Don’t write us off

BLAME THE players, not the manager.

That was the message from Scotland defender Christophe Berra in the wake of the team’s Welsh woe.

National coach Craig Levein is now in locked in a battle to save his job in the wake of Friday’s 2-1 defeat at Cardiff City Stadium.

Wolves defender Berra insists it is the players who should shoulder the responsibility for a late collapse that let in Gareth Bale to nick the game for the Welsh and leave Scotland sitting second-bottom of Group A.

Asked if the players still back Levein, Berra claimed: “It’s got nothing to do with the manager we are the ones who go out on the pitch.

“We played well, we just maybe ran out of steam a bit. A penalty and a 25-yard strike lost us the game.

“At top-level football, it’s the flip of a coin sometimes. We didn’t have the luck.

“It’s a game we should have won comfortably. Our chances came and maybe we should have killed them off.”

Berra knows the odds are stacked firmly against Levein’s men ahead of tomorrow’s clash in Brussels against Belgium but he pointed out that the Scots have risen to the occasion in the past when written off.

He said: “We’re second bottom and it’s not a great position to be in.

“But we will look over the game and we will go to Belgium and prepare for the game on Tuesday.

“They are a top team, with world-class players, but we have done it before.

“We did it in France. When we’re down, we always seem to bounce back.

“We didn’t play badly against Wales. Lady Luck just didn’t go our way.

“Footballers are thick-skinned. At club level as well, you get beat in one game, you’ve got to move on.

“We are disappointed now but you can’t dwell on the past.”

Scotland took the lead against the Welsh courtesy of a James Morrison first-half opener, before seeing what appeared to be a perfectly good Steven Fletcher goal disallowed with 15 minutes to go.

Bale then hauled the home side back into the match when he won and converted a penalty, before grabbing a superb winner in the final minute.

Christophe Berra.