AS if being stuck in footballing purgatory for an entire month during the depths of winter wasn’t bad enough for Scottish football fans while the world's best teams go head-to-head in Qatar, they also had to sit through the first hour of this.

A largely lacklustre showing in a 2-1 friendly defeat to Turkiye served as something of a reminder as to why we were here in the first place, mind you, rather than mixing it with the best teams the planet has to offer at the World Cup.

In fairness, this Scotland team is capable of so much more than they showed in that laborious opening 60 minutes in the eastern outpost of Diyarbakir. But if these matches are designed to help managers find some answers, Steve Clarke now has until March to mull over some questions that were raised about his team here.

Chief amongst those has to be around his formation. With Andy Robertson back in the fold after his absence for the Nations League games last time out, Clarke reverted to his 3-5-1-1 set-up in order to accommodate his captain.

That was despite the Scots looking far more comfortable playing with a back four against the Republic of Ireland and Ukraine in September than they had when being outplayed with a back three by the Ukrainians in June’s World Cup play-off.

And from the off here, they looked ill at ease again. Too often, the Turks were able to play their way through the porous visitors, and Hakan Calhanoglou was running the show against Billy Gilmour and Scott McTominay. He had two long range efforts under no pressure that had to be repelled by Craig Gordon within the opening 10 minutes.

On the ball too, the Scots looked disjointed, and whether it was the shape or the pressing of the hosts, they were usually short of options when on the ball.

Clarke is reflexively defensive of the back three/back five set-up, pointing to the undoubted successes he has had with it since his appointment as Scotland manager. But it increasingly appears as if even he is now recognising the shortcomings of it, just as opposition teams have routinely exposed them.

At half-time here, and trailing to a free header from Ozan Kabak, he decided to rejig to a back four once more, and solved the problem of accommodating both Tierney and Robertson by slotting Tierney in at left-back and experimenting with Robertson on one further up the wing.

He also had to solve the issue of starting wing-back Ryan Fraser being continually exposed down the right, where his attacking threat was not enough to compensate for his defensive weakness. He did that by bringing on Calvin Ramsay in his stead, the youngster capping off his recent Liverpool debut by making his bow for his country too.

The instant result was a second goal for Turkiye.

In fairness though, that had more to do with an individual error from Stuart Armstrong and the calmness of Cenzig Under in producing a wonderfully composed passing finish than it did with the formation. Or Ramsay, for that matter, even though the former Aberdeen wonderkid was finding the going tough.

As the half progressed though, the Scots did undoubtedly begin to look more comfortable in their own skin. Passes were starting to find their target with more regularity, and there was even the odd threat on the Turkish goal.

Even still, it was something of a surprise when Scotland did dig out a goal, even if the identity of the scorer was no shock. The Tartan Army talisman John McGinn strode forward, rode several illegal challenges from Leicester City defender Caglar Soyuncu and lasered the ball across goal and into the opposite corner of the net.

The change of formation had enabled Scotland to gain a foothold, and that goal breathed new life (well, some life) into the contest. The Scots should have had a penalty when Kabak performed what could reasonably be described as a suplex on Lyndon Dykes, while Jack Hendry nodded over from the resultant corner.

There was no questioning the desire of the Scots to salvage what had long looked a hugely unlikely draw from the game, even if the execution in the final third often left much to be desired.

In the end, they couldn’t quite manage to find that second goal they perhaps deserved based upon the last half an hour. Given this game was the now rather alien species of an international friendly, that mattered little.

What is more important is that Clarke now goes back to the drawing board to find another way to accommodate his best players in the line-up for March’s European Championship qualifiers, or even contemplate the once unthinkable prospect of playing just one of his two world-class left-backs.

Two into that five strung across the back, now simply doesn’t seem to go.