Saturday 7 September 2019 13:49, UK
Scotland captain Andrew Robertson fumed at his team-mates after their loss to Russia left their Euro 2020 qualifying hopes in tatters.
Despite taking a 10th-minute lead through John McGinn, Scotland were beaten by goals in each half by Artem Dzyuba and a second-half own goal from Stephen O'Donnell, leaving them six points off the second qualifying spot in Group I - and with Belgium to visit Hampden Park on Monday night, live on Sky Sports.
Robertson took aim at his side's reaction to their bright start at Hampden Park, saying he had "never seen anything like" the manner in which he felt his country froze after netting the opener.
"There's frustration, annoyance, everything that goes along with it," he told Sky Sports. "You can feel it from the stands and we've only got ourselves to blame for that, they've got every right. It wasn't good enough.
"First 15 minutes I thought we were good, got the goal and it was as if it scared us, I've never seen anything like that before. That needs to change, If we go into a lead it should be a positive not a negative.
"I'm annoyed with everything. My performance, what the rest of the lads done, all of us except David Marshall really. To have 10 players from the start not really showing up and putting in the performances we can is never going to win you a game of football."
Goalscorer McGinn laid the blame squarely at a lack of belief among the Scotland players, who have not qualified for a tournament of any kind since 1998 and sacked Alex McLeish after a poor start to this qualifying campaign.
"It was a mixture of things, maybe we lacked a bit of belief and that is not acceptable," he said. "We have got to believe we can go and make it 2-0 and 3-0 because if we don't do that we are not going to make any tournaments. We know we are capable in there and that is the frustrating thing.
"All the boys are gutted. We know we have messed up and we know what we have to improve on and, if it happens again, hopefully we will be in better position to solve it."
Manager Steve Clarke shared his captain's frustration, lamenting the way Scotland "froze" after McGinn's goal, and said it had made their showdown with world No 1 ranked Belgium a must-win game if they still harbour hopes of qualifying for next year's finals.
He said: "We started the game ever so well, got ourselves in front and then froze. We couldn't believe we were in front, almost. We took our foot off the gas and gave them the momentum. It's a disappointing result after such a bright start.
"If you're going to qualify you have to turn up in the big games and the big nights. This was a night we had to turn up, we did at the start and were in the game at the start but when it goes 2-1 the momentum swings, we risk a lot, put some pressure on but the Russians were always a threat on the counter and we had to be wary of that.
"Now it's about getting the lads positive and up for the game on Monday. It's almost a must-win. That's the scenario, we've put ourselves in a difficult place in the group. We've got to get something, and if we got three points it'd certainly give us half a chance of getting through."
