SCOTLAND lost to a stoppage-time goal in the Victory Shield encounter at Burton-on-Trent after England finally found a way to get past young Rangers keeper Robby McCrorie.

The annual Under-16 clash saw the Scots match their English counterparts with an excellent, disciplined display and they seemed certain to claim a highly-creditable draw until they conceded in the third minute of added on time.

Scotland had 14-year-old goalkeeper McCrorie to thank for keeping them level after he made a series of impressive saves.

He has already been linked with moves to Manchester United and Manchester City and it was not hard to see why, with one second-half stop in particular outstanding.

The Dark Blues had chances of their own too, but failed to get the win which would have meant a share of the trophy for Mark Wotte and Scott Booth's boys.

Instead, England claimed the Shield for the 12th year in a row, but the Scots youngsters will take a great deal of credit for the display.

Wotte named six Celtic kids in his line-up, but it was Rangers' sole representative, McCrorie, who kept the Scots on level terms with a fine, early instinctive save from Spurs striker Joshua Onomah.

And yet Scotland almost scored with their first attack of the game in the 10th minute when Ciaran Lafferty picked out Parkhead team-mate Calvin Miller with a superb pass and the winger's cutback across goal only just evaded Kilmarnock's Greg Kiltie.

Scotland captain Adam Hodge stood up well to make a crunching tackle on Manchester United striker Demetri Mitchell, with the Killie kid stopping a weaving run into the box, before McCrorie made a decent save from a Patrick Roberts' drive.

But the Scots missed the best chance of the match in the 32nd minute when a fine move ended with Miller's perfect cross from the right finding Lafferty in front of goal, but the Celtic striker couldn't divert his effort on target and England were let off.

However, Scotland had a huge escape themselves in first-half stoppage time when Aberdeen's Michael Kelly brilliantly managed to clear Roberts' goalbound shot from the line to keep the scores level at the interval.

McCrorie then surpassed himself with an excellent stop on the hour mark when he bravely sprinted from his goal to dive at the feet of Everton midfielder Ryan Ledson.

Heroics at the back looked to have earned the Scots an impressive point until MK Dons kid Giorgio Rasulo struck at the death.