SCOT GEMMILL admitted he was gutted Turkey snatched a late equaliser in Bursa to cancel out a superb Glenn Middleton volley in Scotland's opening Euro 2023 tie.

But he praised his severely depleted young Scots who grabbed a creditable point despite being without ten English-based players due to Covid restrictions.

And they could have easily have won it at the end with Besiktas keeper Besiktas keeper Ersin Destanoglu making three great saves, with Middleton missing another chance which would have got the young Scots off to a terrific start in their qualifying campaign.

Gemmill said: "I'm genuinely annoyed that we didn't win.

"But at the same time, there is a lot to be really positive about. It's not easy to come to places like this. There was a lot of good things.

"The big thing for me is that it's okay us preparing the team, but they have to do it.

"It's a new group and it's such a good feeling to know there's new players coming through who can be trusted to come to places like this and are willing to play as they have been prepared and show that they do want to play for Scotland.

"We know they are good players, but they showed they are good people who proved they could come to this environment and really play.

"There were some really strong performances and we were good defensively too."

The evening didn't get off to the best of starts for the Scots when Flower of Scotland twice embarrassingly cut out during the playing of the National Anthems, but they soon made the Turks pay for that insult by taking a shock eighth minute lead.

Middleton surged forward and was initially denied by a fine save from Destanoglu who pushed his shot wide. Celtic starlet Adam Montgomery floated the ball back in the left and the St Johnstone star brilliantly volleyed the ball back into the net.

Turkey made three changes at the break, but Hibs loan striker James Scott missed an absolute sitter four minutes into the second half when keeper Destanoglu played the ball straight to him only for Scott to take a touch and fire wide.

And the hosts made Scotland pay for that miss when they scrambled home an equaliser with 15 minutes left after a corner was deflected into the path of Enis Destan who poked the ball past St Johnstone keeper Ross Sinclair.

Even then, the young Scots could have snatched it at the end when they had three great chances to win it when Dundee kid Max Anderson, Zak Rudden and Middleton were all denied by a succession of great reaction saves by Destanoglu, before Middleton dragged another shot wide in injury time.