IKECHI ANYA believes the performance delivered by England in their 3-1 friendly win at Celtic Park on Tuesday night is the standard Scotland ought to be aspiring to.
A double from Wayne Rooney following Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's opener paved the way for a comfortable victory, with Andy Robertson's reply no more than consolation. It served as a "reality check" for Scotland following the euphoria that had greeted the 1-0 Euro 2016 qualifying victory over the Republic of Ireland, just four days earlier.
Anya, who had a quiet game by his usual effervescent standards, hoped lessons could be learned from the game that would stand Scotland in good stead in their quest to reach the finals in France in two years' time.
"That [England performance] is the next level that the majority of us are trying to aspire to," said the Watford winger. "It's the kind of level we need to get to if we are going to try and qualify for France. As long as we can learn from this game, we can use it as a positive. Everyone is hurting just now but the main aim is to qualify for France.
"As long as this doesn't happen again in the qualifiers, in the long run, it might serve a purpose although that doesn't help how we are feeling right now. We feel we've let ourselves down and the fans down. We're going to work extra hard now to try and put that right against Gibraltar. Before we know it, Germany and Poland will also be coming to Glasgow. We are trying to win all of our home games - even if it's against the world champions. We're trying to improve."
Scotland looked drained following their endeavours against the Irish but Anya felt that was not an excuse on a night when England's superiority proved the difference.
"I think it was a bit of a reality check for us," he added. "We all went into the game full of confidence but England have come here and showed us that this is the level we need to get to if we are to qualify for France.
"The only positive we can take from it is that there were no points at stake. We're going to try and learn from it to make sure we improve. I can't really pin-point what the biggest problems we had were. That's what the video analysis team will show us.
"It's easy now when there's a lot of emotion flying about to point fingers or what have you but at the end of the day their 11 players were just first to the second balls and just first in every department. That showed with the scoreline. I said before that we can't make excuses. As professionals we should be able to play Friday and then Tuesday. We recovered great, training was great and everyone's legs were fine.
"It's just one of those things - we went on the pitch and unfortunately didn't do what we've been doing over the past 18 months."
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