MY RUUD AWAKENING

Clarke's last game for Scotland ended in a humping as Gullit bowed out too but it was also the beginning of a beautiful friendship

- MICHAEL GANNON 

STEVE CLARKE admits Scotland were just cannon fodder for the Netherlands on the night the curtain came down on his national playing career.

But 30 years on, the boss is convinced a crack at the Dutch will get his squad fired up for facing the big guns at the Euros.

Clarke is not a man who likes to look back and he wasn't too keen on being reminded of that bruising friendly in Utrecht in 1994 ahead of the World Cup in the USA.

He said: "Yeah... We got humped! It was 3-1 but we got humped.

"They were going to the World Cup and we were sort of cannon fodder for their send-off."

Not now. Scotland are not in Amsterdam to make up the numbers this time. Clarke is finetuning his team for Germany and this will be no friendly stroll.

That encounter in 1994 was one of the major staging posts in the manager's career though.

He didn't earn another Scotland cap - but likewise, it was also rival Ruud Gullit's last appearance for the Netherlands.

A bust-up with boss Dick Advocaat ended the Milan superstar's international career but by that stage Clarke and Gullit had struck a friendship that would set the Hampden gaffer on a path to where he is now.

He said: "That was my last game for Scotland and Ruud's last one for the Dutch as he had a little disagreement with the manager... Ruud was a big part of my career. I played against him with St Mirren in both games against Feyenoord (in 1983).