Georgia 2-2 Scotland: Lawrence Shankland comes off bench to recue late point in Tbilisi

But that effort was one of the few opportunities the Scots had created until Shankland rose at the back post to net his second international goal.

To secure top spot in Group A, Scotland will need to beat Norway at Hampden in their final qualifier on Sunday (19:45 GMT) and hope Spain lose at home to the Georgians.

Travelling to Tbilisi – where Scotland’s Euro 2008 and 2016 bids were dealt infamous blows – relatively carefree was quite the luxury for Clarke and his players.

If you told any member of the Tartan Army that would be the case at the start of this campaign, they would have assumed their nation’s hopes were over with two games remaining.

But despite going four without a win, that conditioned pessimism continues to evaporate under this team, who again found a way to get a result in a game they were second best in for long spells.

Georgia, who had 13 wins from their last 20 games prior to Thursday, were always at arm’s length as Clark’s sharp first-half save from Levan Shengelia prevented the home side going two up.

But, McTominay’s fortuitous leveller aside, the issue for Scotland was they were struggling to create many clear-cut chances with their lion’s share of the ball, while anything they did create was being passed up.

Lyndon Dykes glanced Billy Gilmour’s free-kick wide in the first half before seeing another saved at the near post after the break.

The Queens Park Rangers striker was the man to make way for Shankland, who demonstrated the composure Dykes was lacking just seven minutes after coming on by planting in a header of his own in the dying stages.