POLE DANCE FOR JOHN

No.2 set to quit Scotland to focus on his club role

- Scott Burns

JOHN CARVER is set to leave Steve Clarke's Scotland backroom team after this evening's friendly with Liechtenstein in Vaduz.

The Englishman has been assistant head coach to Clarke since August 2020, when he stepped in to replace Alex Dyer.

The 60-year-old has decided to concentrate all his efforts on his head coach role at Polish side Lechia Gdansk, having saved the side from relegation last term.

Despite a transfer ban and financial arrears, Carver led Lechia out of the drop zone to secure their survival with two games remaining.

For his stellar efforts, he was nominated for the Ekstraklasa coach of the season award.

Clarke, who said he would talk about the situation in the days to come, said: "John and I will have a good chat after the game, then we'll decide what happens going forward.

"I'm not going to talk about it before the game because we just want to concentrate on the game." Clarke still has head coach Alan Irvine and goalkeeping coach Chris Woods, with the national boss and Woods busy trying to solve Scotland's goalkeeping crisis - due to injuries to Craig Gordon, Liam Kelly, Zander Clark, Robby McCrorie and Angus Gunn.