A SHELL-SHOCKED Stuart Armstrong was still agonising last night over his part in the late Harry Kane goal which deprived Scotland one of their most famous victories.
While a number of errors conspired to give England their stoppage-time equaliser – Charlie Mulgrew lost the England striker entirely from Raheem Sterling’s cross and Craig Gordon could certainly have been more decisive in coming from his line – the Celtic midfielder needed little reminding that the attacking position would never have come about had he fed the ball to the breaking Chris Martin on his left rather than Leigh Griffiths on his right, or alternatively simply shelled the ball into row Z.
“Yeah, I know,” said Armstrong. “You make decisions in game. It was really late on and, honestly, tiredness comes into play.
“I’ve seen Griff make a run – and it was a poor pass,” he conceded. “In hindsight, I should probably just have shelled it into row Z. A number of things have to happen for a goal – you can never tell what phase of play is going to lead to what – but I probably should have just cleared the ball. It’s just one of those things.
“When I saw the ball hit the net, my feelings were honestly just total disappointment. We were so close to three points. To end up with one, you know, it’s just hard to take. The emotions of the game, being one-nil down and Griff hitting two unbelievable goals to get us back in the lead with so little time remaining … it’s hard to know what to say. To concede is disappointing, to say the least.”
Armstrong deserves a better fate for his break-out season – which harvested 17 goals, numerous assists and an invincible domestic treble – than to be remembered for his last kick of the campaign being a poor one.
No Scottish player has covered more ground this season and, when the disappointment has subsided, there will be plenty for him and the rest of the Scotland side to be proud of from this display. Four wins – away to Lithuania, at home to Malta, at home to Slovakia, and away to Slovenia – could yet be enough for second place and a play-off berth, even if Scotland now require England to do them a favour or two along the way.
“It was still a draw with a good team,” said Armstrong. “It says a lot about where we are, how far we’ve come, that we were disappointed with a point against England.
“There is certainly a lot to build on and a lot of confidence to take into the next game. Can we win the next four? I don’t see why not. We’ve hopefully given the fans that belief that we can do it. It means so much when they are behind us, as well.
“It gives us the extra impetus to take something from the game.”
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