DRAB and miserable Scotland continue to stumble on with a barely detectable pulse.

It seems an age since the team last played in decent weather and longer still since it did anything to bring a little sunshine into the lives of downtrodden, exasperated supporters.

Gordon Strachan's reign is in its infancy, and last night he picked a team with hints of Scotland's future, but the grey Serbian outpost of Novi Sad saw a wearyingly familiar story. This defeat and other results formally knocked Scotland out of the World Cup. For the first time ever, the national team has gone seven consecutive qualifiers, spanning two campaigns, without a win. They were labouring to a goalless draw for an hour before horrible defending allowed Filip Duricic to score twice in five minutes.

With two points from six games, Scotland are at the foot of Group A, seemingly out of their depth. Liam Bridcutt and George Boyd were given debuts as Strachan tried to refresh the side but the general ordinariness of the team was unchanged.

From the very start of it Scotland did little with Group A beyond using it to dig a giant hole for themselves. At least they put shovels to a new use yesterday, with a few of the 1300-strong Tartan Army turning up to help clear the pitch of snow. A splendid job they did, too. A pitch that had been white in the morning had barely any traces of snow by kick-off. The match delegate, Petr Fousek from the Czech Republic, was so taken with them that he said he would recommend the fans receive a Fifa Fair Play Award.

They couldn't do anything about the heavy, sodden surface under all that snow. After a day of doubt, it passed an inspection 90 minutes before kick-off. Strachan called it a "mudheap", playable but far from conducive to a smooth game. Yet the team he selected had plenty of men who would have benefited from a better surface. Boyd, Shaun Maloney, Steven Naismith and James McArthur had to slog through it all. There were six changes to the team beaten by Wales, with David Marshall preferred to Allan McGregor in goal. Alarmingly he has now conceded 17 goals in six caps. Overall the team had elements that were fresh and different, even if the result did not.

The shape was 4-1-4-1, with Bridcutt in front of the back four and Naismith, McArthur, Boyd and Maloney strung behind Jordan Rhodes. At times the Blackburn striker did look isolated in his first competitive start, but the quartet behind him could not be faulted for trying to flood forward in support when Scotland counter-attacked.

The problem was that for too much of the first half the midfield were on the back foot as the Serbs had control. Bridcutt is small – Scotland have too few inches in the team as it is – yet he was compact and eager. Sometimes he got caught on the ball and one slip allowed Dusan Basta to fire a low shot which Marshall saved. At one point Gary Caldwell shoved him away as he retreated on to the captain's toes for a Serbian high ball. But overall he was tidy.

Serbia were limited and unremarkable. Their pressure did yield periodic chances, though. Durijic turned Grant Hanley but scuffed a soft shot at the Scottish goal. Hanley's performance was as mixed as it had been on Friday. Again he instantly gave the ball away with a header in the opening ten seconds, yet later he made a crucial intervention to clear Zoran Tosic's left-wing cross as it headed to Basta in front of goal. In the second half he did well to get his toe on the ball and knock it away from Duricic again. Tosic, the talented wee CSKA Moscow left winger, constantly asked questions of Alan Hutton and sent one shot skipping across Marshall and wide.

Scotland still gave the ball away, albeit not with the disgraceful frequency they had for much of the tie against Wales. Boyd played deeper than he does for Hull City and was quiet. The midfield were unable to give Rhodes a sniff, with no decent delivery to him all night. His one big chance came from Neven Subotic taking a fresh air kick and the ball falling for him beautifully. Rhodes, this clinical finisher, struck a poor shot straight at the goalkeeper.

Serbia duly swept upfield and scored within a minute. Tosic raced on to a ball over the top and had too much time to pick out Ljubomir Fejsa. Steven Whittaker blocked him but then, while on the ground, jabbed at the ball and sent it square to Durijic. It was a gift and he scored on the turn.

The generosity was repeated four minutes later. Caldwell had umpteen options as he jogged back to deal with a Serbian through ball, but he clipped a clearance straight back to Nenad Tomovic, who burst through on Marshall and forced a save. The rebound broke for Durijic to tap in.

Strachan replaced McArthur with Charlie Adam at half-time, the latter earning a booking within 10 minutes. That activated a suspension which will mean he misses Scotland's next qualifier, back in the Balkans against Croatia in June. Those on the terraces, would have looked at him and reckoned he's the lucky one.