Steve Clarke confessed he understands Scotland fans' fury in Dublin but refused to criticise his side for a Nations League drubbing against Ireland.
Clarke 's side were battered 3-0 by a side who had not won a competitive fixture since 2019, nor had they scored three times in a game since 2014.
Goals from Alan Browne, Troy Parrott and Michael Obafemi left a travelling Tartan Army stunned at the Aviva Stadium to seriously dent Scotland's chances of winning Group B1 with a double header against Ukraine still to come.
The result and performance sparked boos from the away end at full-time and Clarke was asked if he understood the anger.
He replied: "Of course."
Pressed to send a message to the fans, he said: "The supporters, they travel, they spend a lot of money, we appreciate that.
"Today wasn't our day, hopefully the next time they travel and spend a lot of money we can be better, we can be good for them, we can give them the kind of results we've had over the past couple of years.
"We do appreciate their support."
Clarke admitted the dressing room atmosphere was grim at full-time but he's opted to take time to reflect before picking the bones of a dismal defeat with his deflated squad.
The manager said: "Sometimes after a game you just have to hold your counsel. Have a sleep, think about it. Tomorrow I'll speak.
"The players are flat as a pancake, as you would expect. They're at a loss as well to explain why the performance was so poor."
Scotland now head to Armenia in midweek in need of victory but Clarke rejected the idea Saturday's result has heaped more pressure on his team.
He countered: "There's pressure every time you play for your country.
"No [there's not more pressure after today]. We have to go there and get three points, but if we'd got three points today we'd still be going there under pressure to get three points.
"We want to do as well as we can in the group and to do that we have to get three points every time we go on the pitch.
"No [the players didn't let me down]. I'm not going to criticise this group of players, they've been fantastic for me.
"Sometimes you have bad days. Unfortunately we've had two bad days in quick succession, we have to learn to deal with that and we have to move on."
