STEVE Clarke last night stressed he remains determined to turn around Scotland’s fortunes and lead them into the Euro 2020 play-offs despite watching his side slump to a second straight 4-0 defeat against Russia.

The national team, who were thrashed by the same scoreline by Belgium at Hampden last month, conceded four second-half goals in the Luzhniki Stadium on Thursday evening and are still rooted to second bottom spot in Group I with three games left.

But Clarke, who took over from Alex McLeish back in May, was encouraged by the first-half performance in Moscow and has targeted maximum points from the matches against San Marino tomorrow and Cyprus and Kazakhstan next month.

The former Chelsea and Liverpool assistant, who transformed Kilmarnock during the two seasons that he spent in the dugout at Rugby Park, has vowed to continue and is certain Scotland can go into the play-offs next March on the back of a morale-boosting winning run.

Asked if he thought the size of the job he had taken on when he took over in the summer, Clarke said: “No, no, no. Listen, all I would say on that one is that in May when Scotland came and head-hunted me I was the best guy for the job according to everybody. Now if I’m not the best man for the job then there is something wrong.

“I’m still confident about the job. If I wasn’t confident then I’d find something else to do. These were all going to be four difficult games. The disappointing aspect from the four difficult games is that we’ve lost three of them by a margin that’s too high at this level.

“Even if you’re going to lose they should be close games. I thought in Russia for 60 minutes it was a close game - and you can’t allow a game to run away from you like we did. That’s not possible.

“It’s a test for everybody, it’s a test for me after a short space of time. I have realised the size of the task. But I’m not going to run away from it. I’m going to stand and fight it. It’s up to us as a team to make sure that in the next three games we go into the March games in a better place.

“The Russia defeat at Hampden was only by one goal but it was a sore one. We then backed that up with a 4-0 to Belgium and then another one in Moscow. But I’ve got to keep faith. I’ve got to keep working and make sure that this is the lowest point. From here we need to bounce back.”

Clarke will be without Oliver Burke, the West Brom player, who is on loan at Alaves in Spain, who started up front against Russia before coming off at half-time, against minnows San Marino.

That has increased the likelihood of Lawrence Shankland, the Dundee United striker who won his first cap in Moscow, starting up front for Scotland at Hampden tomorrow.

“He (Burke) is injured, he got a knock,” said Clarke. “He’s out for the San Marino game. We knew that at half-time. I thought he did okay, I’ve got to be honest. When Lawrence went on at half-time I felt a little bit sorry for him because he was isolated up there. But he showed some nice touches.”