Scotland manager Gordon Strachan admitted post-match that Scotland were “spooked” by the intensity of England’s play in the 3-1 defeat at Celtic Park.

The former Celtic and Southampton manager was hugely disappointed with the Scottish display but insisted that the main goal of the international week was achieved with victory over the Republic of Ireland on Friday night.

He said: “When we met 10 days ago the main point of the exercise was to get three points against the Republic of Ireland which we did. I’m proud of the way we went about it.

“Then you analyse the game tonight because you want to win it. The intensity and pace England played at, without the ball in particular, was fantastic and spooked our players a bit. I think my players were expecting England to sit back and wait but they didn’t.

“England are a team full of Champions League players and they showed that. Our players are coming from Championship football and then playing against Champions League players. When you take on a good England side, which they were, you need to have 10 or 11 players on top of their game to beat them and we didn’t have that number tonight.

“Maybe we were mentally fatigued from Friday’s game against the Irish too, which we need to look at.

“Giving the ball way under pressure, without pressure, was a feature of the game. The team that looked after the ball better was England. The team that pressured the ball better was England.”