An overhead kick from Scott McTominay, a Lewis Ferguson corner that was going in until Lawrence Shankland helped it on its way, a curler to beat all curlers from Kieran Tierney and then a fourth from the other end of the earth – or the halfway line to be precise – from Kenny McLean.
It was the perfect night, a night that further reinforced the bond between these players, which is genuinely tight. That’s always said, but this group is extremely close, a club side in national team colours, a band of brothers who have each other’s back.
There was a collective swoon when news came through on Thursday that McTominay, the totem, had an iffy tummy, but he’s good now. The Napoli midfielder with the Midas Touch probably just waved his hand over his stomach and, hey presto, he was healed.
What’s absolutely fascinating about this game is the options that Clarke has and the way he’s talking about the utilisation of his bench, hinting that he might keep a heavy hitter in reserve.
On more than one occasion he’s suggested that the team that finishes the game might have to be as strong, or stronger, than the one that starts.
It’s inconceivable, for this game, that he’ll go away from his new approach of playing Shankland and Che Adams up front, so one of his star midfielders most probably won’t start.
Scotland are buoyed by the eight goals they scored in their last games. There were caveats – Curacao had 10 men for much of it at Hampden and fell away to lose 4-1 and Bolivia were, well, not all that good.
But confidence is a valuable thing, no matter how you get it. Clarke, as is his wont, has been talking up the threat of Haiti, referring regularly to their size, their power and their athleticism.
In warm-up games, Haiti hammered New Zealand 4-0 before New Zealand lost just 1-0 to England soon after. That form line makes them a theat.
Haiti are a distant 83rd in the Fifa world rankings, but Clarke has been at pains to point out their strengths. One of those strengths is a mental fortitude that comes with representing a country that is riven by crisis and humanitarian disaster.
The capital, Port-au-Prince, is controlled by armed gangs – instability, hunger, killings, kidnappings and sexual violence is rife. Public services have collapsed. Thousands of schools have closed, 10% of the population have fled. The football team can’t play any games at home. Two years into his role as head coach, Sebastien Migne still hasn’t been able to set foot in Haiti.
That level of hardship could breed some amount of determination. Clarke knows it and you sense that his players know it, too.
Scotland have played 23 matches at World Cups and have won only four, a sobering stat when you set it alongside the memories of nightmares past, the loss to Costa Rica in 1990 chief among them.
So Clarke is taking nothing lightly. This is a must-win given the scale of what’s to come against Morocco and Brazil.
Nobody in Clarke’s camp is hiding from that. They have said repeatedly that they’re here to make history as the first Scotland team to make it through a group.
They have a vast travelling army with them and millions more at home, a strange amalgam of positivity and anxiety, belief and fear. All human emotion on the grandest stage.
Thrilling and terrifying. What a time to be alive.
