Fletcher's frustration

Midfielder disappointed at refereeing decision against Georgia

By James Dall   Last updated: 18th October 2007

fletcher scotland

Fletcher: Frustrated

Related links

Teams

Players

Also see

Scotland's Darren Fletcher has rued his team-mates' honesty following Wednesday's 2-0 Euro 2008 qualifying defeat by Georgia in Tbilisi.

Fletcher's comments relate to referee Knut Kirkher's decision to deny the Scots a penalty just before half-time.

James McFadden was felled in the box by Zurab Khizanishvili but the German official waved away Scottish appeals.

The Manchester United man admits that on occasions it may be in the nation's best interest to make more of a strong challenge, but conceded that it is not in their nature.

Go down

"Maybe there are times when we do have to be like foreigners and go down but it's not in our nature, and we don't want to do that sort of thing," Fletcher said.

"But I don't know what it is going to take for us to get a penalty at this level."

Derby County midfielder Stephen Pearson concurred with his team-mate, and also claimed that Alex McLeish's side failed to get the rub of the green in terms of refereeing decisions.

He said: "We didn't get too much from the referee. I don't want to say too much but that is to be expected when you come away from home.

"You have to make your own luck, we never really got any but we have to put that behind us and move on."

Reality check

After six consecutive victories belief and expectations were beginning to build on the Scotland side, and despite voicing his disappointment at the Georgia loss, Fletcher spoke of his feeling that it maybe a blessing in disguise.

"Maybe we needed a little reality check before the Italy game - maybe the whole country needed it," he added.

"Some of the results have been that good that we took confidence from them and the expectations went up, and rightly so.

"But this is a set-back and we've got to show that we have the character to come back."