Neil McCann and Steven Fletcher hopes Gordan Strachan remains Scotland boss
Thursday 8 October 2015 23:39, UK
Neil McCann hopes Gordon Strachan continues as Scotland manager, despite their failure to qualify for the European Championship finals.
Scotland crashed out of qualification by conceding a last-minute goal to draw 2-2 with Poland in Glasgow, which left them six points short of third-place Republic of Ireland, with one game to play.
Strachan's contract expires after Sunday's final qualifier against Gilbraltar and the Scottish FA's chief executive Stewart Regan confirmed in August he will hold talks with Strachan over his future then.
Sky Sports' Scottish football expert McCann said: "His contract is up and he's been offered a new one.
"Whether he wants to continue or not, I don't know, but since he's come in, he's got us playing a brand of football that's attractive; we've won games, scored goals and created lots of chances. It's easy on the eye.
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"We've got to keep moving forward. We can't feel sorry for ourselves. There will be players like Matt Ritchie who can take a lot from tonight's performance, and players like Ikechi Anya who have been a real positive coming into the group.
"If you take a straw poll of Scots, I'm sure a high majority will say they're pleased with it, but once again it's failure and it's hard to take."
Poland went ahead in the third minute at Hampden Park with a fine goal from Robert Lewandowski - his 11th in nine qualifying games - before Matt Ritchie equalised with a thunderbolt from distance before half-time,
Steven Fletcher put Scotland into a second-half lead and they looked on course to keep their qualification hopes alive and stay within two points of Poland, but Lewandowski bundled home a dramatic stoppage-time equaliser.
"It's heart-breaking for the boys. They put so much into it. Gordon Strachan will be most devastated because they came from behind, and gave a really good performance, but left with nothing," McCann said.
"The goal at the end is a cruel blow. There's such bad luck we seem to carry in tournaments. But again, I go back to Georgian result was a devastating blow, considering all the main rivals won over there, and we went down to a defeat.
"We were hoping the other nations would do us a favour, but they didn't."
Strachan later shrugged off questions about his own future, saying it was not the moment "to talk about himself when guys are hurting" but Sunderland striker Fletcher echoed McCann's sentiments about his manager.
"We are going in the right direction so I don't see why there should be any change," Fletcher said.
Watch Gibraltar v Scotland on Sky Sports 2 HD from 7.30pm on Sunday night.