The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Poor start cost us – Griffiths
Striker reckons opening four games left Scotland with too much to do
Scotland forward Leigh Griffiths says his side’s poor start to the World Cup qualifying campaign left them with too much to do after their dream ended with last night’s 2-2 draw against Slovenia.
Gordon Strachan’s men needed the victory in Ljubljana in order to qualify for next month’s play-offs, but fell short despite Griffiths giving them the lead in the first-half.
Scotland had put themselves back in contention to qualify with four wins from their final six games, after taking only four points from their opening four matches.
Celtic forward Griffiths says his side was always going to be up against it despite their best attempts to rally.
He said: “It just goes to show that if we don’t start the campaign off well, it will come back to bite us in the backside.
“That’s one thing the boys will look at, but we’ve finished 2017 very strongly – undefeated – so we need to take that into the next campaign.
“With the way we’ve played against the likes of England at home, and Slovakia at home.
“We need to take those results into the next campaign.
“It’s going to be a sore one for a couple of days, but it was earlier results that cost us.
“We put so much into qualifying, in the last four or five games we have been outstanding and we just needed that one final push.
“The goals we conceded were sloppy and then we get the equaliser
and then we should have got one at the end.
“It was always going to happen at some point, we were going to be put under pressure.
“They are the home team, they were going to come forward and they wanted to win the game.
“It’s disappointing, but we can hold our heads up high, for the last four or five games we’ve been great.
“(The manager) couldn’t ask for any more.
“We have played 90 minutes twice in a matter of days and to still keep running at the end to try and prove people wrong is a credit to the boys.”
Barry Bannan says the Scotland dressing room was reduced to silence after the World Cup dream ended.
Reflecting on the mood of the camp following the match, the midfielder revealed little was said between the players as the disappointment began to sink in.
Bannan said: “It was silent. No one wants to speak at this moment in time, everybody is really down.
“It feels like the worst thing in the world. We were that close to getting there and so it is really hard to take.
“I felt we gave it our all and it just wasn’t to be.
“It was a quiet dressing room at the end and we now go back to our clubs.”
The failure to qualify for another major tournament raises massive doubts over the future of manager Gordon Strachan.
Sheffield Wednesday’s Bannan feels the strong end to the campaign, which saw Scotland win four of their last six matches, leaves the national team with plenty to build on ahead of qualification for Euro 2020.
Bannan added: “It’s hard to take because we wanted to get to those playoffs and we have fallen short.
“But we have gone six games now in a tough group without losing so we try and build on that.
“It’s hard to look at the future right now but we can use the way we’ve played in those six games as something positive to build on.
“Although we’re six games unbeaten we maybe left it a bit late in this campaign.
“Taking a positive from a negative, I think we have to look at it and say we have played good teams and not been beaten in six games.”
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No one wants to speak at this moment in time, everybody is really down. BARRY BANNAN