THE ABIDING memory for many at Hampden might well be the agonising silence that met the cruellest of late winners for Italy, signalling the death of Scotland's Euro 2008 aspirations. But that does the boldness and belief of our national side and Alex McLeish a disservice.

One of the moments that will always stay with me from the day was in the tea-room at half-time. With our boys a goal down to the world champions, everyone was panicking and saying what are we going to do to get back into this? How are we going to change it and turn it around?' While us lesser mortals were looking at it and thinking of substitutions and a reimagining of our approach, big Alex stuck with his starting eleven for the second half because he knew what he was doing was right. He knew his players could come back.

It showed a tremendous amount of courage. I'm sure at half-time that was what he was telling the players - that we could get back in the game - but you know it was also what he believed.

I always felt that Scotland could score. From every corner in the first half they looked likely to put the ball in the back of the net and the players were making the Italian defenders look ordinary.

Big Alex looked at that, looked at the fact there was still plenty of time and stuck to his beliefs. That was really important. He sent out the right message to the players.

The great football cliche is that goals change games, but the reason it's a cliche is because it's true. If you take Luca Toni's goal out of the equation, I think we would have gone in at half-time and been quite happy with the job that Scotland are doing.

I don't want to be the one to criticise a ball boy, but I think that, unfortunately for Scotland, the guys on the touchline have done their job just too well. It looked like the ball came back quicker than the players were expecting and it took them by surprise.

You can't say that it was nerves. It's impossible to tell because not enough had happened at that point of the game. We got caught sleeping a little bit, a bit out of position. But it wasn't what was at stake, it wasn't the magnitude of the situation, the weight of expectation. Our players are good enough and big enough now to cope with that.

While McLeish may have preferred to rely on a 4-1-4-1 formation, I think the poor conditions and the way Italy packed the midfield required five players fighting for their lives in the midfield. Barry Ferguson up against Andrea Pirlo, with Darren Fletcher playing the deeper role, was a clever way of dealing with a situation sprung upon him.

We were containing Italy to a great degree and looking as if we could score at every set-piece. As I say, lesser mortals might have been thinking does he bring Miller on, does he bring Boyd on how does he change it?' But Alex stuck to his guns and got the goal.

At that point it was anyone's game and I think the chance that James McFadden missed demonstrated that. While McFadden looked exhausted at that point, and it no doubt contributed to his miss, Italy were the team who looked tired, but they responded with a couple of inspired substitutions - the kind of quick decisions that defines success at that level.

Alan Hutton had the game in his grip at that point of the second-half and was rampaging down the right. Donadoni reacted quickly and took off Antonio Di Natale and replaced him with Vincenzo Iaquinta on the left. It was a great decision and probably won them the game.

Hutton was simply terrific in the second half. He was the one that gave Scotland the chance of winning the game. That decision to stop him was the key moment.

McLeish had his own fair share of inspired decisions, though, and playing McFadden up front instead of Kenny Miller was one of them.

The conditions were appalling and it was one of those games in which the ball was skipping through to the goalkeeper. Playing balls in behind defences on the deck is where Miller really shines. If you are playing on the halfway line and counter-attacking then Miller's pace is a real asset but with the Italians dropping off, playing deeper and with little space in behind them, it was McFadden's guile that was needed.

It's a mark of how far we have come that Donadoni was cautious. With Luca Toni pretty much leading the line on his own, the middle of the park was packed and we had to get over the top of them as much as through them and it made it difficult for Scotland. But we never gave up, never stopped believing and deserved so much more.

One of the brilliant things is that normally after these campaigns, you expect to lose five or maybe six players from the squad. But the situation we now face with these players is that, with the possible exception of Davie Weir, there is not going to be major change or disruption for the start of the World Cup qualifying campaign.

We have grown and learned and gained an enormous amount from this campaign. I can only see these players getting better and better We tend to go overboard in these kind of situations, but I really was expecting us to win and it wasn't blind optimism. Despite what history will show with the result, the fact is we had the chance to win it at the end. Not just that, but we had the chance to win it on merit. I think it shows what a long way we've come.

We've all got such belief in our team, where not so long ago we were seen as no-hopers. We need to remember this as a fantastic effort and take the next step when it comes to the finals of World Cup 2010.