SCOTLAND ace Leigh Griffiths has lambasted the two defences lapses which robbed the nation of a World Cup play-off spot.

The Celtic striker had blasted Gordon Strachan's men into an early lead against Slovenia but a poorly-conceded double from Roman Bezjak turned the Group G clash on its head.

Robert Snodgrass did pull one back late for the Scots, but the damage had already been done in Ljubljana.

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And, just like on the pitch, Griffiths did not miss afterwards.

He said: "It's disappointing. We put so much into it and to only come away with a draw is hard to put into words really.

"They didn't cause us too many problems and it's two poor goals to give away and it's ultimately cost us.

"It's disappointing because we work so hard on set pieces during the week. We knew they were going to be dangerous. They are a big physical side but we've got guys at the back who should be able to deal with that.

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"It's two bits of lapses in concentration that's cost us dearly."

With Scotland slipping up at the final hurdle, it allowed Slovakia, the side Scotland defeated 1-0 on Thursday night to nip into second spot in the group with a 3-0 home win.

In the end the efforts of that game at Hampden Park may well have taken a toll on a Scotland side who were far from pretty in pink for spells in this game.

Despite taking the initiative to seemingly set Strachan's side on their way, the momentum was surrendered early in the second half as as Slovenia's energy told.

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A near miss from Darren Fletcher at 2-1 down should have sparked an earlier rival, but Griffiths says he and his team-mates can still hold their heads up high even in the clutches of despair.

"We put so much into qualifying, in the last four or five games we have been outstanding and we just needed that one final push," added the striker. "The goals we conceded were sloppy and then we get the equaliser and then we should have got one at the end.

"It was always going to happen at some point, we were going to be put under pressure, they are the home team, they were going to come forward and they wanted to win the game.

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"It's disappointing, but we can hold our heads up high, for the last four or five games we've been great.

"(The manager) couldn't ask for any more, we have played 90 minutes twice in a matter of days and to still keep running at the end to try and prove people wrong is a credit to the boys."

The result in Slovenia of course means the long wait to qualify for a major finals will go on for another to years to at least 2020.

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While the pain of the current near miss will hurt for some time, Griffiths has seen enough signs in this campaign to be confident the future will be bright for the boys in dark blue.

"We need to take the positives from it," said the 27-year-old We're unbeaten in 2017 and we played a lot of tough opponents. By the time the next campaign comes around we'll be stronger and we can go that one step further."