Slacker standards and sidelined stars – where did it all go wrong for Scotland?

Scotland’s World Cup dreams ended on Wednesday with a 3-1 play-off defeat by Ukraine.

A trip to Wales was on offer for the right to play at the Qatar finals, where England were among the group opponents.

Here the PA news agency assesses what happened and what’s next for Scotland.

Scotland were outplayed for the bulk of the game and it was too little, too late when they did get going. Ukraine dominated the midfield and were able to pick passes and space in the Scotland half and the home side’s back three struggled to cope with the visiting attackers’ movement.

Steve Clarke’s two strikers, Che Adams and Lyndon Dykes, were starved of service. Ryan Christie replaced Dykes at half-time to give Scotland another body in midfield but they went 2-0 down within four minutes.

Only after Scott McTominay moved from a back three into midfield did Scotland begin to get to grips with the game.

The tactics were exacerbated by widespread poor performances. Craig Gordon was the stand-out exception, pulling off three excellent saves even before Ukraine scored, and keeping Scotland in the game until the visitors netted with the last kick of the ball on the counter-attack.

Callum McGregor never stopped harrying and produced the goal as well as other moments of energy, while Aaron Hickey grew into his first international start after initially looking unsure after being played at right wing-back on his competitive debut. Otherwise, nobody got pass marks.

John McGinn, so often the talisman in recent years, produced an extraordinary miss when it looked easier for him to nod home his 13th Scotland goal while skipper Andy Robertson made a series of blunders as Scotland pushed for an equaliser.

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