{"id":391983,"date":"2026-04-22T11:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T11:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/391983\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T11:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T11:08:08","slug":"get-out-the-group-and-take-it-from-there-scotlands-mctominay-gilmour-on-world-cup-hopes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/391983\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Get out the group and take it from there&#8217; &#8211; Scotland&#8217;s McTominay &#038; Gilmour on World Cup hopes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Steve Clarke has now taken Scotland to three of the past four major finals, following back-to-back European Championship qualifications.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The 62-year-old, who will be out of contract after the World Cup, is the nation&#8217;s longest-serving head coach, with 76 matches under his belt since 2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He has been brilliant,&#8221; enthused Gilmour. &#8220;He will go down as the greatest Scottish manager ever.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;There&#8217;s been some tough times and, as a group, we have come together with the manager and got ourselves out of those difficult moments and now we are starting to see the stadium packed and chanting and getting behind us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Clarke cultivates a dour image, rarely getting too high or low, and has remained loyal to a core group, building experience and forging a strong bond.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We love him,&#8221; said McTominay. &#8220;First and foremost, he is a great man who gives the players licence to express themselves off the pitch and on the pitch as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;How together we are is extremely important going into a major tournament.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We know our goals. To come out of the group has to be the only thing on our minds.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steve Clarke has now taken Scotland to three of the past four major finals, following back-to-back European Championship&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-391983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}