For an hour at Hampden, Lawrence Shankland was a peripheral figure, a support act for George Hirst – Scotland’s number nine – and diminished because of it.
Shankland ran everywhere apart from where he is most effective. He dropped deep and ran wide, he sacrificed himself so that Hirst could be the one leading the line.
He was in the margins of a nervy farewell to Hampden before the team heads for the United States on Sunday.
That would change, of course, And thank goodness. Shankland pushed on, took up more dangerous positions and, surprise, surprise, scored and then scored again. Two chances and two beautiful finishes.
Shankland is, by a margin, Steve Clarke’s most accomplished striker. Let’s hope the message lands.
No more Che Adams starting the big games. We’re firmly in the Shankland era now. He’s the one you’d want in a do-or-die moment in America, a chance to keep Scotland alive in the tournament.
When the new Rangers striker made it 2-1, then 3-1, a day of toil against the 10 men of Curacao – world ranking of 82 – turned into something altogether more palatable.
Up until those moments, Scotland were in mortal danger of being sent on their way with a collective shrug from the Tartan Army, a goodbye and good riddance message as they prepared for departure.
Eventually the loss of Jurgen Locadio, the hulking forward who walked in the 38th minute after an elbow on Aaron Hickey, told. That was the turning point.
Curacao were 1-0 ahead at the time and Scotland were struggling. The stadium was like a morgue. This is not how it was meant to be.
Locadio dynamited his team’s chances and prepared the ground for Scotland’s comeback. Nobody wanted that, not Curacao and not Clarke either.
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Is Clarke’s mind already made up?
How telling was the final scoreline? It’s a moot point. When it was 11 v 11, Curacao were probably the better side. Certainly, they were the side with the lead. Powerful and physical and causing problems in Scotland’s defence, they were comfortable.
You wouldn’t want to read a whole lot into the 4-1 but it was welcome, a fillip when a catastrophe presented itself at 1-0. They’ll take it and head off in reasonable heart.
They got a warm reception as they did their walkabout later on. Next stop: New Jersey for a final prep game against Bolivia next Saturday.
Shankland, for sure, will travel in brilliant fettle. Clarke’s pecking order of strikers would most likely have had Adams in pole position, but that view is becoming harder to justify.
The quality of Shankland’s finishes – neither of them all that straightforward – must now be upsetting the natural order in the head coach’s head.
The Rangers striker – how strange it feels to write those words after his dramatic move from Hearts – is in the form of his life; a leader, a finisher and the most clinical and instinctive operator Clarke has up front.
Findlay Curtis will float on to that plane, too. “Everything I’ve dreamed of,” said the 19-year-old winger. The Rangers teenager was the other big winner on the day.
The young man who impressed at Kilmarnock in the latter months of the season came on as a substitute for the injured Billy Gilmour just before the break.
He walked into a bad scene on only his second appearance; a hushed crowd, a team grappling with an opponent that had the bit between their teeth, a total lack of cohesion and conviction.
Curtis took three minutes to score – left foot, right foot, goal. His mum and dad were watching on TV while on holiday in Tenerife. A trip he was supposed to be on.
Scotland are shy of options on the left side and Curtis is stating a big case, not as a starter but as an impact sub in times of strife.
He put in crosses, made things happen, played with a fearlessness that will have impressed Clarke no end. He won the penalty for Ryan Christie to make it four, a culmination of Curacao’s 10-men coming under heavy fire.
A pleasing end to a slightly surreal day. What might have happened had the visitors not had Locadio sent-off? Best not linger on that one for too long.
One more friendly to go before Clarke’s team for Haiti crystallises in his mind, if it hasn’t already. A back four or a back three; a 4-2-3-1 or a 3-5-2? Adams or Shankland or Adams and Shankland?
Clarke is going to get a sore head from all the people telling him that Shankland has to be his go-to guy. The evidence, to be fair, is overwhelming.
These were his 22nd and 23rd goals in his last 37 matches. All season long he’s not gone more than three in a row without scoring. He has five goals in five games in May, two in three in April, nine in 13 this year.
He’s fresh and he’s firing. Timing is everything and Shankland’s is impeccable.
Clarke said his players are still angry at what they did – or didn’t do – in Germany two years ago and are intending on using it as fuel. They said before that tournament they wouldn’t die wondering, but they did. They have a world of regrets, even now.
That’s the challenge in America – no what-might-have-beens. Been there, done that, time for something different. Not long to go now. Not long at all.