It would have been tough enough for Sebastien Pocognoli to record a victory over World Cup quarter-finalists Switzerland in his first game as Scotland manager at Hampden with a full complement of players on the park.
Triumphing in the Nations League outing with 10 men, though, proved to be a task that was beyond the Belgian.
The national team, who had Jack Hendry red carded early on, were soundly beaten. They allowed Ricardo Rodriguez to break the deadlock, Nico Elvedi to net after half-time and Zeki Amadouni to get on the scoresheet near the near of regulation time.
They competed valiantly with their old adversaries in difficult circumstances at times. However, their numerical disadvantage meant there was to be no dream debut in Mount Florida for Pocognoli this evening.
Here are five talking points from a bitterly disappointing evening for Scotland and their new head coach.
Binksmanship
Pocognoli made three changes to his starting line-up; Stephen Welsh, Aaron Hickey and Robbie Ure all dropped out and their places at centre-half, right wing-back and striker were taken by Luis Binks, Nathan Patterson and Kieron Bowie respectively. He retained his 3-5-2 formation.
Binks, the Brondby captain who has had spells at Spurs and Coventry City in his native England, Montreal Impact in Canada and Bologna and Como in Italy in his nomadic career, came in to make his debut.
The 6ft 1in 25-year-old, who qualifies to play for this country due to a maternal grandmother who hails from Dunbar, slotted in on the left of Scott McKenna and Jack Hendry in the three man defence.
The new-look rearguard had, after a jittery opening half an hour or so, done well against Slovenia in Ljubljana at the weekend and kept a clean sheet. But facing Amdouni of Burnley, Dan Ndoye of Nottingham Forest, Johan Manzambi of Aston Villa was a step up in standard and then some.
There is great excitement about Binks, who played for both the Scotland and England age-group teams, among the Tartan Army. Could he show he can compete at international level? He did his cause no harm with an assured showing.
He certainly displayed far great maturity than one of his far more experienced team mates.
Hendry sees red
Billy Gilmour, deployed in central midfield alongside Lewis Ferguson once again, drew gasps from the 42,000-strong crowd in the seventh minute when he collected the ball, jinked between Ardon Dashari and Ndoye and unleashed Kieron Bowie down the right flank.
The former Hibernian striker, who was making his first start in a dark blue jersey, did superboly to outmuscle Remo Freuler and square into the visitors’ penalty area. But his delivery was cleared.
Ndoye did far better when Michel Aebischer played a defence-splitting pass to him a few minutes later. He outsprinted Hendry and the Al-Ettifaq man tugged his rival’s shoulder rashly before he could get his shot away.
Nenad Minakovic, the Serbian referee, initially pointed to the spot and showed the offending player a yellow card. But a lengthy VAR check showed the foul had taken place outside of the box and the match official reversed his decision and gave a free-kick instead.
Many members of the home support cheered believing they had got a lucky break. If they had understood the laws of the game they would have known what was coming next. Hendry had his caution upgraded to a red.
Pocognoli immediately withdrew Bowie, put on Welsh and left Oli McBurnie up front by himself. His side fell behind when Ricardo Rodriguez stepped up and curled a delicious dead ball beyond the outstretched Angus Gunn and into the inside netting.
Scottish spirit
Keeping the scoreline semi-respectable looked to be the objective for Scotland at that stage in proceedings. But, to their credit, the hosts pushed hard for a leveller and got their fans on their feet with decent forays upfield on a few occasions.
Andy Robertson, who was winning his 99th cap, got a couple of good crosses in and McBurnie dropped deep worked tirelessly to create an opening which a player in a dark blue jersey could
That said, Switzerland showed their undoubted quality whenever they got in or around the final third and Gunn, who could perhaps had done better at the opener, had to produce a couple of saves to prevent them edging further ahead.
There was uproar inside the ground when McBurnie jinked past Freuler and got in on Gregor Kobel. He appeared to be scythed down by the midfielder. But Minakovic was unimpressed and allowed play to continue. He also ignored a John McGinn penalty claim at a corner.
Pocognoli was as frustrated as any fan at what he was witnessing and an outburst on the touchline about a call which went against his charges saw him cautioned. He immediately let fourth official Milan Mitic know what he thought about that punishment in no uncertain terms.
Swiss class
Murat Yakin’s side, comfortable 3-0 victors over North Macedonian in their opening Group B1 match in Skopje at the weekend, are in 14th place in the FIFA World Rankings for a reason.
Their pocket of fans – who held aloft a “Free Granit” banner in a show of solidarity with their missing captain Xhaka, who is facing a potential jail term for fraudulently obtaining a Covid-19 vaccination certificate – celebrated when Elvedi turned an Ndoye pass beyond Gunn 10 minutes into the second half.
Triple sub
Pocognoli put on Ben Gannon-Doak for Nathan Patterson, Ure for McBurnie and Ryan Christie for Gilmour before an hour had elapsed.
They were positive changes and interesting to see Christie drop into the deep-lying role which he has performed so well for his club Bournemouth. Is that to be his future role?
Josh Doig, the Sassuolo left-back, took over from Robertson in the closing stages. But being a man down against opponents who beat Canada, Algeria and Colombia before losing to Argentina after extra-time at the World Cup this summer meant a fightback was never on the cards. Amdouni piled on the misery.
On to North Macedonia in Skopje on Saturday and hopefully a more positive result.
