Tierney not the only one to blame for defeat, says Mulgrew

Charlie Mulgrew has told Kieran Tierney he was not the only one to blame for Scotland’s horror show in Haifa, writes Ian Roache.

The young Celtic defender looked a beaten man after his own goal secured a 2-1 win for Israel in the Nations League Group C-1 clash at the Sammy Ofer Stadium on Thursday night.

Tierney quickly assumed sole responsibility for the terrible result but Mulgrew told him in no uncertain terms he was not alone.

The Blackburn Rovers central defender, whose penalty gave the Scots the lead at half-time, did not reappear for the second half because of a hamstring injury.

He watched from the sidelines as Alex McLeish’s misshapen side struggled to cope with wave after wave of Israeli attacks.

It was a miracle the scoreline was not more embarrassing and now they have to somehow pick themselves up off the floor in time for tomorrow’s Hampden friendly against Portugal.

Mulgrew said: “Of course it wasn’t all his fault. We had a couple of chances that we can look back on and say that we could have done better. KT is that sort of person.

“He is wholehearted and was gutted after the game obviously.

“He feel that it’s his responsibility and that’s a shame. We are all responsible for that result.

“We are a collective unit and win and lose as a group. The staff and players will all be looking back to see how we could have improved on that.”

Mulgrew said the second half made for difficult viewing as the Scots, who lost John Souttar to a red card, tried to cling on.

He said: “I had a tight hamstring through the week and had kind of been pushing through it.

“It just tightened right up so I had no choice but to stay inside for the second half. It was a tough watch. We will pick the bones out of it and look forward to Sunday now. We can improve.”

After the final whistle in Haifa it was impossible to miss the anger of the 2,000 or so Scotland supporters, who invested a lot of time and money to travel to the Middle East.

You now fear for the players if the Scots suffer a heavy defeat to the Portuguese.

Mulgrew said: “They travelled a long way to Israel and we were gutted we couldn’t get the result for them.

“Our heads were down in the dressing room afterwards. It was very quiet.

“We do have to pick ourselves up, though and realise we can still get through this group.

“Maybe everybody has been cancelling each other out.

“There are important games coming up so we need to be ready.”