Sport

Fletcher buoyed by performance

DARREN Fletcher remains optimistic about Scotland's European Championship qualification prospects despite the 2-1 defeat to Germany in Dortmund on Sunday night.

The World Cup winners dominated the first-half and were more than worthy of their 1-0 interval lead thanks to a Thomas Muller header.

Gordon Strachan's side, however, came out energised and purposeful after the break and deservedly levelled in the 66th minute through wide-man Ikechi Anya to send the thousands of Tartan Army foot soldiers inside the impressive Signal Iduna Park into raptures.

That joy was short-lived, however, when Muller soon restored the home side's lead as he took advantage of slack defending in the Scots' penalty area to slam the ball high into the net from close range.

Scotland skipper Fletcher (pictured) was disappointed to be replaced by James McArthur before the equaliser, saying, "The manager

made the changes. He's got players who have performed for him in the past and he felt like he needed a change and it obviously worked because we came into the game a lot more."

Indeed, Fletcher saw enough both on and off the park after the break to give him hope ahead of the visit of Georgia to Ibrox next month and for the rest of the Group D campaign.

"We went there and showed we can compete and if we take that performance into other games then I am sure we will be fine", said the Manchester United midfielder.

"We can't be disheartened, we knew that would be the most difficult game in the group so let's try to get some points on the board going forward. We changed the formation a little bit at half-time. Germany tired and we made a few chances.

"We believed in ourselves a bit more. You are always worried about attacking and leaving gaps but I thought the boys did fantastically well and we played some good stuff in the second half."