Penalty snub angers Fletcher

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Georgia striker Levan Mchedlidze headed the home side into the lead after 16 minutes but a cry went up from the 2000-strong Tartan Army when, before the break, the Everton striker went down after a challenge by home captain Zurab Khizanishvili inside his own penalty area.

Fletcher said: "Maybe there are times when we do have to be like foreigners and go down but it's not in our nature, and we don't want to do that sort of thing. But I don't know what it is going to take for us to get a penalty at this level."

Midfielder Stephen Pearson concurred with his team-mate.

He said: "We didn't get too much from the referee. I don't want to say too much but that is to be expected when you come away from home.

"You have to make your own luck, we never really got any but we have to put that behind us and move on."

After six victories on the trot, Fletcher admits that defeat in Georgia may have brought home to the fans just how difficult a task Scotland face to make it through to their first major finals since 1998.

He said: "Maybe we needed a little reality check before the Italy game - maybe the whole country needed it.

"Some of the results have been that good that we took confidence from them and the expectations went up, and rightly so. But this is a set-back and we've got to show that we have the character to come back.

"If you had said that if it had come down to the last game against Italy we would have taken that all day long. It will take some effort but we have it in us to do it."