Let's not mince our words here because the sense of lingering national embarrassment demands that some home truths are aired.
Steve Clarke and his players were cut plenty of slack after being turned over by Ukraine and denied access to a World Cup because they had earned it after all the progress that’s been made over these last three years.
There is no shame to be shouldered at being outplayed by a superior opponent. But what happened in Dublin on Saturday evening was something entirely different.
This was a Scotland side being outfought and then annihilated by a vastly inferior one. And for that there can be no excuses.
This was not just a substandard performance, it was a truly appalling display and Clarke cannot absolve himself by pointing to the woefulness of his players even though there is no doubt they let their manager down in spectacular style.
No, Clarke too has to look in the mirror and ask if he is performing at the level required to remain in his position as this was 90 minutes which made him look horribly confused and a result so wretched it leaves the manager at his most vulnerable.
It doesn’t take hindsight either to wonder what Clarke is thinking right now because even before kick-off at the Aviva it did seem as if he might have been guilty of getting himself into another muddle.
For some unfathomable reason, for example, Billy Gilmour appears to have been scapegoated for the play-off defeat by Ukraine, with the youngster starting the last two games sat on Clarke’s bench.
Granted, Gilmour failed to turn up for duty at Hampden when the Ukrainians swatted Clarke’s players aside and left them in a ditch on the road to Qatar but he was far from the only one who could not find his A-game when it was most required.
On the contrary, Scotland’s side was jam-packed with under-performers just as it was again on Saturday when the Republic of Ireland were allowed to run riot.
This is a Republic of Ireland side, let’s not forget, plummeting down the world rankings and which had managed just two goals in 12 previous Nations League matches before Clarke and his men turned up and rolled over so obligingly.
In time we will forgive them for this humiliation because this is a Scotland side which has, for the most part, given the nation a reason to believe again. But that’s also why this capitulation was so utterly galling and painful to watch. The fear here is Clarke is veering too far away from the formula that made his team fit for purpose in the first place.
It was a stroke of genius when he came up with the 3-5-2 formation to accommodate both Andy Robertson and Kieran Tierney in the same starting XI.
Also, by moving Scott McTominay into the right- hand side of his three-man defence, Clarke added another layer of composure to the weakest area.
He was brave enough to stick to his guns too when McTominay experienced some teething problems during the early transition. Most of all though, by making this switch, Clarke found a way of shoehorning all his most talented, reliable players into the same team at the same time. And it worked.
McTominay may hold down a regular place in Manchester United’s engine room but Clarke has others at his disposal who are better able to command the centre of the pitch.
Gilmour, Callum McGregor and John McGinn give his side a perfect balance and Ryan Jack is another expert operator in Scotland’s midfield even if he never seems too far from his next injury.
So it didn’t make much sense to redeploy McTominay in that area at the weekend, especially as it resulted in Gilmour having to sit another one out.
It wasn’t all that long ago Clarke first appeared to grasp he has a once-in-a-generation talent with the Chelsea prodigy – a player of such outstanding natural ability Scotland’s future should be being built around him. Yet for some reason, Gilmour now appears to be carrying the can for the Ukraine debacle and Scotland are worse off for it.
It could be Clarke believes the 21-year-old’s confidence has been badly dented by the disastrous decision to send him on loan to Norwich for a season of misery. And the manager might have seen good reason on the training ground to suspect Gilmour is not functioning at the top of his game.
But if it’s a crisis in confidence he’s going through how must he have felt on Saturday, watching Scotland’s midfield being overrun by a team of international plodders?
That’s an issue Clarke will have to confront as a matter of urgency before deciding whether or not to reinstate Gilmour in Armenia tomorrow night, which surely he must.
And he’ll have to give serious consideration to scrapping the three-at-the-back formation until Tierney is ready to return to the bespoke position Clarke designed with the Arsenal man in mind.
That might take some doing as Clarke has a notoriously stubborn streak and has visibly bristled at the suggestion the entire system falls down if Tierney is not part of it.
And yet the evidence is mounting to suggest it does. Clarke may have to swallow his pride where this issue is concerned if he is to recover from this early summer wobble and stop it from toppling him off his managerial perch.
He’s worked too hard and come too far to let it all slip away now.
