Hearts keeper Zander Clark has his say on sour appraisals of his Scotland displays

There seemed to be a perception problem for Zander Clark across his recent Scotland breakthrough moments.

Scotland's Zander Clark maintains he would be first to hold his hands up to any mistakes as he brushed off sniping over his breakthrough full displays for the country in the past week. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

The Hearts goalkeeper appeared judged not by his capabilities, but by who he wasn’t. As too-readily overlooked was who wasn’t stationed in front of him as he followed up his debut as a second-half substitute in the 4-1 friendly defeat by France last month to stitch together two full 90 minutes in the closers to a blinding Euro 2024 campaign for Steve Clarke’s side. Two awkward encounters as a 2-2 draw in Georgia gave way to a career high for the 31-year-old in representing his country at Hampden as six goals were shared with Norway.

The concession of more goals in these two outings than had been coughed up across the previous six group assignments led to Clark’s displays being micro-analysed. He was accused of conceding in instances it was claimed would have turned out differently if in goal had been sidelined first-choice Angus Gunn, or his Tynecastle team-mate Craig Gordon. Never mind that the whole defensive line became porous with the switch from essentially a back five – with three centre-backs – to a flat back four. In which Scotland were deprived three first picks through Kieran Tierney, Andy Robertson and Aaron Hickey injuries. The sour appraisals of Clark establishing himself as back up to Gunn before next summer’s Germany finals, did not leave the affable big Glaswegian feeling unfairly treated, though.

“Listen, that is the life of the goalkeeper,” he said. “There will be people that don’t want to see you in there, and people that do want to see you in there. I just try and do my best any time I pull on any jersey and go into a game. People have their opinions. Listen, I am the most critical of myself. If other people want to be critical of me and feel that I should have done better in any instance, I’ll be the first person to be over-critical with myself. It is the life of a goalkeeper... you can be a hero, or a villain, very, very quickly. It’s something that I have learned to get used to. Maybe back in the day, when I was younger and breaking through, it would have bothered me. But nowadays, if the manager is happy, the coaching staff are happy, then they are the only opinions that matter.”

His fellow Clarke would seem to have his back. The Scotland manager could have shared the keeper duties between the Hearts performer and Motherwell’s Liam Kelly - as he did in France last month. Instead, he chose to give the former both games. And in the process provide him with one of the stand-out moments from a career that brought cup double-winning exploits with St Johnstone in a deserted Hampden during the pandemic season of 2020-21. “I was delighted with the 45 minutes in Lille and obviously more delighted to get the full game in Georgia,” he said. “And to see your name in the starting line-up again at Hampden is a real special moment. To represent your country is a dream come true, but it makes it a wee bit more special when it is in front of a home crowd, with my wife and mates in. It was great. Just to be any part of the squad is a true honour but if you get minutes it is even better.”