Southgate and Strachan coy about job prospects

“I came here as a player with a Scotland team that got battered 3-0 – and there was a lot of top, top players playing in that team – and it wasn’t as good as that performance that’s for sure”.

Southgate himself admits the decision on his future is out of his hands, but he has enjoyed every minute in the role.

“I said earlier in the week that it would be easy to look at the negatives, but to work with top players and to work in big matches is what I want to do. From that side, no”.

“It is really important for the players to come through a pressure environment”. I get that that’s not quite so enjoyable if you don’t get results.But it’s been a brilliant experience.

Scotland are now slumped second bottom of Group F with just four points after four games, dealing another blow to their chances of making it to the 2018 World Cup in Russian Federation.

“If you think I’m thinking about myself now, or worrying about myself, you don’t know me”, was his response to questions about his future.

Yet with that hurdle safely overcome and his rivals for the position having all seemingly dropped by the wayside, the route is now clear for the former Middlesbrough and England under-21 boss to be installed.

England rode their luck at times after Daniel Sturridge’s opener, but matters could have been worse for Gordon Strachan’s side had Raheem Sterling not inexplicably missed after Adam Lallana and Gary Cahill’s headers.

“I don’t know but I think class is permanent, isn’t it?” And while Julien Lopetegui’s side will be missing a host of regular stars including the likes of Andres Iniesta, Gerard Pique, Sergio Ramos, Jordi Alba and Diego Costa, Southgate is expecting the 2010 World Cup winners to provide a stern test.

Has he done enough to get the job full time?

Southgate was only placed in charge for four games, with the final one of those coming against Spain on Tuesday.

“Certain points of the Slovakia game encouraged me”.

“We’ve got a good record at Hampden and we’re looking forward to these four games in the New Year”.

However, the FA insist they will not appoint him immediately after Tuesday’s game against Spain.

“At this moment in time, even the questions just now is absolutely nothing to do with me and I need to think about everyone in that dressing room and how to send them back to their clubs feeling they’ve given it their best shot”.

“Some of our first phase build-up play was sloppy and we caused our own problems, really, and gave up more opportunities than we should have”. Last time we were thrown together in hard circumstances but this time he’s started to get his points across in training and it’s important we buy in and keep going.