Gemmill: My boys don’t know when they’re beaten

SCOT GEMMILL praised his side’s desire not to be beaten as substitute Ryan Hardie rescued a point against Latvia in Perth. A first-half header from Latvian striker Roberts Uldrikis appeared to be enough for the three points until Hardie took control from the spot — after a controversial award when Scott McKenna was impeded. ‘Obviously we’re delighted to get the goal at the end,’ Scotland manager Gemmill said. ‘I think the second-half performance really merited that goal. The willingness not to be beaten and to score a goal was pleasing. I think we must have had over 20 shots tonight and then you add in some good individual performances from a lot of the players. This team has shown how determined it is to keep clean sheets and I’m disappointed with the goal. Conceding the goal was always going to make it difficult for us.’ A floodlight failure after 24 minutes appeared to ease Latvian tensions after a strong start from Scotland but for Gemmill, it was a chance to pass on his early thoughts to his players. ‘I thought we started too slowly,’ he added. ‘I spoke to the players during that break to say we needed to get the tempo up and we did.’ With an hour gone tempers began to flair and Latvia’s Andrejs Ciganiks could — and probably should — have seen red for a stamp on Scott Wright. Scottish appeals were waved away on that occasion but five minutes later the visitors were reduced to ten men. Having been barged fairly off the ball by Chris Cadden, midfielder Ingars Stuglis rashly dived into the back of the Motherwell midfielder with two feet off the ground to get a straight red. With every man behind the ball, Latvia’s resilience was broken in stoppage time as Hardie sent the goalkeeper the wrong way when referee Jorgen Daugbjerg Burchardt awarded the disputed spot-kick. Wins for England and the Netherlands keeps Scotland third in the group. The Scots can go second if they defeat Ukraine on Tuesday back at McDiarmid Park.