NEXT month marks a fairly significant milestone for Scott Brown. For it was on November 12, 2005 that the then Hibernian midfielder made his Scotland debut, appearing as a substitute in a 1-1 friendly draw with the USA at Hampden. Brown actually thought he had scored with a volley only for an offside call to thwart his celebrations, while manager Walter Smith, with typical foresight, would describe Brown as a “lively character and a very chirpy lad”. It had all looked so promising.

Ten years on and, while the player has enjoyed a fulfilling club career, international success continues to elude both him and the team. Brown has matured and grown since that promising debut to the point where he is now an automatic selection for his country and usually captain, too. Few looked as dejected as he following Thursday night’s dramatic denouement at Hampden that ended Scotland’s hopes once again of reaching a major finals. There was little of the tongue-in-cheek flippancy often present whenever Brown has a tape recorder shoved under his nose and asked for his thoughts. This was clearly not the time nor the place for fooling around.

Brown turned 30 in the summer. Eleven days into the 2018 World Cup and he will blow out 33 candles on his birthday cake. His seemingly boundless energy levels mean there is every chance he will still be playing at elite level by that point, although the odds on Scotland finally breaking a 20-year drought by making it to Russia are somewhat longer. They will need to better both England and Slovakia (as well Slovenia, Lithuania and Malta) to claim the one automatic qualifying spot, or finish one of eight best runners-up and take their chances in the play-offs. At this juncture, neither seems likely. Come the revamped weirdness that will be Euro 2020, Brown will be 35. It is not a huge leap to say he is destined to never experience international football at tournament level.

Whether he returns for another go remains to be seen. His first task will be to somehow lift 11 bedraggled bodies through tonight’s dead rubber against Gibraltar, before international football goes mercifully into cold storage for a few months as Scotland fans try to hunker down for the winter to escape the incessant chattering from the rest of the British nations as they prepare for France next summer. Scotland’s next competitive match is away to Malta in September next year and Brown was vague on the likelihood on him lining up for that one.

"[Committing to international football] is hard on everyone's body,” he said. “There are a lot of games and not a lot of holidays for us. We'll see where that goes when it comes around.”

Brown, though, was more clear-cut on whether Gordon Strachan should remain as manager, believing the man who signed him for Celtic had earned the right to go on. Scotland may have finished fourth in a six-team group but Brown insists there have been tangible signs of progress, even if the league table argues otherwise.

“I think he loves his job and loves being about the lads,” he added. “The lads have shown great attitude in turning up to play through injuries, playing for him and training for him and doing everything he's asked. Hopefully he stays for us.

"Has there been progress made? Definitely. If you watch the way we play football, it's the way everyone wants to play. People are coming to Hampden a little bit scared. We are trying to play football the way it should be played, getting the ball down and with a little bit of dig as well. We have some great quality players.

“We have created a lot of chances as well and played some great football against some great teams. We have got to take that from it and take the last couple of years and how well the manager has done for us, too.”

Disappointment is not a new word in the Scottish football lexicon. Brown became a regular with the national team in 2007 so has known only hardship and hard luck stories for the best part of a decade. This one, though, felt particularly gut-wrenching.

“Is this the worst one? Yeah, especially for me. It's extremely hard to take. You set your whole campaign up to try to get to France but we are not going.”