GRAEME Shinnie last night accepted personal responsibility for Scotland’s embarrassing defeat to Kazakhstan in their opening Euro 2020 qualifier and predicted he will be unable to get back into the team in future as a result of his display.

Shinnie was asked to play at left back in the Astana Arena after captain Andy Robertson and Kieran Tierney were both ruled out even though he predominantly plays in central midfield at club level with Aberdeen.

The 27-year-old, who has extensive experience of the position having played there with Inverness Caledonian Thistle as well as occasionally with Aberdeen, was badly at fault for the second goal the home team scored in the 11th minute.

The Herald: Yan Vorogovskiy beats Scott Bain to make it 2-0 to the hostsYan Vorogovskiy beats Scott Bain to make it 2-0 to the hosts

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He held his hands up afterwards and admitted that he was to blame for a reverse that reduces the national team’s chances of finishing in the top two in Group I and securing an automatic qualifying spot significantly.

“I am just gutted,” he said. “I didn’t think we were great as a team, but I look at myself more than anything. To get that chance and to let the team down was disappointing. I don’t think I played well. It was frustrating on a personal note.

“I maybe got caught a bit cold at left back in terms of my positioning, especially for their second goal. It was a tough night. They played well. They were on the front foot putting pressure on us. It was a hard game.

“If you give a team an opportunity they’ll take it. That was a little bit frustrating. Yeah, it was a tough night. They were ruthless in what they did and in the end we weren’t good enough.

“In the first couple of minutes we did alright. Big Oli (Burke) got in behind with his pace and we started okay. Then obviously we lost two goals in four or five minutes ultimately killed us and gave them the boost they needed.”

Shinnie added: “I can’t see myself getting back into the team now. Like I said, on a personal note I am gutted in myself. I know I am so much better.

“I have waited so long to get a chance. Two of the top players in Andy and KT being out gave me that opportunity. Andy is going to come back in against San Marino no matter what I did tonight, but it was a chance for me to show what I can do and I let myself down.

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“It’s a massive learning curve. I am 27, but I am always learning. This is probably the biggest lesson that I will learn from.”

The game in Nursultan was played on an artificial surface, but Shinnie was adamant that was not the reason for the abject showing by Scotland. “I didn’t think the pitch was to blame,” he said. “The ball moved alright on it, it was fine. We just weren’t good enough.”

The 650 members of the Tartan Army who had made the 3,000 mile journey to get to Kazakhstan booed the Scotland team at the end of the game as the players attempted to come across and applaud them.

“We share their frustration,” said Shinnie. “They have put hours and hours of travelling in and probably been a lot of different places to get here. It was a very good turnout from them for what they came out to see. We came here with Aberdeen and know how tough it was for the supporters to get here. To see the number who were here makes it even more frustrating. We let them down.

“I don’t know what it was. Every game is different. We came off such a high against Israel. In football you can’t get too high when you win and too low when you lose. This is a disappointing night and one that we need to learn from."

The Herald: The Tartan Army look deflatedThe Tartan Army look deflated

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Shinnie and his team mates will fly out of Kazakhstan for San Marino today and a fixture that will in all likelihood be irrelevant when it comes to deciding who finishes in the top two places in Group I – results against the bottom-placed nation in six team sections are disregarded.

However, he stressed the Scotland players will be desperate to atone for their display this weekend – and also refused to write off their chances of recovering from this loss and reaching their first major tournament since France ’98 in the months ahead.

“We need to dust ourselves down as a team and go again in San Marino,” he said. “As a squad we want to get back to winning ways. We know it wasn’t good enough tonight. We need to stand up to the criticism because it is deserved. But we can only learn from it and move on to the next game and try to put things right.”

“We can only get back to winning ways as quickly as we possibly can. We haven’t been good enough tonight. We were a mile off it and we know that. It is frustrating. But we will look now to win the games we have coming up and see where it takes us.

“Of course we can (still qualify). There is still a lot of football to be played in the group. We need to look back at this game because it wasn’t good enough and look forward to the next one.”