OUR WORLD CUP FINAL

Despite the wobbles, Clarke insists he still trusts troops ahead of date with destiny

- BLAIR ESSON

HE swears he'd trust them with his life.

Time after time, Steve Clarke has told the world his faith in the players he has grouped together in Scotland's colours, is cast iron. Unshakable. And completely and utterly deserved.

And yet, here he was, on the eve of the biggest game they've ever faced together, with cause to doubt his own judgment.

As the national boss faced the media at Hampden yesterday ahead of a crunch clash against Denmark which could catapult each and every one of them into legend, he would not have been human if there wasn't something niggling away at the back of his mind.

It was only one month ago when he sat in the same auditorium and laid into them for the substandard nature of back-to-back performances against Greece and Belarus.

And as recently as Friday night in Piraeus, ahead of the return against the Greeks, he conceded for the first time some of his men may have been "panicked" out of their stride by the sheer scale of the importance of bagging those two Hampden wins.

Not much more than 24 hours later he was watching them fall three goals behind as the entire campaign threatened to crumble into dust. Which is exactly what it would have done had Belarus not sprung the shock of the section by snatching a draw at the same time in Copenhagen.

So now, here we all are again. Not quite back at square one.

But one more win away from the greatest achievement of any Scotland side this side of the millennium. And Clarke suddenly has a trust issue to consider.