Glorious failures like those that Scotland suffered in their opening Nations League matches against Poland in Glasgow last Thursday and Portugal in Lisbon on Sunday always used to exasperate their fans.

The national team's latest heartbreaking losses, though, have lifted the spirits of those Tartan Army footsoldiers who had despaired at their poor performances at and early exit from Euro 2024 this summer and given them a little hope for the future.

That the travelling supporters stayed in the Estadio da Luz long after the final whistle had blown and applauded and cheered Andy Robertson and his team mates warmly despite the 2-1 defeat they had just witnessed spoke volumes.

There is much for Steve Clarke to work on when the Scotland squad meet up to prepare for the Group A1 meetings with Portugal at home and Croatia away next month. 

His charges' tendency to concede late, late goals, a failing which has resulted in them losing their last three matches, has to be addressed if a year-long winless run in competitive fixtures is to be brought to an end. Still, there is much to build on.

The Poland and Portugal reverses were tough to take and no mistake. But the overall displays in them were a considerable improvement on the lamentable showings against Germany and Hungary back in June. They defended far better, bossed possession in midfield for long periods, attacked in numbers and created chances.

The performances augur well for the future given the players who will be coming back - Aaron Hickey, Nathan Patterson, Jack Hendry, Kieran Tierney, Liam Cooper, Lewis Ferguson, Stuart Armstrong and Che Adams all missed the double header. 

Moving into the top tier of the Nations League was always going to be challenging. Facing Robert Lewandowski and his compatriots and Cristiano Ronaldo and his countrymen was a significant step up from what they have been accustomed to in this competition for the last six years. They are victims of their own success to a degree.

In the past, they faced Albania, Israel, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Armenia and the Republic of Ireland. They do not have the luxury of playing lesser football nations as they endeavour to get the Euros out of their system. They are in among the big boys now. 

Andy Robertson, the Liverpool left back and Scotland captain, was heavily criticised for how he performed in the summer along with other mainstays like Angus Gunn, Scott McTominay, John McGinn, Billy Gilmour, Callum McGregor  Ryan Christie and Che Adams.

He has very much been back to something approaching his best. He was involved in the move which led to McTominay opening the scoring early on in Lisbon and stunning the crowd in the 65,000 capacity arena in to silence.  

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Robertson is an excellent wing back. The return to a back four, however, has proved to his liking and that of his fellow defenders. Grant Hanley, Scott McKenna and Anthony Ralston were all decent at the weekend and kept the visitors in the game until two minutes from the end of regulation time.

Was the move to a 4-2-3-1 formation a change which Clarke should have made after Tierney suffered his injury against Switzerland in Cologne in their second Group A outing? On the evidence of the Poland and Portugal matches, it very much was.

Robertson, though, was only looking forward when he spoke to reporters in the wake of the Portugal defeat late on Sunday night. He is encouraged by the past week. 

"I thought we played really well," he said. "Obviously, you don't get anything for it, which is the most disappointing thing. But I think if you're going to get beat, then that's certainly the way to do it against a team of Portugal's quality. 

“I think we gave as good as we got, we created chances, we were composed on the ball at times. We could have still done better in certain moments and we rode our luck a little bit. But you have to against this level of opposition. 

“Look, at the subs they've brought on, the quality and the depth that they've got. I thought we were really unlucky. We can take a lot of positives from it, but at the end of the day, the result is still not one that we want and that's where it's difficult.

“But, yeah, we just have to keep believing because I think tonight there was a lot to believe about.

“I think for the first 10-15 minutes of the second half, we were a wee bit slow to come out. Credit to them, they upped the tempo a little bit. They looked at it at half-time because it wasn't working for them and we struggled to cope. 

"But then I think at 60 minutes we started playing really good football. For the next 20 minutes, I thought we were the team on top. 

“I thought we were the ones looking like we were going to score. We had a couple of penalty shouts, a couple of dangerous corners, a couple of half chances in the middle of the box. We were pushing and we were confident.

“Obviously, Ronaldo scored 901 goals now. His record is unbelievable. But I think our two centre-backs were different class tonight. I think we've just lost them in a split second and they took advantage of it, which is obviously heartbreaking for the amount of effort we all put in tonight.”

Robertson added: “The Euros was difficult. I think we let ourselves down. I thought Switzerland was a really good game. But against Hungary we let ourselves down. It was a game we had to win, but we didn't create as much chances. 

“But I think the last two games have been really good performances. On Thursday there were too many mistakes. Defensively, giving away two penalties is criminal and we know that. That's why we got to beat that game. 

"But tonight, there weren't really any mistakes out there. We played a really good team. Coming away here, we should have got a draw.

“But we still believe. We understand why the fans are frustrated. The results haven't been good enough. We've not been consistent enough. We were on a really good run and we got to Group A by being successful.

“Now we're playing against Pot 1 teams. It's never easy and you do get punished with that one bit of quality. They showed that in the 88th, 89th minute, whatever it was. Unfortunately for us, it was enough for them to get the win.”

Clarke called up Ben Doak, Lewis Morgan and Tommy Conway for the Euros and drafted Ryan Gauld into the squad for the Nations League match. All four of them came on in the second half of the meeting with Portugal. 

Robertson believes their involvement has given Scotland a lift and is optimistic that more is to come from the quartet in the future.

“They bring a freshness, of course they do," he said. "When new players come in, they've got a point to prove. They want to show that in training. They want to show that in the minutes they come on.

“I think they've all done well in terms of the minutes they've come on. I think the subs on Thursday made a bit of a difference. 

“And then tonight, again, I thought they worked so hard. It's such a difficult game to come into because we're all kind of settled into the game.

“We know where the runners are going and things like that. For a new player coming onto the pitch, it's really hard. But I thought they all settled in really quickly. Tommy, Gauldy, Lewis, Doaky, I thought they all done really well.

“The people on the bench that maybe didn't get the minutes they thought they would But we've still got quality there. We've still got hopefully lads injured that can come back into the squad and add to the quality again. We just need to keep pushing."