Sebastien Pocognoli urges calm as Scotland bid to avoid an all-time record low in North Macedonia

Sebastien Pocognoli has urged his players to trust the project and remain calm amid Scotland’s worst goalscoring run for 55 years.

The new national team manager suffered a calamitous first home match in charge on Tuesday against Switzerland as the Scots fell to a 3-0 defeat. The night hinged on Jack Hendry’s red card after 11 minutes for impeding Dan Ndoye, with the Swiss scoring the opener from the resultant free kick on the edge of the box.

Scotland have still to score a goal in Pocognoli’s short reign following the goalless draw against Slovenia last weekend in the opening match of the Nations League campaign.

Scotland striker Oli McBurnie looks dejected during the 3-0 defeat by Switzerland at Hampden on Tuesday. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group) | SNS Group

If the current run of four games without a goal extends 26 minutes into Saturday’s clash with North Macedonia it would create a new all-time record run without scoring.

The Scots have now gone 422 minutes without a goal since John McGinn’s deflected effort after 28 minutes earned a 1-0 win over Haiti in their opening World Cup group game in Boston.

The last time Scotland went four games without scoring was in 1971. Bobby Brown’s team suffered a goalscoring drought lasting from John O’Hare’s goal in a 1-0 win over Denmark in late 1970 until Hugh Curran’s scuffed effort at Wembley in a 3-1 defeat to England in May 1971 – a total of 447 minutes.

The run comprised European Championship qualifying defeats against Belgium and Portugal and a draw and a defeat against Wales and Northern Ireland, respectively, in the Home International championships.

Both Pocognoli and predecessor Steve Clarke share the responsibility this time around. The current manager expressed his confidence that his Scotland team can rediscover their goalscoring touch against North Macedonia this weekend.

Pocognoli is determined to keep faith with a more aggressive, front-foot playing style he is attempting to implement despite two games without a goal—albeit one where Scotland played with ten men for almost the entire duration.

“I don’t know why I would be affected,” he said. “We had a good feeling after Slovenia, we had a good feeling at the start of the Switzerland game – the first eight minutes we were there (in the game) and were just waiting to take some control back from Switzerland. (Because of the red card) we did not have that moment. We just need to stay calm and not overthink things, especially the players. We have to go from Macedonia and start from zero and try to do what we tried to do against Switzerland.”

He is aware of the threat of setting an unwelcome record in only his third game in charge in Skopje.

“I try to take a step back from this because it is a statistic building from the past,” he said. “We created a lot of chances against Slovenia and I saw some good things.

“Against Switzerland we didn’t have that one good moment,” he added. “I hope it can give the taste to the strikers to break this, but it is not an objective to fight against this stat. The stat is there for some reason. We have to distance ourselves from it.”