THE BBC Sports Personality of the Year ceremony isn't likely to devote much time to the Scotland team's year but, if it did, it could accurately reflect its 2014 by showing a montage of happy scenes and then turning the sprinklers on to dampen everyone down.

In the summer, England depressed their people with a disastrous World Cup. On Tuesday, their ability to bring people down was exercised on Scotland. Their win at Parkhead also gave them the pleasant byproduct of puncturing their neighbours' swelling self-confidence.

Scotland were more impressive after defeat than during it. Reactions from being outplayed by England were mature from Gordon Strachan down. There was no search for scapegoats, no hounding of the officials or castigating "lucky England". There was that sore, quiet introspection which comes from being clinically put away, without the recriminations which would have boiled over if the score had accelerated to worse than 3-1. It might have done. Hearts were in mouths when Jack Wilshere missed a fine chance to make it 3-0 in the second half.

Rebellious Scots to crush? Well, not quite. There is no rebellion and nor did Scotland feel crushed in a broader sense. Swift rationalisation was going on around the country yesterday. It was only a friendly. England played very well. Scotland won when it really mattered against the Irish. Euro 2016 qualifiers are the only show in town. The lads were tired after slugging it out on Friday. All of those were true, and it might further be said that Steven Fletcher, Robert Snodgrass and Alan Hutton probably would all be in Strachan's strongest selection had they been fit.

These points can be advanced without being accused of clutching at straws. None of the participants nor spectators could have left Parkhead under any illusions about Scotland's inferiority. The tempo and aggression was matched by England from the start. That was bad news, and their superior quality all over the pitch eased them to a facile win. Scotland made mistakes that looked unforced when in fact their wariness of Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck et al meant they tried to rush things. Unlike the Irish, England were good enough to find precision passes and finishes.

It was natural to regret that Scotland had taken the game in the first place. It felt like they had overreached themselves. Defeat pickpocketed them of momentum built up over what has been a rewarding year. The six games before Tuesday night delivered a win, draw, defeat, win, draw and win. Crucially they have scored par when it comes to their Euro 2016 group, winning at home against Georgia and the Irish, contributing well in defeat in Germany and taking a point from Poland in Warsaw. In February, UEFA made the draw and Scotland were condemned to the Russian roulette of a demanding group. By Friday night they had muscled their way into contention.

It was the year when Scotland didn't play a game at Hampden; when Ross McCormack, Chris Burke and Charlie Adam played in the first international and never appeared again; when Darren Fletcher was enthusiastically welcomed back from long-term health problems only to quickly lose the captaincy and his place in the team; when Craig Forsyth, Chris Martin, Stevie May and Johnny Russell made their debuts and so did a young left-back called Andy Robertson, whose running had the English media purring after the game on Tuesday. All things considered, it has been a progressive and encouraging year.

"I'm taking the whole year in," said Strachan yesterday. "I'm taking solace from that at the moment. It's been a good year for us as a group. It's hugely disappointing to finish off the year with a performance that we think we can do a lot better than. But that England team . . . I said to the younger players 'if you want to aspire to the Champions League that's the strength and pace you have to play at'. They kept nicking balls off us, winning things and winning headers and knock downs. Previously we've been able to do something about that, but not this time. When we did get the ball there were too many unforced errors.

"If you look at tennis, the guys who make the fewest unforced errors win the game. It's very unusual that they don't and I think we had a lot of unforced errors against England that were surprising. At the moment can I put it down to mental tiredness? Physical tiredness? Can I put it down to playing England and their pace and strength. We have to try to work that one out."

Scotland and Strachan had used up their quota of encouragements for the year and there was nothing to add from Tuesday. Robertson's late goal was lovely - a driving run, an exchange of passes with Russell, a crisp finish - but there were too many jaded, ragged performances and Chris Martin didn't look up to leading the line. "I think you could put a few people in that category," said Strachan when asked about the Derby man, whose attitude and qualities he admires. "There were a few people who would say they were not at their best. This is the bit of the job you don't enjoy, that's for sure. You only enjoy football when you're winning and things are going well. We have to deal with it and in a couple of days we'll look at it and say 'we're getting it together, we've got seven points and, hopefully, we can get to 10 points against Gibraltar and then it's game on again. But this match was maybe a wee reminder of the intensity we have to play at."

Scotland are far from the finished article and this group of players will always be burdened by flaws. Strachan has lifted the national team in 2014, though, and lifting his own spirits will be an easier and quicker task.