Wednesday 12 October 2016 16:05, UK
Barry Bannan insists Scotland's quest to reach the 2018 World Cup finals was not stopped in its tracks with the 3-0 defeat against Slovakia on Tuesday evening.
Gordon Strachan's side went into the Group F qualifier in Trnava under some pressure after dropping two points in their second fixture against Lithuania at Hampden last Saturday, where it took an 89th-minute equaliser from substitute James McArthur to earn a 1-1 draw.
However, there was to be no redemption in Slovakia as Scotland slipped to fourth place in the table on four points, three behind leaders England who drew 0-0 in Slovenia.
A Robert Mak double and a header from Adam Nemec left the visitors well beaten and, ahead of the trip to Wembley on November 11, prospects of reaching their first major finals since 1998 already look in the balance.
However, the Sheffield Wednesday midfielder remains confident, telling BBC Sport: "It's not over, all the teams are closely matched in this group. England dropped points in Slovenia and we dropped points in Slovakia.
"It's our fault, because we're the ones who are out there losing games. We are disappointed at the moment. We'll get ourselves back to our clubs and try to perform, then the next time we meet up we'll try to look at where we went
wrong on this trip.
"Every game in this group is going to be massive because the teams are so closely matched and it [England game] is a game we'll look forward to, it's the arch enemy.
"Everybody's disappointed, as you can imagine, but there's only three points from us to England. We made it tough for ourselves and we're going to have to get a result from somewhere, and we're confident of doing that."
Strachan's men started confidently but fell behind to Mak's opener after 18 minutes, although Scotland might have been awarded a free-kick for a challenge on striker Steven Fletcher seconds earlier at the other end.
Mak grabbed his second shortly after the break with the Scotland defence in disarray and a similarly static rearguard stood and watched as Nemec headed home a third from a corner.
"The goals weren't great, they were avoidable," said Bannan. "You don't mind losing to a wonder hit, but to lose goals that you know you don't have to lose hurts more.
"I thought we played well in the first half but lost a silly goal when they hit us on the counter. It could have been a foul in the build-up to the first goal, which knocks you a bit, but in the second half we have been caught from our corner on the counter.
"We have to look at it, but when they go 2-0 up it kills us because we'd been in the game right up until that point."
