Nathan Patterson pinpoints ANOTHER Scotland ref howler as full back names moment he was left in 'sticky situation'

It may almost have slipped your attention, given the overall refereeing display that cost Scotland so dearly in Seville on Thursday night. But, somewhere amid the mayhem of Scott McTominay’s chopped off goal, controversial match official Serdar Gozubuyuk came up with another potential game changer.

The yellow card he flashed at Nathan Patterson for doing little more than breathing down the neck of the tricky Bryan Zaragoza. Not quite up there perhaps with the foul that Jack Hendry didn’t commit on Spanish keeper Unai Simon in terms of travesty. But a crucial moment nonetheless for Patterson who was having to get to grips with Spain’s electric young winger, having replaced stricken skipper Andy Robertson shortly before half-time.

Patterson’s unwarranted caution left him skating on thin ice in the cauldron of the Cartuja Stadium. One more slip against the little winger could leave his team-mates in the lurch and down to 10 men.

“I didn’t even think it was a foul to be fair,” said Patterson as he reflected on one of many unfathomable decisions that went against Scotland on Thursday night. “I just got my body across, he played the ref well and got a foul. I didn’t even say anything to the ref.

“The player went over and he ended up booking me. I was a bit annoyed with that. Then it puts me in a sticky situation where I can’t really get tight to Zaragoza and put my tackles in. It is just the way the game goes, you have got to deal with it. And I thought I did well doing that.”

And yet the simmering sense of Scotland’s injustice is still not far from the surface – even though it could all end in joyous scenes tonight at the team HQ, so long as Spain avoid defeat in Oslo. There remains an uneasy feeling here that something went