CHOPRA SAVES THE DAY

Platt said: "I've learnt you don't get many friendlies. We've played Holland, Sweden and then probably the Ukraine in August.

"If you were at a club, you would have more than three pre-season games to get ready for a campaign. We've got six days of disjointed preparation spread over many months.

"The players will go away now, back to their clubs, then have their holidays and their pre-seasons before we see them again.

"Therefore you are wanting to get something out of friendlies like this in terms of your preparation for the campaign and there were plenty of positives.

"We were preparing for this as if it was a qualifying game and we would have gone away with a point which we would have been pleased with.

"There's a wee bit of disappointment in there that we haven't taken three.

"But the message is if you give silly goals away at international level, then we would have gone home with no points.

"You've got to learn quick. We haven't got time for the qualifying group to evolve. You have to force matters. You have to force the issue.

"There are a lot of positives and you've got to learn quickly and make sure what was not right doesn't happen in the next game.

"But after the game you can tell how you feel in your stomach - and I feel more positive than negative.

"As a result of that, you can go away and analyse it better. You go away and get a bit of a better feeling because you have taken something out of the game."

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