Clarke thrilled with Scotland's 'solid start' to World Cup qualifying
Scotland are second in Group C, behind Denmark on goal difference, keeping themselves in with a chance of qualifying for the World Cup.
Steve Clarke is delighted with Scotland's "solid start" to World Cup qualifying after they continued their unbeaten start with a 2-0 win over Belarus.
Scotland opened their qualifying campaign with a hard-earned 0-0 draw with Denmark before following that up with another morale-boosting result.
Behind closed doors at the ZTE-Arena in Hungary, Scotland took the lead at the end of the first half, with Scott McTominay setting up Che Adams for a near finish in the 43rd minute.
Billy Gilmour had struck the woodwork just moments before, and was also denied a goal in the second half as his header across goal hit Zakhar Volkov and flew into the net 65 minutes in.
The win leaves Scotland second in Group C on goal difference, boosting their hopes of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup.
And Clarke was most pleased with a second consecutive clean sheet for his side, though he noted Scotland still have work to do.
"It was a tough night. I expected the reaction Belarus gave," he told BBC Scotland. "They started big guys and filled the middle of the park.
"We kept prodding, doing what we wanted to do. The message was just to stay patient, and we managed to do that.
"It's a good start, a solid start. Four points will never qualify you for anything. It's nice to go home with a smile on your face, but I'm already thinking about next month.
"Billy and Ben [Gannon-Doak] are two players who excite the public. My job is to pick a team to win the game. Both of them did very well.
"Clean sheets are what we have to build our campaign on."
Scotland have now lost just one of their last 18 World Cup qualifiers (W12 D5), and have not kept a clean sheet in each of their last five such qualifiers.
They put Belarus under pressure at the other end as well, though, accumulating 1.98 expected goals (xG) from their 14 shots, and limited Belarus to just 0.33 xG.
Gilmour noted that there are positives to take from Scotland's September camp and is hopeful they can keep building on that in October.
"Hard night without the fans, but the whole team did well," Gilmour told BBC Scotland.
"It's good to play football - no one wants to sit on the bench, but we've got a good squad here.
"Even against Denmark, I thought we played really well. Two good performances this camp, and hopefully the next one's the same.
"We're all in good spirits. We knew how important it was to start well, and we've done that."
