IT was a familiar story for Scotland in their opening Euro 2016 qualifier.

They played well against Germany in Dortmund and received a lot of praise for their performance afterwards.

But ultimately they ended up losing.

And the reason for the defeat was the same as it has so often been in the past - the defence

For the first 20 minutes of the match, the World Cup holders dominated possession and created a lot of chances.

But once Scotland got to grips with the game they did well.

They closed down their opponents and stopped from playing through the middle, while Steven Naismith ran his heart out up front.

Ikechi Anya scored a fabulous equaliser in the second half - and nobody can deny it wasn't coming at that stage.

At no time did I think we would win but after we levelled I did hope that maybe Gordon Strachan's men could steal a draw.

Then we let in a soft, soft goal. We ended up with nothing to show for our efforts.

That's not the fault of Grant Hanley or Russell Martin. They are decent professionals who play to the best of their abilities whenever they don the dark blue shirt.

We are just lacking in central defenders who can go in there, attack anything that comes into the box, head the ball and clear their lines.

But Scotland need to take the positive aspects of their display into next month's game against Georgia at Ibrox and get our bid to reach France in two years' time up and running.

Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here

Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here