World Cup qualifying: Can mournful Scotland rouse themselves for finale?

When McTominay struck Scotland’s second with six minutes to go, he ran away with the nonchalance of a man who, rather than calming nerves at the end of a closely contested game, was adding the cherry on top of a rich performance.

Scoring the 13th goal of his international career, McTominay showed a composure that belied stress, but it didn’t last long and he didn’t deserve to.

Belarus had more attempts on the goal than Scotland did and it was well deserved when Hleb Kuchko lobbed in front of Robertson to make it 2-1.

You could argue they deserve more. A draw would have been a fairer result. An away win wasn’t a robbery.

The possibility of palpitations, dizziness and nausea is at the heart of the deal when you come to Hampden — and so it was on Sunday.

Some of the conversations leading up to this game included the gallows humor that is so close to the hearts of most members of the Tartan Army.

Having put themselves in an extremely promising position with seven points out of nine, including a miraculous escape against the Greeks, the fatalists talked about how typical it would be if Scotland were to compete against the weakest team in the group.

In many ways this was a continuation of Thursday’s fractiousness, but against an opponent with little more than Greece’s talent.

Belarus is scoreless and goalless in this match. No one really thought it would turn into such a terrifying experience, but they talked about the possibility anyway and poked fun at themselves at the potential horror of it all.