Steve Clarke insisted there was no risk starting Billy Gilmour for the first time after the Chelsea midfielder starred in Scotland’s goalless draw against England which put Euro 2020 hopes back on track.

The 20-year-old had made two substitute appearances but had not featured in the opening Group D defeat by Czech Republic at Hampden Park which piled pressure on the Scots for the trip to Wembley.

Gilmour looked as if he was made for the big stage as Scotland came away with a deserved point which means they have a chance of qualifying out of the group against Croatia at Hampden Park next Tuesday.

“We have been improving for a long time so it was nice to see the play on the pitch, we defended well, the most pleasing aspect was we played well.”

Clarke made four changes with fit-again Kieran Tierney coming back into defence, Scott McTominay dropping back to midfield with playmaker Callum McGregor and striker Che Adams reinstated.

He explained: “Getting Kieran into the back three with Scott gives us the platform to build from the back to play football and Billy and Callum (McGregor) in midfield are both good footballers.

“We knew we couldn’t defend here for 95 minutes or whatever, we knew when we had the ball we had to take care of it and try to create our own chances and that is what we managed to do.”