Steve Clarke tips Billy Gilmour, Aaron Hickey and Nathan Patterson to spearhead Scotland's qualifying bids for years

And Aaron Hickey, the 19-year-old Bologna left back, also showed that he is not out of his depth at international level after coming on for Greg Taylor in the second-half to make his debut.

Clarke’s men, who are on a seven match unbeaten run, will attempt to reach their first World Cup finals since France ‘98 either in June or September when they play in the Qatar 2022 play-offs.

However, the Scotland manager, whose team will now play beaten Path A semi-finalists Austria in Vienna on Tuesday night, is optimistic about his side’s long-term prospects thanks to the emergence of Gilmour, Patterson and Hickey.

“It’s good having these young players,” he said as he looked back on the encounter with Czeslaw Michniewicz’s team yesterday. “Gilmour and Nathan Patterson played on Thursday, young Aaron Hickey came off the bench as well. 

“We have a good age so this group of players can go for another two, three or four tournaments if they want. That is fantastic for the future.”

It remains unclear if Scotland will play Ukraine in the play-off semi-final later this year due to the Russian invasion.

But Clarke was reluctant to give his thoughts on his side’s chances of beating Wales, who ran out 2-1 winners over Austria in Cardiff thanks to a Gareth Bale double, away should they progress to the final.

“Did I think Wales would beat them?” he said. “I think the whole section, the whole pathway is 50-50 in every game. We have to get there first. We will concentrate on that and then we’ll talk about it.” 

Clarke, whose team were denied a seventh straight victory when Poland were awarded a soft injury-time penalty, has been particularly pleased with the strong partnership that Gilmour, the Chelsea player who has spent this season on loan at Norwich City, and McGregor, the Celtic captain, have formed in central midfield.

“Billy and Callum are two really good footballers on the ball,” he said. “We always try to play anyway, that’s what we have always tried to do. But when you have two players like that in midfield you have to give them the ball otherwise there’s no point in playing them. 

“Even when we made the changes later in the game we didn’t dip too much, even though that would be normal if that happened.” 

Clarke added: “It was good, I thought we picked up where we left off against the Danes (in the 2-0 win over the Euro 2020 semi-finalists back in November) and I was pleased with what I saw. 

“Obviously it was disappointing at the end because we were heading for a clean sheet and win. That would have been seven wins in a row, which would have been better reading that six wins and a draw. But it was a very good performance.

“It says a lot about the work we do when we get together, we do try to keep the same principles. I think that shines through when we come back together after four months and we pick it up again straight away.

“It’s good, obviously we want to go to Vienna and get a positive result, then it’s the competitive games in June. Austria will be disappointed they’re out but any time you play for your country you want to do your best. They will want to get back on the pitch and try to win the game.” 

Patterson has only played 45 minutes of competitive football since completing a £12m transfer from Rangers to Everton back in January, but Clarke had no qualms about handing him a place in his starting line-up.  

“I had no worries about Nathan, none whatsoever,” he said. “I know the level he has gone down to train in and even just training at that level, working with English Premier League players, it’s a good level. 

“As long as he’s doing his work properly on the training pitch then he’ll always have enough in his legs to come and play for us. I saw him stretching and when he starts to stretch you don’t want to risk an injury for the boy so we took him off. But his performance was really good for a boy who has had so little football.”