‘BLAME ME,’ SAYS HONEST ARMSTRONG

STUART ARMSTRONG held up his hands to accept a share of the blame for Harry Kane’s dramatic stoppage-time leveller in the 2-2 stalemate with England at Hampden.

The Celtic midfielder wasn’t alone in presenting the English with a late lifeline.

Charlie Mulgrew allowed the striker to breeze past him onto Raheem Sterling’s far-flung cross and Craig Gordon might have thought his best option was to take the ball while it was in the air.

But Armstrong accepted the chance wouldn’t have come along if he had chosen Chris Martin as a target for a forward pass instead of two-goal Leigh Griffiths.

The playmaker admitted: “Yeah, I know. You make decisions in game. It was really late on and, honestly, tiredness comes into play.

“I’ve seen Griff make a run, but it was a poor pass. In hindsight, I should probably just have shelled it into row Z.

“A number of things have to happen for a goal – you can never tell what phase of play is going to lead to what – but I probably should have just cleared the ball. It’s just one of those things.

“When I saw the ball hit the net, my feelings were just total disappointment. We were so close to three points. To end up with one, it’s just hard to take.

“The emotions of the game, being one-nil down and Griff hitting two unbelievable goals to get us back in the lead with so little time remaining … it’s hard to know what to say.

“To concede is disappointing, to say the least.”

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