Group Five: Scotland coach Ally McCoist insisted last night it would have been a "travesty" if Walter Smith's team had lost their World Cup qualifier to Belarus.
"It would have been a travesty if we had not taken something from the game," McCoist said. "Looking at the effort the players put in, we're really pleased and proud of them.
"Belarus can play and we knew that. They are probably better going forward than they are defensively, but we seemed to nullify them. We had one or two scary moments, but we had a few good chances ourselves."
The former Rangers striker backed Kenny Miller to bounce back from the disappointment of another miss, after blaming himself for another squandered opportunity against Italy in Milan in March.
"It was a massive chance at the end," said McCoist. "I was just hoping he would drill it at the goalkeeper's feet. But the keeper made a very good save. Kenny will come back from that."
But McCoist maintains Scotland must start winning to have any chance of a play-off spot.
"We have to beat Italy. We have to win our home games now. There are a few difficult home games, but we have to start winning games. We wanted to win here, but the most important thing was not getting beat and we did that."
Smith was satisfied with the goalless draw in Belarus. The result means the Scots remain second bottom of the qualifying group, but the Scotland manager insisted there is now a resilience and competitive edge to the team, which was missing before.
"I'm very pleased," he said after the game. "I said before the game that I felt Belarus were arguably the best side after Italy in terms of attacking and it was a very tough 90 minutes.
Smith singled out goalkeeper Craig Gordon for special praise after he pulled off a string of spectacular saves to prevent the home side finding the back of the net. "Craig had two or three tremendous saves in the second half of the match which kept the scoreline at 0-0."
The Hearts goalkeeper was named as man of the match, but the 22-year-old played down his role in earning a point for the Scots.
"It was nice to keep a clean sheet. We knew we had to come here and defend really well. There were guys chucking their bodies in all over the place. When it came for me to do my bit, I was just happy to help out."
BELARUS: Zhevnov, Kalachev (Vjatscheslaw Hleb 61), Yaskovich, Omelianchuk, Shtanuk, Gurenko, Kovba, Belkevich, Bulyga (Kulchy 86), Aleksander Hleb, Kornilenko. Subs Not Used: Khomutovsky, Tarlovsky, Ostrovski, Cheljadinskij, Sascheko. Booked: Yaskovich.
SCOTLAND: Gordon, Weir, Pressley, Webster, Gary Caldwell, Dailly, Fletcher, Ferguson, Alexander, McCulloch (McFadden 76), Kenny Miller. Subs Not Used: Marshall, Steven Caldwell, Thompson, Murray, Riordan, Lee Miller. Booked: Pressley, Dailly.
Referee: O Benquerenca (Portugal).
