that's an appalling record of failure and incompetence and a stain on the reputation of the country.