ACROPOLIS NOW

THIS was a beating so bloody and gory that it should probably have been given an X certificate.
Acropolis Now. The night Steve Clarke's Scotland were gunned down and massacred on home soil while also being disembowelled as a member of the Nations League elite.
A punishing, painful and ultimately pride-swallowing affair which was no more than Scotland deserved after such an unexpectedly pitiful performance.
Of course Clarke and his players went into this twolegged tragedy with the Greeks with plenty of credit back in the bank, having piled it back in the vault on the back of such a thoroughly feeble showing at last summer's Euros.
But they have come out with the jeers of the Tartan Army back ringing in their ears all over again and, once more, manager Clarke is going to have to find a way of reconnecting his team with its own support.
And he'll have to do it sharpish too before it blows his chances of bowing out of the job at the next World Cup finals, with that qualification campaign opening up in less than six months.
Clarke may even have to convince some of these fans that he is still the right man to lead the team because some of the decisions he was responsible for backfired spectacularly. It was unlike him. It was unlike his team.
And it made for truly horrific viewing- and not just for those inside the National Stadium.
Come to think of it, it was difficult to decide who was having the worst night-Clarke's Scotland or BBC Scotland whose production team took forever to work out how to pair up the live pictures with the accompanying audio.
But the truth is Clarke and his players were every bit as out of sync as the broadcasters and the manager has to carry the can.
The Greeks changed six starters from the first leg. Clarke swapped out only one - Lewis Ferguson and that was a contentious choice in itself.
Clarke also had just enough thinking time on the flight home from Athens to consider U-turning on his decision to omit Kieran Tierney from his starting XI in the first leg. But rather than back down, he doubled down.
There may be long term ramifications from this decision as Tierney will have a great deal to process and consider too now that he's ready to relaunch his career back at Celtic.
But clearly Clarke's only focus was on the here and now and finishing the job which Scotland started with a 1-0 win on Thursday night, when Tierney was reduced to a second-half cameo role from the bench.
He was flung on as an after thought again after 54 minutes last night when this tie was already a bloodbath.
And when Clarke chose to send him on for Billy Gilmour the Hampden crowd reacted furiously.
Let's be blunt, Tierney is too proud and too damn talented to be content with playing second fiddle indefinitely. It'll be fascinating to see how this situation develops over time.
Last night, though, Clarke was focused on the here and now.
Having opted to make minimal changes he could not resist the temptation to find a place for Ryan Christie at someone else's expense. It looked like a coin toss between Ferguson and Kenny McLean.
But, even so, the smart money was on Clarke's conservative side getting the better of him.
And it did.
Ferguson has already claimed star status with Bologna in Serie A and it stands to reason he will become a mainstay in Scotland's future. That future felt like now when he stepped into Clarke's midfield for the first leg.
But, in Clarke's mind, Norwich man McLean remains the kind of player he can hang his managerial hat on.
So, as frustrated as Ferguson will have been t...