Scotland's preparations for a tilt at a first World Cup in 28 years began in ignominy as a chorus of booing greeted a bleak friendly defeat by Iceland.

A calamitous first half at Hampden brought injury and, with it, insult as the Scots were a goalkeeper and a goal down within eight minutes.

Angus Gunn hobbled off after playing just two minutes, but debutant substitute Cieran Slicker was on for 64 seconds before his poor kick out was intercepted, funnelled forward, and rattled into the roof of his net by Andri Gudjohnsen.

John Souttar's header squirmed in to kindle some life in a half-filled national stadium, only for more dreadful defending just before the break leading to Lewis Ferguson nudging the ball past Slicker's despairing grasp and into his own net.

Boos greeted that goal and half-time, and would be heard again seven minutes after the restart when Victor Palsson's bullet header went through Slicker's hands. An lengthy VAR check failed to save Scotland.

Technology thwarted the Scots again when George Hirst's tap in was ruled out for Scott McTominay being offside in the build-up, but in truth it was a comeback that never looked like being merited.

It is early doors for Scotland and Clarke. In fact, the 2026 World Cup campaign hasn't even started yet. But this whole affair had an air of end-of-season to it.

Losing your goalkeeper after two minutes is a huge disruption. So is throwing on one in Ipswich Town back-up Slicker who has only played 10 minutes of football since August 2023 and never appeared in a league game.

Clarke chose to experiment in his starting XI, but it was evolution rather than revolution with his changes.

Max Johnston didn't disgrace himself at right-wing back, Hirst was unfortunate not to get his goal, and Motherwell teenager Lennon Miller got his first cap.

However, Scotland had won all six previous meetings with Iceland and, even with taking a long season into , the Tartan Army would have expected more.

The few who were left inside Hampden at full-time articulated that clearly.

Next up is a trip to Liechtenstein on Monday - live on BBC Scotland if you're brave enough - before the proper stuff begins in September.

Right now, that feels a long way away. Even this far out, so does the prospect of a first World Cup since 1998.

Scotland captain Andy Robertson: "We all know that's nowhere near good enough.

"I don't want to say too much - we need to digest this and speak in the changing room before we start doing interviews.

"Getting beat 3-1 at home by a team that, no disrespect, we should beat... but they've been better than us. We need to get it right pretty quickly."

Scotland midfielder Lewis Ferguson: "It's been a long season but we're here to do a job. We set out to win but we were nowhere near the standard anybody expects.

"We conceded sloppy goals from set pieces and that's just not good enough."

Scotland defender John Souttar: "It didn't go at all how we wanted it to go. We wanted to dominate and take the ball to them and we never got going at all.

"We need to go and win the game [against Lichtenstein], put on a performance and get a bit of momentum back going into the September internationals."