Deflated Scotland manager Gordon Strachan said he will experiment to find the right players and style for Scotland after another numbing defeat at home to Wales last night.
The national side have now gone six competitive games without a win and Strachan, in his first World Cup qualifying tie, was unable to end the sequence which cost Craig Levein his job. More than 40,000 Scotland fans braved a horrible night at Hampden but after Grant Hanley's opening goal in the first half, the game turned when Robert Snodgrass was sent off for conceding a clear penalty. Aaron Ramsey scored that, Hal Robson-Kanu added a second Welsh goal 93 seconds later, and that left Scotland rooted at the bottom of Group A with only two points from five games.
Steven Fletcher is out of Tuesday's game in Serbia after going off after two minutes with suspected ankle ligament damage and Snodgrass is suspended, while Strachan admitted other changes will also be made. "Its an opportunity for other people to stake their claim for where we want to go in the future," said the Scotland manager.
"There were a few tonight who staked their claim and a few who will probably think 'I could have done better'. They will get their opportunity again. It's not a good period for us. We will experiment and find out what is right for us, who the right players are, and we will take it from there."
There were no conspicuous successes for Scotland in a poor display indistinguishable from those under Levein. "I'm hugely disappointed for the players because I'm sure they wanted to put in a good performance," Strachan went on. "We were nervous to start with, Steven Fletcher's injury spooked us a bit. We had passers out there but we didn't pass the ball well enough in the first part of the game. Wales did well to counter-attack us. We need to sort that out. And because we gave the ball away we had to challenge and physically I thought they were stronger than us in the first 25 minutes.
"In the second half it was a terrific start and when you are 1-0 up, although that flattered us after the first half, you have to score a second one. We had chances but we never took them. The penalty caused us a problem. Ten men, they scored right away, and it's an uphill struggle."
Fletcher will return to have his injury looked at by Sunderland. "Steven was a bit nervous, there was a bit of shock, when he came off but he's a bit more relaxed now," said Strachan. "He will go back to his club and get assessed."
Wales came from behind to win 2-1 just as they had against Scotland in Cardiff five months ago, and this time they did so without relying on the inspirational Gareth Bale. He had been subdued, having had a virus all week, and then suffered an ankle injury when Hanley tackled him near the end of the first half. "He's been under the weather, he didn't have the strength and power that he normally has," said Chris Coleman, his manager.
Coleman said some of Scotland's tackles had been "brutal". Wales were also reduced to 10 in stoppage time when Ramsey was sent off. "It was quite physical, there were one or two brutal challenges, within the rules of the law," said the Wales manager. "I think we thoroughly deserved to win the game."
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