Scotland boss Gordon Strachan felt his side were beaten by a very 'intense' England outfit on Tuesday night.
Roy Hodgson's Three Lions recorded a 3-1 win over the Scots at Celtic Park in Glasgow and the performance of the visitors was something that Strachan had not seen from an English team in recent times.
Strachan's Scotland side did end the 2014 calendar year with a defeat but the former Celtic boss was not too perturbed after a strong start to Euro2016 qualifying which sees them with seven points from four fixtures.
"I've got to take it as a year and the year has been good to us," Strachan told Sky Sports.
"We got together 10 days ago and our objective was to get three points against a good Republic of Ireland side. We've got that and we've been pleased with that.
"We're disappointed to finish the year with a defeat. There could be a couple of things that made that happen tonight. One was definitely an England side that was determined and as intense as I've seen them for a long time.
"I think we've got to say well done to England. That's a team full of Champions League players. We're maybe a bit mentally tired from Friday. Physically yes, but mentally I think too and I think England spooked us with an intensity early in the game and we never really got our rhythm going again.
"We could have passed the ball better but England were after us and they tested that. When you take on a terrific England side like that, and that's as good as I've seen England play for a while, you've got to have at least 10 players playing well. If you asked our lads tonight, I don't think many of them would put their hand up.
"Saying that, we got the three points we were after and that leaves us in a good position in the group that we're in."
