Crestfallen Steve Clarke admits he and his players are ready for suffering after being outclassed by Ukraine in their World Cup playoff semi-final.
The 58-year-old could barely hide his crushing disappointment as he searched for answers after watching his side toil in front of their home fans.
Ukraine were too hot to handle as Andriy Yarmolenko, Roman Yaremchuk and Artem Dovbyk netted to leave the Tartan Army reeling.
Callum McGregor' s goal to pull it back to 2-1 gave Hampden hope but the Scotland manager pulled no punches in the wake of their botched attempt to reach the World Cup.
Speaking to Sky Sports, he said: "It was a disappointing night, you have to be honest, the best team on the night won.
"I wish them luck when they go to Cardiff, you also have wish the Welsh luck, should be a great game, unfortunately we're not involved.
"First half, I don't think we played enough, with our two footballing midfielders, but they pressed us well, forced us to go long, that suited them rather than us.
"I made the change at half time (Christie on), we didn't give ourselves a chance to utilise the change, because we were 2-0 down very early in the second half.
"After that, we showed character, we had a go, we left ourself open at the back, which we had to risk.
"John missed a big chance, that would have given us half an hour that would have chased the 2-1.
"We got the goal eventually, we tried as hard as we could
"They defended with their lives, it's Ukraine's night and not Scotland's.
"I think the change was made to get us to get the ball on the ground and play through the lines,
"We didn't do that well enough in the first half, Ukraine pressed us really well, especially Billy and Callum getting on the ball with time and space.
"I thought us adding an extra player in Ryan Christie behind their midfield line would give us a chance to play out but we suffered a second goal before we had the chance to settle into that pattern of play."
Clarke admits his side lacked a bit of composure in front of goal and failed to live up to expectation on home turf.
And he admits he and his players are ready to deal with the fallout as the wait to reach a World Cup will stretch to a staggering 28 years at best.
He added: "It becomes a little bit of frantic, we didn't quite have the composure to get it down and create a clear cut chance.
"We did have some chances on the night but we didn't take them.
"The third goal was a consequence of us chasing the game, it puts a better reflection on the game for them
"Now is the night to suffer, we suffer together, we are sad together but we can't forget the strides we've made over the past three years.
"We qualified for Euro 2020, we got to the playoff stage of World Cup qualifying, I've said to lads we have to suffer, be sad for a couple of days and start building for the next campaign.
"I imagine it is going to take 48 hours to move on, I think we use this magnitude it does hurt, it hurts me, it hurts my coaching staff, hurts the players more than anybody.
"We'll suffer together, then we will try and build into the Nations League campaign."
