Scotland’s new era under Sébastien Pocognoli suffered a bruising setback on Tuesday night as his first home game in charge ended in a 3-0 defeat by Switzerland at Hampden Park, with an early red card for Jack Hendry setting the tone for a chastening evening.
Hendry was dismissed shortly after the 10-minute mark for preventing a clear and obvious goalscoring opportunity, having blatantly tugged at the shoulder of Dan Ndoye. There was a further twist before the Swiss could make the extra man count: they were initially awarded a penalty, only for a review to establish that the foul had been committed outside the box, leaving them with a free-kick — which they promptly scored from anyway. Reduced to 10 men, Scotland conceded twice more as the visitors eased to a comfortable win, in front of a Hampden crowd that was far from full.
Pocognoli had arrived in the job on a wave of cautious suspicion from supporters, having succeeded Steve Clarke after his resignation. Clarke’s departure followed a World Cup campaign in which an unconvincing win over Haiti was followed by fairly meek surrenders to Morocco and Brazil. The new man’s first match, a trip to Slovenia, at least hinted at what might be possible, with an extremely promising second-half display that featured attacking verve, a couple of missed sitters and, tellingly, no goals.
The encouraging signs were nowhere to be seen against Switzerland. “We were ready to deliver the game we wanted from the first minute,” Pocognoli said afterwards. “We had an unlucky red card, punished with the free-kick, that’s the worst scenario.” It was a generous reading of a night on which his 10 men shipped three goals without reply.
Attention now turns to Saturday, when Scotland travel to Skopje to face North Macedonia. After an evening of self-inflicted damage, the immediate targets are modest: keep a full complement of players on the pitch and at least trouble the scoreboard operator.
There is a historical echo to the fixture. Fourteen years ago this month, Craig Levein was the subject of much abuse from Scotland supporters when his similarly goal-shy side failed to beat North Macedonia in a World Cup qualifier, a group Scotland would eventually finish 15 points off the pace set by Belgium. Pocognoli’s reign is in its infancy, and he can expect far more patience than his unpopular, ultra-defensive predecessor was granted — but any kind of win on Saturday would be warmly welcomed.