Ryan Porteous says Scotland will benefit from their Hampden loss to England – but admits the national side would prefer to learn in victory when they meet top teams.
Steve Clarke’s side were outclassed in Tuesday’s 3-1 friendly defeat to the Auld Enemy – who at number four in the Fifa world rankings are 26 places above the Scots.
It was a frustrating end to the international break for Watford centre-back Porteous.
But it only slightly dampened the ever-growing optimism around the current Scotland squad after Friday’s 3-0 win in Cyprus made it a perfect five victories from five in Euro 2024 qualifying.
Had Norway failed to beat Georgia in Oslo at the same time as Scotland were squaring off against their eternal rivals in Glasgow, the Dark Blues would have become the first team (after hosts Germany) to confirm their place at next summer’s finals.
They could now seal a second consecutive Euros qualification when they travel to Spain – a side they have already defeated at Hampden – in October, in a camp which will also include a friendly with 2022 World Cup finalists France.
Porteous thinks the experience of regular action against Europe’s strongest nations will help Clarke’s side continue on an upward trajectory which has seen them win 11 straight qualifying matches.
He said: “For us, we’ll learn more from playing pot one teams rather than playing the so-called ‘lesser’ teams.
“We don’t want to learn by losing, and sometimes the best way to learn from a football game is by winning, but we take what we can and move on to the next one.
“We all know we’re capable of more than that (loss to England) and I think the squad the last couple of years has shown we can compete. In the Spain game, we showed we can compete for 90 minutes.
“It’s about doing that on a regular basis in every game.”
The ex-Hibs defender added: “The camp was about getting three points in Cyprus and then testing ourselves against top opposition.
“We’ve done that and we’ve got to take from it what we can.”
Scotland were 2-0 down at half-time against England due to quickfire goals from rising global stars Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham.
Although England sub Harry Maguire turned Scots skipper Andy Robertson’s cross into his own net in the second period, visiting captain Harry Kane’s late finish – from man-of-the-match Bellingham’s exquisite pass – put the game beyond the home side.
Porteous thinks Scotland’s first half showing left them with a “mountain to climb” at a sold-out, expectant Hampden.
He said: “It was slack goals – something we’ve not done for a long time now.
“But it’s something, if you do it against top players, they’ll punish you.”
Porteous added: “I think first half was poor. It’s hard to say we showed them too much respect – they are a good side – but we didn’t really play our game.
“They punished us in the first half for a bit of sloppiness.
“But we came out in the second half, got that goal back and probably could’ve had another one as well, but it wasn’t our night.
“The second half was definitely more positive, though.”
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