All Is Not Lost As Under 21 Lose

Last updated : 06 September 2009 By Ed_ScottishFitba

Scotland Under-21s lost in Austria on Saturday for the first time in their European Championship qualifying campaign but manager Billy Stark said: "We've got nothing to be afraid of in this group". Stark's young charges went down 1-0 to Austria in Maria Enzersdorf on Saturday night, and the visitors could yet rue a series of missed chances to get something out of the game. Despite the unfortunate result, the manager was hugely encouraged by his players' performance against the top seeds in Group 10. Scotland are still top of the section with six points from three games. Stark said: "We've got nothing to be afraid of in this group. Coming to play the top seeds in their own back yard, I came out of the game with a lot of positives. We've got nothing to be frightened of, that's for sure."

After having the better of the first half on Saturday, Scotland fell behind just before the hour mark to an Andreas Weimann goal. But the visitors refused to crumble and should have equalised - and possibly even won the game - late on. Substitute John Fleck fired straight at Lukas Konigshoffer in goal in the 80th minute, and then produced a header in the 85th which the Austrian did well to save. In the last minute of normal time following a goalmouth scramble, Paul Hanlon's flick came off Konigshoffer and out off the underside of the crossbar. Stark was particularly pleased with the impact made by his substitutes, saying: "
We felt that looking at our side, at our squad, that when they go out onto the pitch, I can always change things."

Next up for Scotland is an October's meeting at home with second seeds Belarus, who won their opening game against Austria last month. After that Scotland travel in November to Azerbaijan, who were beaten 1-0 in Albania yesterday. Stark said: "
We feel going through a campaign like this, it would be difficult to win all eight games. We can approach the game with Belarus with great confidence knowing that's going to be a tough game as well because they're of equal ability to Austria, I would say. But we're at home and we have to try to maximise the home games. I think if we can do that then we can go to Azerbaijan in November and be in a real okay position. But we've still got it all to do."

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