Callum McGregor knows Scotland blew a huge opportunity to reach the knockout stage at a European Championship for the first time.
Kevin Csoboth's 100th-minute winner proved a cruel sucker punch as Hungary triumphed in Stuttgart.
The Tartan Army backed the country in their numbers during the three Group A matches but were left thinking 'what if' following another tournament without securing a win and ultimately exited the competition at a whimper.
McGregor understands their disappointment, however he's told disgruntled punters that sometimes you need to suffer these setbacks to improve long-term.
"It's a huge disappointment," McGregor acknowledged after the match. "There was so much hope and expectation, we thought this was going to be the time we did it.
READ MORE: Armstrong looked to buy foul as Scotland pen call rubbished by pundit
"The players gave everything but sometimes in football the ball just doesn't drop where you need it to drop. That was probably the case tonight.
"The point wasn't enough for us, it would have been a big ask for us to go through on two points. We knew we had to try and win the game. You throw everything at it and you get hit on the counter-attack. That goal was probably irrelevant.
"We've been away from these competitions for a long time. It's building all the time and sometimes you have to suffer disappointment to understand the level.
"We definitely had the confidence and belief we could get the job done. Hungary made it a difficult game, like we knew they would, and they found the moment of quality which we never quite did."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel