Ferguson on how Scotland squad feel about Iceland debacle

The National

5 hours ago

Steve Clarke's side turned in an unacceptable performance at Hampden as they lost 3-1 to Iceland. Friendly or not, it was far from good enough.
Next up is Liechtenstein away this evening, another friendly but the last game before World Cup qualifying begins against top seeds Denmark. It is the final chance to generate some good feeling going into that and also for players to ensure they stay in the manager's XI.
Ferguson admits there are no excuses for Friday night's display and insists the whole squad are on the same page. Simply put, they must get back to winning ways against a side ranked 205th in the world.
The Bologna captain said: "There shouldn't be any panic. We've good strong squad, with plenty of quality and experience.
"But we do recognise that we need to get back to winning ways and get back to performing at the levels we know we're capable of.
"We need to win our next game on Monday night. We need to go and put on a good performance and win the game.
"Winning games is what breeds confidence. We need to get back to that."
Putting his finger on what went wrong in Iceland is a far less straightforward matter.
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Insisting the team went into the game determined to put on a show for the home crowd, the 25-year-old admits it all ended up being rather flat.
Sloppy goals were the order of the day and Iceland weren't troubled enough at the other end, either.
"It was a bad night for us," said Ferguson, who will earn his 13th cap if he plays in the Rheinpark Stadion.
"In terms of the standards we set ourselves, that performance on Friday night fell well short.
"We wanted to go out, put on a performance and get a result. But we never reached the standards that we have set ourselves. It's disappointing.
"It was probably a little bit flat. It's hard to put a finger on it in terms of why that was the case.
"We conceded an early goal, which naturally does that and makes things a bit flat.
"But I think we did get back into the game and started to play a little bit better.
"But then we conceded another sloppy goal, which was easily avoidable.
"For how bad we were, I don't think Iceland ever put us under any serious pressure.
"But we were the home team and we had the onus to go and try and win the game.
"We just gave ourselves too much work to do."
Asked if there was a psychological element to it, the players asked to go out and play another 90 minutes after a long slog of a season, he went on:"Yeah, maybe, but it's the same for the other team.
"I wouldn't really say that's an issue personally. It's been a long hard season for everyone.
"You've still got to come here and perform, so there's no excuses there.This is our job, we are here to play for our country. It's a privilege.
"Yeah, you can say it's a couple of friendlies at the end of the season, but I don't see it as a problem."
Rookie goalkeeper Ciaran Slicker has been criticised after his costly errors and Clarke admitted the 22-year-old wasn't ready for his international debut.
The Ipswich youngster was the only one he could turn to after Angus Gunn's early injury, Robby McCrorie also hurt in the warm-up.
"It was a difficult night for him", accepted Ferguson. "He probably wasn't expecting to come in and play.
"But it's not just Cieran, it's everybody. We all need to go away and have a look at ourselves after that.
"But, yeah, the more experienced lads in the changing room will look after him over these next few days.
"It's probably the best way for him to learn. That's just the way football works. Those kind of situations make you stronger. He will be fine."
Regardless, it is not just Slicker who needs to assess his own performance and the former Aberdeen and Hamilton Accies man added: "As you can imagine, we were just disappointed. The lads were speaking to each other in the dressing room afterwards trying to work out what went wrong.
"Everyone was quite down afterwards. But we need to pick ourselves up because we need to go and get a result on Monday night and perform to a much higher standard."
Clarke yesterday drafted in Celtic-bound keeper Ross Doohan as well as ex-Queen's Park kid Callan McKenna, now at Bournemouth, to replace Gunn and McCrorie.