“Be ugly, even if Portugal are beautiful”.
That’s easy for the former silky Scotland winger, Pat Nevin to say.
But, that is the message from Nevin as Scotland prepare to welcome Cristiano Ronaldo and co to Hampden this evening.
Nevin, who won 28 Scotland caps and scored five international goals, feels it would be “something special” if Steve Clarke were able to end a wretched run against a star-studded Portugal side in their Nations League A fixture.
“There’s an understanding and acceptance among Scottish football fans that when you see real quality, as long as they’re not diving about and throwing themselves to the ground, it’s accepted, it’s applauded and it’s admired,” Nevin told BBC Scotland.
“There are a hell of a lot of players to admire in this Portugal team, particularly from middle to front. Scotland fans, go along, get behind the team and you just never know, be ugly to play against even if they’re being beautiful.”
Despite the national side failing to win a competitive match in over a year, Nevin reckons the players still have a belief that they’re making progress as they try to build towards next year’s World Cup qualifying campaign.
“I don’t think the players are a problem, I honestly don’t, I don’t think Clarke’s a problem,” Nevin said.
“I think keeping the fans on board is hard, but they’ve been generally pretty good. You can see that the vast majority of fans kind of get it. Some fans don’t want it and are saying “get somebody else in,” but the vast majority of the Tartan Army seem to understand that if you’ve qualified for two out of the last three major tournaments, the stock’s there; it’s fine.
“Clarke’s been given a little bit of time. The problem he’s got is if this keeps on going. If one or two hidings start appearing again, as we saw against Germany and in the friendly against France.
“You don’t want that to keep on happening, something has to slightly change. It would be nice if it changed against Portugal.”
