Scotland skipper Andy Robertson concedes his side let themselves down in the 3-1 loss to Ukraine which ended their World Cup dream.
The Scots were soundly beaten by a Ukrainian side ranked 27th in the world, but which had not played an international fixture since November.
Scotland will now miss out on a showdown with Wales on Sunday for a place at this winter’s finals in Qatar.
Despite the high stakes, Liverpool defender Robertson says Steve Clarke’s men fell well short of what was required in front of a sell-out Hampden Park crowd.
Robertson said: “It’s hugely disappointing. We’ve waited a long time for this game, our performances had been really good.
“To be honest, we didn’t really show up.
“Ukraine settled into the game a lot quicker than us and that continued really.
“We knew they were going to get tired and that was the case, but we gave ourselves too much of an uphill battle.
“With the way the game was going and the chances they had, we had to try and stay in the game.
“But we didn’t manage that, going two goals down and we ended up pushing at the end.
“We left ourselves open, which we had to do.
“We didn’t play the way we wanted to and that’s the most disappointing thing.
“Unfortunately it has passed us by now after a really positive campaign. We’ve let ourselves down.”
After falling 2-0 down to goals from Andriy Yarmolenko and Roman Yaremchuk, Scotland rallied through Callum McGregor’s goal.
Artem Dovbyk’s stoppage time goal sealed Scotland’s fate however, with Robertson admitting his side’s push came as too little, too late.
He added: “They were causing us problems in midfield in the first half.
“Callum and Billy were having to do too much running.
“They were trying to press but we had to help them and Ryan came on to load that area more.
“It worked but it was too late as we were 2-0 down by then.
“We had hoped to start the second half well but instead we gave them a foothold in the game.
“They had something to hold on to and it was too much of an uphill battle for us.”
Scotland had approached the game on a six-match winning run in competitive action, however Robertson says the time for reflection will be in the coming days.
The Scots must dust themselves down for three upcoming Nations League matches, starting with next Wednesday’s visit of Armenia to Glasgow.
Robertson added: “Look, it took us eleven games to get here. It was a positive campaign, finishing second, and getting a home play-off.
“We have to hurt, of course we do. We need to reflect tonight and tomorrow’s a new day. We have the Nations League and we have to try and push.
“That’s the World Cup gone for another four years and that’s really hard because we all have dreams of playing at big tournaments.
“But we didn’t put in a performance that justified that.
“We have to stick together, we know there will be scrutiny coming our way, we know we’ll be under fire.
“But we have to stick together as a group, we have made massive strides and there will be a time when we need to take perspective on that.
“But tonight’s not that time, all we can say is sorry to the fans in here and back home for disappointing them.
“We will try and dust ourselves down and go again.”
