Gunn Tells Hendry There Is Nothing to Apologise For

Scotland goalkeeper Angus Gunn said Jack Hendry has nothing to apologise for after a 0-3 Nations League defeat by Switzerland at Hampden on 29 September. Hendry, the Al Ettifaq centre-back, was sent off for pulling down Dan Ndoye, Ricardo Rodriguez scored from the free-kick, and Gunn, who faced all three Swiss goals, told the room to close ranks.

The public argument has already split. Head coach Sebastien Pocognoli called the red card everybody’s. Pundits went after the keeper as well as the defender. Gunn stood in the middle of both rows.

A Penalty Became a Free-Kick, Then a Goal

Pocognoli’s first home match started on the front foot. Then Ndoye, the Nottingham Forest forward, ran through the high Scottish line and Hendry hauled him down. Serbian referee Nenad Minakovic pointed to the spot and showed a yellow card.

Scotland’s 0-3 Nations League match report times the foul in the eighth minute. A long VAR check moved the contact outside the box, so the penalty became a free-kick and the yellow became a red, Hendry’s first sending-off for Scotland.

THE OPENING QUARTER HOUR

1. Eighth minute: Hendry brings Ndoye down as the Swiss attacker breaks toward goal. Minakovic awards a penalty and a yellow card.
2. After the VAR check: the foul is ruled outside the area. The restart becomes a free-kick and Hendry is sent off.
3. 12th minute: Rodriguez curls the kick into the top left corner of Gunn’s goal. Switzerland lead 1-0.

Pocognoli took off striker Kieron Bowie, sent on Stephen Welsh of Swansea City, and kept a back three with Scott McKenna and debutant Luis Binks of Brondby. Scotland then played almost 80 minutes with 10 men. Nico Elvedi, the Leeds United centre-back, made it 2-0 in the 55th minute from Ndoye’s low ball, and Burnley’s Zeki Amdouni lashed in the third in the 82nd from another Ndoye cutback.

The national team’s own feed logged the first goal as it went in.

12' | GOAL Switzerland.

The visitors score from a Ricardo Rodriguez free-kick on the edge of the area, following a foul by Jack Hendry that resulted in a red card.

Scotland 0-1 Switzerland.

— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) September 29, 2026

Why a Pull Outside the Box Costs the Extra Man

Pocognoli said afterwards that a red card, then a goal from the same free-kick, was “probably the worst situation that we can have.” He added that he would have preferred a penalty “and to stay with 11 men” so his side could still show the plan. Captain Andy Robertson, the Tottenham Hotspur left-back, said the same wish in plainer terms. He would rather have faced a penalty and kept 11 on the pitch.

The law does not give them that trade as cleanly as they made it sound. Under Law 12, denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity outside the penalty area is a sending-off. Inside the area, a player who is trying to play the ball can stay on with a yellow and a penalty. A hold, a pull or a push is still a red, even if the referee then points to the spot.

HOW THE DOGSO RULE SPLITS

• Outside the box: A foul that denies a clear chance is a red card and a free-kick, wherever the contact sits.
• Inside, playing the ball: A genuine attempt to play or challenge can be a yellow card and a penalty.
• Inside, holding or pulling: The player is still sent off, and the restart is a penalty.

Andy Halliday, working on Sportsound, said there was no attempt to play the ball. Willie Miller said the same. James McFadden thought the referee was a long way from the incident, but he was not surprised by the upgrade. If those readings are right, VAR did not invent the red. It changed the restart from a penalty Gunn might have faced with 10 men to a free-kick he did face with 10 men, and Rodriguez scored it.

Gunn Faces the Questions Hendry Cannot

Hendry was in the dressing room by then. Gunn still had the rest of the night. He made saves from Ndoye either side of half-time, then watched Elvedi finish at close range and Amdouni’s shot fly through his arms into the roof of the net.

Halliday was blunt on the first goal. “Shoulder height and not a lot of pace,” he said. “For me I think it’s so poor from Angus Gunn.” On the third, McFadden said he knew it was a powerful strike, “but that’s one that Angus Gunn can keep out.” Halliday added that he has never been a big defender of goalkeepers and that he was looking for more from the San Jose Earthquakes stopper, who started all three of Scotland’s World Cup games.

Gunn did not hide from the tape. “They were good strikes but, as a goalkeeper, I’m always disappointed when I concede a goal,” he said. On Rodriguez’s kick he said that from that close you want to protect your side, that he was holding as much as he could, and that he saw it late. “I’ll probably look back at it. I’ll probably be disappointed and try and get better for next time.”

That’s why we’re a team and that’s why we stick together and no-one’s got to apologise for anything.

