Legendary Scotland striker Denis Law has backed Gordon Strachan to stay on as national team manager, insisting he is the only man for the job.

The joint-record goalscorer for his country, a distinction he and Kenny Dalglish share with 30 goals apiece, was as gutted as any Scotland fan after Thursday night’s game.

He believes however that Strachan has improved the national side, and is capable of leading the country to a major tournament given time.

“I would like to think that Gordon will be the manager for the next few years,” he said.

“Unfortunately in football there’s always a clamour to change the manager when the team falls short but they can’t all win.

“When Gordon Strachan got the job I thought we might have somebody here who can get the team back on track. Of course you need the right quality of player too but I felt - and still do - that he has got something there.

“He’s got a bit of character, he was a good player himself and he likes the team to play attacking football and uphold the traditions of the Scottish national team.

“So I was really hoping things would go his way and I still think he is the best man for the job.

“You have to wonder who else would be a better candidate to take over if he got the sack or decided himself that he had to go.

“Prior to Gordon coming in Scotland weren’t playing very well.

“I absolutely think Gordon should stay on. He’s got to stay, you can’t get rid of him if he wants to stay. I hope that he does stay.

“It was disappointing in the end. I just couldn’t believe the ball had gone in the back of the net.

“But based on the performance last night and overall campaign I think they have made progress. I thought they played well against Germany too and were a bit unlucky.

“The performance in Georgia was the disappointing one though.”

Scotland will now not have a chance to qualify for a major tournament until the 20th anniversary of the last one they made it to, the World Cup in France in 1998.

Law was a player the last time the country experienced such a barren qualification run, and he thinks that Scotland were victims of a tough draw for this campaign, as they often were in his heyday.

He said: “In the 60s it was very difficult to qualify for any of the tournaments because there was only one team that would qualify and a lot of the time you were playing the best teams in Europe.

“When this draw was made we were in a tough group compared to some of the others. We always seem to get the tough qualifying draw.

“The way the players played last night I think they looked good enough to get us through a qualifying campaign.

“We didn’t qualify for the World Cup in the sixties when we had some really good players and a great team as well.

“It was really difficult to qualify because some of the teams were fantastic. It was just unfortunate that we didn’t qualify in that period, and then when we did in ’74 I was past my best.

“I would have liked to have qualified in 1962 and 1966, I think we could have had a good run there in particular.”

*Denis Law was speaking at a William Hill media event. William Hill is a proud sponsor of Scotland.