Sebastien Pocognoli "sad" and "frustrated" by Hampden debut defeat to Switzerland
New Scotland boss Sebastien Pocognoli expressed "sadness" and "frustration" that an early red card for Jack Hendry effectively rendered his Hampden debut against Switzerland a write-off.
The Scots went down 3-0 in their second Nations League match after the slick Swiss took full advantage of playing the majority of the match with an extra man.
Hendry was sent off for denying a goal-scoring opportunity in the eighth minute by pulling back Dan Ndoye just outside the box and Ricardo Rodriguez fired home the resulting free-kick.
The Swiss went on to dominate the remainder of the match, with further goals after the break from Nico Elvedi and Zeki Amdouni as the depleted Scots were restricted to a damage-limitation exercise in Pocognoli's first home match since succeeding Steve Clarke last month.
"I had a warm welcome from the crowd and that made me feel a little bit sad because we wanted to give something back and we couldn't," said the Belgian.
"Even with 11 men, if we had the bad result, we would have wanted to give something, some emotion, something to analyse, something to give a direction about where we want to go and we didn't have the chance to show it and that frustrated me a lot."
Pocognoli was pleased with the attitude of his team but felt there was little else to be taken from a match in which a Swiss side who reached the World Cup quarter-finals in the summer were able to flex their muscles.
"Not a lot to say about the game, you know... 80 per cent of the game with 10 men," said the Scotland boss.
"Red card, then directly punish from the red card with a free kick, so probably the worst situation that we can have.
"We should prefer maybe a penalty and to stay with 11 men and to maybe show exactly what we planned for the game.
"We started quite aggressive, front foot, and then after eight minutes, the game plan has to be put to the side and we just see if the team react well or not with 10 men, and they did their best.
"To be honest, they had a great attitude to just stick together, try to have the moment in transition or set pieces or something, but it never happened because Switzerland is a good side and they didn't give anything away."
With just one point and no goals from their opening two Nations League fixtures after a 0-0 draw in Slovenia at the weekend, Pocognoli admits Scotland's next match in North Macedonia on Saturday takes on extra significance.
"Yeah, it's important to get a result because it can give a boost to the staff, not only for me but for all the people who worked so hard from the first day," said the 39-year-old.
"We had a good second half in Slovenia, and eight minutes tonight that we can analyse on some good aspects, but we need also a good performance in Macedonia and the result is important."
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