'It's not all doom and gloom' - in week which Scottish clubs have endured Euro hammerings, ex-Raith Rovers boss John McGlynn highlights excellent recent results for Scotland national team

The headline European result last midweek came when Glasgow giants Rangers took the lead against English heavyweights Liverpool but were ultimately on the end of a 7-1 thrashing as Reds substitute Mo Salah set a Champions League record by scoring a hat-trick within just six minutes.

Celtic’s Champions League hopes had also dashed when they lost 2-0 at home to RB Leipzig last Tuesday, before Hearts finished a miserable week for Scottish club sides in Europe when they went down 5-1 at Italian side Fiorentina in the Europa Conference League on Thursday.

“Obviously it’s a painful one when you get beaten so heavily,” current Falkirk boss McGlynn, who bossed Raith between 2006 and 2012 and again from 2018 to 2022, told the Fife Free Press.

"You share that pain because we want our teams to do well.

"Unfortunately our teams have not done so well and we’re all in the same industry.

"It doesn’t show up very well on us all.

"It’s obviously topical that the games are here but I also remember talking about our international team doing really well just a few weeks ago.

"It shouldn’t be all doom and gloom because the international team’s been doing well.

"We are coming up against massive football clubs who have got massive amounts of money they spend on players.

"Like a lot of things in life you get what you pay for. Liverpool are paying big bucks, Red Bull Salzburg are paying big bucks and you can go on and on.

"At the end, with almost every attack at Ibrox it was a Liverpool goal so it was probably hard viewing for most people in Scotland watching our representatives getting turned over so easily.

"We just have to learn from it and try to get better.”

Although he didn’t watch last Tuesday’s Celtic game against Leipzig as he was attending Kelty Hearts v Queen of the South, McGlynn acknowledged that Ange Postecoglou’s side had missed several good chances to score in the first half which if taken could have made a marked difference to the final score.

"That might have given a better reflection on Scottish clubs,” he said.

"It’s a learning curve for everyone. The money from this (playing in Europe) has got to be invested in the teams to make sure that we can compete better.

"For that to happen the gap between Celtic and Rangers and the other 10 teams in the Scottish Premiership will just get bigger and bigger as well.

"That’s the nature of the beast.”