SLOVAKIA UNDER 21s 4 SCOTLAND UNDER 21s 0

SCOT GEMMILL'S experimental Under-21 side went down to another heavy defeat last night in Myjava after a freak own goal from Alex Iacovitti.

And the Scots coach warned his youngsters they need to cut out the sloppy mistakes that's hampering his side's progress.

Gemmill named another experimental line-up against the Slovaks, who easily qualified for the European Under 21s finals.

The young Scots were well in the game in sub-zero temperatures in Myjava despite falling behind again to an early goal and half time sub Ryan Hardie hit the post in the second half.

But keeper Ryan Fulton allowed a passback from Nottingham Forest stopper Iacovitti to drift past him, which effectively ended the contest.

And Gemmill has warned his young guns to learn fast from these games after a demoralising run of five games and counting since Scotland's Under 21s scored a goal or avoided defeat.

He said: "I thought the first half an hour was good and competitive against a really top team. But then it’s obvious we make too many mistakes in the last half an hour.

"The players know that, I know that and it doesn’t matter how well you play.

"If you make mistakes as obvious as that then youll get punished especially against a good team.

"Against a less opposition possibly you get away with one or two mistakes. But against a top team that’s going to the European Finals we’ll be punished.

"I thought up till the second goal we were fine. We started the second half well and competitively.

Hardie had his chance. But the real challenge to the younger players is when there’s a mistake it’s how you react.

"I thought there were mistakes all around. The first goal we’d worked on defending throw-ins and we conceded a goal from a throw-in.

"With the own goal, it’s about managing risk, if you play the ball to the goalie you're taking a risk.

"Its another thing we need to correct and we will be correcting, believe me.

"People weren’t doing their jobs and the players know that. That is the difference at the top level and we have to do more."

Scotland again fell behind early on - a feature of their recent games - in the ninth minute when they were carved open down their left and Fulton could do nothing this time to prevent Albert Rusnak from netting with a low drive.

Morton striker Jai Quitongo came on at the interval for his Under 21 debut, but it was another half time sub, St Mirren striker Hardie, who came so close to equalising when he galloped clear from a superb through pass from Crewe's James Jones and cracked a shot against the post.

Just when Scotland looked to be getting back into it, they conceded a calamitous own goal in the 57th minute. Iacovitti hit a passback with pace, but the ball bobbled over Fulton's foot as he took a swipe at it for an amateurish own goal.

After that, the home side took complete control of the game and Slovakia got their reward for their pressure when captain Branislav Ninaj turned the ball in from close range and sub Filip Balaj quickly headed in a fourth goal with seven minutes left to seal another depressing night for the Under 21s.

SCOTLAND (4-1-4-1): Fulton; Smith (MacDonald 72), Iacovitti, Jules (Sammut 68), Cameron (Sheppard 72); Souttar; Jones, Docherty, Cadden (Nesbitt 68), Henderson (Quitongo 46); Brophy (Hardie 46).

UNUSED SUBS: Doohan.