Nathan Patterson believes Scotland’s spirit and buy-in to new ideas will ensure they are not derailed by Tuesday’s 3-0 defeat by Switzerland.
An 11th-minute red card for Jack Hendry led to a free-kick opener from Ricardo Rodriguez and left Sebastien Pocognoli facing a difficult home debut as Scotland head coach.
His players responded well before the break but the second half became a difficult watch as World Cup quarter-finalists Switzerland made their numerical advantage count.
Scotland have now gone four matches without a goal for the first time in 55 years but they have an ideal opportunity to put that right on Saturday, when they take on North Macedonia in their third Nations League B1 encounter.
Their opponents have conceded five goals without reply in their opening two games and have also failed to score in their six matches since a 7-1 defeat to Wales last November.
Patterson said: “We showed spirit throughout the full game. We knew it was going to be a tough task as soon as we went to 10. But we still showed signs of what we’re trying to show and the ideas that we’ve got.
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“It’s been good (working with the new head coach). Everyone’s buying into the process and you can see the ideas.
“Obviously, there was disappointment in the dressing room. The game plan that he had in mind, obviously, we couldn’t really stick to that.
“But he was happy with the fight. We showed spirit. He was happy with the fans that were behind us.
“We will look to work towards North Macedonia and see where we can get a result.”
Patterson was back in the team after missing out on any action in Saturday’s goalless draw in Slovenia.
The 24-year-old has made an encouraging start to life in Serie A following his move from Everton to Torino earlier in September.
The right-back came off the bench for his debut at Fiorentina and helped Torino come from a goal down to win 2-1.
He then came off the bench at half-time in Bologna with his side again trailing 1-0 and helped them secure a point.
“It’s exciting times,” the former Rangers player said. “A new challenge for Scotland and on a personal level in Italy.
“I’m looking forward to working with two new managers and I’m enjoying it so far.
“There’s a lot of new faces, staff, players. We’re all still trying to figure out each other. It’s not going to happen overnight.
“We’ve got a lot of youth but also a lot of experience. There’ll be a good mixture in the squad and hopefully we can bring that together and start to get good results.
“That was a tough one to take. When we go down to 10 men, the game is really difficult for us.
“But we still try to show signs of what we’re planning on doing and hopefully we can start to get good results.”
