England 3-0 Scotland: Fletcher & Anya back Scots to recover

Darren Fletcher (left) was on the losing side against England for the second time in his career

Scotland captain Darren Fletcher described Friday's 3-0 defeat by England at Wembley as "hard to take".

The Scots had plenty of chances against their World Cup Qualifying Group F hosts, but Gordon Strachan's side succumbed to three headed goals.

Daniel Sturridge, Adam Lallana and Gary Cahill were all on target for England.

"People will look at that game and appreciate football and understand and realise it wasn't a 3-0 game but we lost it," midfielder Fletcher told ITV.

"They will realise that was a hard-fought battle.

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"For 75 minutes, we had a right good go and had just as many chances but the difference was England took theirs.

"It's disappointing, the effort we put into the game and to come away with a 3-0 defeat is hard to take.

"It doesn't matter if you lose by one, two or three - you lose the game, you get no points but we will pick ourselves up and go again."

Fletcher echoed team-mates Leigh Griffiths and Christophe Berra's backing of coach Strachan, who would not be drawn on his future after a second straight 3-0 loss that leaves Scotland second bottom of the group.

"Football is a results-based business," said 32-year-old Fletcher. "That is the be-all and end-all. You can play terrible, score a scruffy goal and win and no-one remembers it - you can play well, lose 3-0 and people will always remember the defeat.

"But the players believe in the manager, enjoy working for him and know how passionate he is."

Ikechi Anya, who featured at right-back for the Scots, says Strachan is "an unbelievable manager to work with".

Ikechi Anya (left) is hopeful Scotland can recover in Group F

And the 28-year-old insists Scotland are not out of the qualification hunt.

The nine group winners will progress to the 2018 finals in Russia while the eight best runners-up will enter play-offs for the other four spots on offer to Uefa nations.

"We're four points away from second place and we've got four home games," said Anya, who made his international debut under Strachan.

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