If, indeed, adversity does not build character but rather reveal it then Scotland might fancy there cannot be too many more layers to go before their chrysalis is complete.

With fragile wings clipped by demoralising defeats to Israel and Portugal it fell to John McGinn, the Aston Villa and Scotland midfielder, to carry forth the putting-a-brave-face-on-it baton; the personnel delivering the message have been refreshed but the narrative feels stale.

The evidence against Alex McLeish offers little optimism with the numbers already looking like an accusation. Eight games into a new regime but six defeats and two wins [Hungary and Albania offered a little respite] suggest that emergence from the cocoon may still be a while away.

The fragility around Scotland is palpable. But for McGinn there is still energy for fighting talk.

“It is a test for you,” said the 23-year-old “You either go under and crumble or you puff your chest out and try and show what you are made of. I think over the piece we managed to do that. You are willing to take the praise when it comes so you have to be willing to take the criticism when it comes and it has been fully merited. We know we need to do better. We need to go back to our clubs and get our confidence up.”

The fact that Scotland require the sanctuary of their own club dressing rooms following their exposure to international football tells a story in itself. It was a bruising week but McGinn was keen to source positives amidst the perennial negativity that seems to engulf the national team.

“It was slightly better," he said. "The other night was extremely disappointing and it was about trying to restore some pride. For long spells I thought we were able to do that but we lost some silly goals, especially the first one which was a real blow just before half-time. I don’t think Portugal merited it at that point and it was tough to take. Overall it was better but we know how much work there still is to do.

“On the park it felt a lot more solid. We were restricting Portugal but more importantly we were causing them problems up top. I don’t know what the manager wants to do next but whatever we do we are going to work as hard as we can to give this country what it is craving and that is to get back to the big time. It is not going to come overnight but we need to stick together and keep going." It is difficult to escape the pressure that McLeish is under. The Scotland manager has acknowledged feeling the heat this week and there is also a feeling that Scotland might have benefitted from playing against more modest opposition in their friendly outings.

“I am not sure," said McGinn. "We have had a lot of difficult games against top opposition since the manager has come in. We have played against some of the world’s best teams. We are fully supportive of the set-up and we are enjoying it. We are obviously not enjoying nights like the other night but we are pulling in the one direction. Hopefully when we come back from Albania we have an opportunity here to take us into a play-off.

“The competitive games are the most important and we would rather the performance tonight the other night and if we had done that I think we would have come away with the win. But the likes of Portugal is the level that you want to get to. You look at these players – how agile they are, how powerful they are. We have experienced that from the Peru and Mexico games as well as the ones against Belgium and Portugal. But we have to take those lessons on now and use the Nations League to get us back to where we want to be.

“The manager was frustrated because he knows we played well overall but the scoreline didn’t reflect that. There are only prizes for putting the ball in the net and keeping it out at the other end which we just didn’t do. He was pleased with the performance but a bit disappointed that we keep losing goals.”