Lawrence Shankland display hailed 'outstanding' by Scotland team-mate as Northern Ireland clash branded must-win

The loss of late goals to Wout Weghorst and Donyell Malen soured what had been an encouraging display from Scotland despite falling 2-0 behind through efforts from Tijjani Reijnders and Georginio Wijnaldum in either half.

Scotland enjoyed plenty of possession and carved open numerous chances, hitting the bar twice through Ryan Christie and Lawrence Shankland, but McGinn admitted the late collapse took the shine off the performance.

"There was so much to take from the game but the scoreline is an embarrassing one for us," the Aston Villa captain admitted. "We're all experienced players. We know what we're coming up against at places like this so it's not a surprise. Most of us are all playing European football against these sides.

"When you get good spells in the game, and get good chances, one of them has got to go in. You can say you played well and had chances but we've got to be more streetwise and when it goes to 2-0, shut up shop a little bit, be a bit less ambitious, be narrower. That's the thing that hurts the most.

"We're going into a tournament where goal difference is so important. I think over the piece we can take the positives in the sense we don't feel the Netherlands were a million miles ahead of us, but the last half hour is not one we look at with many positives."

Scotland now welcome Northern Ireland to Hampden on Tuesday and McGinn admits a win is required to restore some positive momentum after a run of six matches without victory, conceding 18 goals in the process.

"We need to win on Tuesday night," he stressed. "We're on a bad run of results at the moment. We know the country is very positive. Tonight was, up until a certain point, one of our best away performances I've experienced but it means nothing.

"They'll be thinking, 'how did we win 4-0?’, but it is up to us to make sure it doesn't happen again. It's happened too many times in the past. We've got away from that and we can't let those bad habits slip back in."

Hearts striker Shankland was handed only his second Scotland start and McGinn backed his team-mate to bounce back from the glaring second half miss while the match was still 1-0, clipping the crossbar when clean through on goal with just goalkeeper Mark Flekken to beat.

"I thought Shanks was outstanding," McGinn said. “It's not easy coming in and playing against [Virgil] Van Dyk – one of the best defenders in the world. But he was so strong, holding it up, laying it off, linking the play really well. He was a good outball for us and I think he'll be happy. The goals will always come when you're a player like Shanks. And we're proud of how he played. The chances come and go and the next one will be in the back of the net."