Manager reveals cynical tactic which led to emphatic…

Manager reveals cynical tactic which led to emphatic Iceland win against Scotland

ARNAR Gunnlaugsson, the Iceland manager, tonight revealed that he had instructed his players to target Cieran Slicker, the young goalkeeper who made his debut for Scotland at Hampden tonight, immediately.

Slicker, who played just nine minutes of competitive football for Ipswich Town last season, replaced Angus Gunn in the third minute of the friendly international against the Nordic nation.

The 22-year-old performed poorly and let in three goals in a humiliating 3-1 defeat – a result which angered the Tartan Army and led to Andy Robertson and his team mates being booed as they left the field.

Gunnlaugsson - whose team took the lead early on through Andri Gudjohnsen, forged further ahead when Lewis Ferguson netted an own goal just before half-time and effectively sewed up the three points when Victor Palsson netted a header in the second half -admitted that he had told the visitors to pressurise the inexperienced player.

“It was an instruction to press him straight away,” he said. “It’s always difficult for a goalkeeper to come into a game when he’s cold. It’s especially difficult with his feet so it was an opportunity to give it a go. We were fortunate with the pressing. It was difficult for him to save the first shot.

Meanwhile, Scotland manager Steve Clarke reveals he was forced to field rookie Slicker because his second choice keeper Robby McCrorie suffered an injury during the warm-up.

Clarke stressed that he will try to lift the player before his men take on Liechtenstein in Vaduz on Monday evening.

(Image: Andrew Milligan) “It was a difficult night,” he said. “It didn’t get off to the best of starts when we lost our number two goalkeeper in the warm-up then two minutes into the game our number one gets injured as well.

“It was a tough night and I feel a little bit for young Cieran. I’ll sit with him over the next couple of days and have a little chat about it. I’ll give him reassurance because he probably went in when it was too early.

“He wasn’t quite ready for it. That wasn’t his fault. That’s the circumstances that dictated that. We’ll now try and support him as much as can. Listen, he’ll get over it. Goalkeepers are a resilient bunch.

“His character is good in and around the squad. He’s comfortable. This was probably just an opportunity that came a little bit too early for him. But we’ll be there to support him and help him.”

Clarke bemoaned how few goalkeepers he had available to him earlier this year – Craig Gordon, Liam Kelly, Zander Clark are all sidelined at the moment as well as Gunn.

“Listen, we could talk about might about Cieran and what happened for him, but it’s a circumstance I pointed out in March,” he said. “I could see something like this possibly happening.

“The only crumb of comfort to take from it is that it happened in a friendly match. And hopefully we can be better prepared when it comes to the autumn.”

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