Squad will back embattled manager until the end, says Morrison

Chief football writer

Saturday 13 October 2012

JAMES Morrison last night said the Scotland players were still fully behind Craig Levein but admitted the national team coach was under greater pressure than ever after last night's defeat in Wales.

Gareth Bale insisted he did not deceive the officials to win a penalty

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Michael Grant

Scotland head to Belgium on Tuesday with the World Cup campaign all but over and Levein's reign as manager hanging by a thread. "There was pressure on the manager before the game and there's probably even more now," said Morrison. "But we've got to go out in Belgium, put on a performance and basically get a win.

"The players are fully behind him, they have been from the start, and they will be until the end. We've got a good group of players and we'll go to the end. He didn't say a lot after the game. There was just disappointment and he said we'll talk about it back at the hotel."We are devastated because after I scored the game was ours to lose. But in the second half we weren't at our best. We were a totally different side, which was disappointing. And to let Gareth Bale that kind of space to run at us was a big mistake, we were going to get punished."If you look at the game we were in control first half and played some good stuff. I don't think the campaign is over, no. We've now got to win in Belgium. It's a tough ask but you never know with Scotland."Morrison was unaware whether Bale had been clipped by Shaun Maloney for the 80th-minute penalty which let Wales back into the game. "I couldn't see it from where I was. But Shaun said he cut across him and Gareth Bale's a clever player . . . he's going to go down when he's touched."If we look at Steven Fletcher's goal [disallowed because Charlie Adam's cross went out of play] it's nowhere near over the line. That would've made it 2-0 and it would've been game over. Again, it was a bad refereeing decision."Bale insisted that Maloney had clipped him for the penalty which sent Wales on their way to victory. Television pictures showed that Bale appeared to go down with next to no contact from Maloney after running across the Wigan Athletic midfielder, but German referee Florian Meyer gave the penalty which Bale scored before going on to add a late winner.Bale denied that he had clipped his own heels to go down and deceive Meyer. "I don't think I can click my own heels. Someone clipped me and I went over so it was simple penalty," said the Tottenham Hotspur player."I was a bit surprised I wasn't closed down [for the winning goal], but I had a bit of space and I saw the target and just went for it. Thankfully it went in."Scotland famously enjoyed the benefit of controversial penalty decisions in World Cup qualifiers against Wales in 1977 and 1985 but Bale declined to see last night as payback for the past. "I don't know. The last time we played them here we won 3-0 and this time it was 2-1 so we have a good record against Scotland in recent years."Scotland's position now looks hopeless with only two points from the nine available in their opening three games, although Bale denied that Craig Levein's men were effectively out. "We've said before that everyone can beat everyone and there are still a lot of games to be played. Everyone is still involved."It was a great evening for us. There was a lot of pressure on us coming into the game and we stood up to the challenge and got the vital three points, which the whole nation needed. We are a strong nation, we have been together for many years now, we are all quite young and we've grown up together. We're very close and we showed character on the pitch tonight to come back from 1-0 down to win."

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Squad will back embattled manager until the end, says Morrison

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