LET’S get the praise in first. It doesn’t matter whether Scotland beat Belarus 1-0, as on Tuesday, or 7-0, as at Fir Park last October. Both scores brought three points, and needing the win in Minsk to stay on course for next summer’s European Championship, Scotland delivered.

Thereafter it gets more difficult. The 4-0 loss at the Falkirk Stadium four evenings earlier was so disturbing in many aspects that it cannot be overlooked just because a limited Belarus side were beaten by Jo Love’s goal.

Having built up Scotland’s chances, I am as guilty as anybody of underestimating Iceland. The visitors proved to be much more than the sum of their parts, while we were less. Their game plan worked, ours barely got off the ground.

Something similar happened at Tynecastle in October 2014. The World Cup play-off game against Holland produced another dire first-half performance. Then, as at Falkirk, the new audience who turned up at the game, or watched on television, were left distinctly underwhelmed.

Throughout the Euro 2017 campaign there has been a nagging fear that this Scotland side peaked just before that Holland game. In the group they produced a sustained, high quality of performance, which hasn’t been seen since.

Worse, in recent friendlies against physical, athletic teams like Iceland, the Scottish players haven’t stood up to the challenge. There were similar heavy defeats to Norway and Sweden. None of this will prevent Scotland qualifying for the Euros. That should be sealed in Reykjavik in September, regardless of the result. However, there are certainly causes for concern.

THE first big domestic game of the season arrives on Wednesday night, when holders Glasgow City meet Hibs in a repeat of last year’s SWPL League Cup final.

City’s co-founder, Laura Montgomery, is understandably frustrated that such a showpiece game is being played at Ainslie Park on a midweek evening. With the sport trying to build an audience it makes no sense.

“Being a Glasgow side we are significantly disadvantaged playing Hibs in Edinburgh, in midweek,” she said. “The Hibs supporters will be able to go, but none of our fans with young kids are coming, and they’ve all expressed their extreme disappointment.

“Not only that, we’ve got over 100 kids in our academy and they can’t make it through either. They would be home about 11.30pm on a school night.

“If we want to maximise the attendance we need to look at the weekend for these finals.”

Happily for all, I understand that is what will happen from next season.