Angus Gunn, Scotland goalkeeper, after the Switzerland defeat

That line is doing two jobs. It covers Hendry, who tried to say sorry to the group. It also covers the keeper who has to answer for the kick that followed the red, because the clip of Gunn diving and missing is the one that travelled as far as the dismissal itself.

The Dressing Room Closed Ranks Around Hendry

Gunn said Switzerland have quick attackers “and that can happen in these games.” He said Hendry tried to apologise to the lads and that the manager told the room, “That’s football, it happens.” Pocognoli put the same thought in his own words. “The red card of Jack is all of our red card,” he said. “We stay together. We put this moment in our DNA today and hopefully it can be helpful for the future.”

Robertson sounded less interested in the poetry. “It was incredibly hard with 11 men on the pitch, it was even harder with 10,” he said. He also said Hendry had tried to nick the ball, and that football is split-second decisions. Former defender Stephen O’Donnell put the tactical cost in one sentence: the game plan goes out of the window with the red card, and good sides grind you down and pick you off.

Outside that room the verdict was colder. Replies under the national team’s 12th-minute post treated the game as over on the spot and talked as if Hendry had just played his last cap. Gunn’s later clip drew a second wave aimed at the dive, not the tackle. The dressing-room line and the public line are not the same argument. One is a unit protecting a teammate. The other has already moved on to who should never start again.

One Point and No Goals After Two Group Games

The result leaves Scotland third in Nations League B, Group B1, still looking for a first win under Pocognoli. They drew 0-0 in Ljubljana on 26 September, then lost at home three days later. Switzerland have won twice, 3-0 in Skopje and 3-0 at Hampden. Slovenia beat North Macedonia 2-0 on the same night Scotland were going down to 10.

GROUP B1 AFTER TWO MATCHES

Scotland have now gone four games without a goal, the first such run since 1971. Pocognoli wanted a result “to give a boost to the staff” as much as to the players. He also said he felt “a little bit sad” about the warm Hampden welcome, because the team could not give anything back once the red card had killed the plan.

The remaining window is tight. North Macedonia host Scotland at 7.45pm UK time on Saturday, 3 October, at the National Arena Todor Proeski. Slovenia come to Hampden at the same hour on Tuesday, 6 October. Those two games close the four-match block that Pocognoli’s first Nations League squad was built around. North Macedonia return to Hampden on 13 November, then Scotland go to Switzerland on 16 November.

Hendry’s Place Went Straight to Stephen Welsh

The squad Pocognoli named on 15 September was a 28-man list for the new four-game window, with seven uncapped players and 14 who had not been in the World Cup party. Scott McTominay is absent after a heart procedure. Che Adams is injured. The defensive list still runs long on paper, and Tuesday night used more of it than planned.

Pocognoli had already made three changes from the Slovenia draw, bringing in Bowie, Nathan Patterson and Binks, who won his first cap. When Hendry went, Welsh, a first-time senior call-up after a strong start at Swansea, walked into the back three. McKenna stayed. Binks stayed. The shape held. The extra man did the rest.

CENTRE-BACKS STILL IN THE WINDOW

• Scott McKenna: Started both group games and remained when Hendry went off.
• Luis Binks: Brondby captain, first cap against Switzerland, left on the pitch after the red.
• Stephen Welsh: Thrown on for Bowie inside 15 minutes and asked to hold a 10-man line.
• Luke Graham and Colby Donovan: Stoke City and Celtic options who have not yet been used in this block.

Hendry’s evening ended with the upgrade on the monitor. Whether he is in the 18 in Skopje is a disciplinary question the camp has not answered in public. The football question is already on the grass. The back three that finished Tuesday is the one that has to travel.

Skopje Is the First Chance to Answer

Pocognoli has still not won a match in the job. He has a point from Ljubljana and a Hampden night that lasted eight minutes as a contest. Gunn has two group games in his net, three goals against, and a dressing-room quote that now sits next to Halliday’s demand for more. Hendry has a first Scotland red and a public that moved faster than his teammates did.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The result: Switzerland won 3-0 at Hampden on 29 September, with Rodriguez, Elvedi and Amdouni scoring after Hendry’s red card.
• The next fixture: North Macedonia v Scotland, 3 October, 7.45pm UK time, in Skopje.
• The group: Switzerland 6 points, Slovenia 4, Scotland 1, North Macedonia 0, after two matches each.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• The goalkeeper: Pocognoli has not said whether Gunn keeps the shirt for Skopje.
• Hendry’s availability: the camp has not published the length of any ban attached to the sending-off.

Saturday in Skopje is the first night that line can be tested without the Swiss extra man on the field. Gunn has already said nobody has to apologise. The scoreboard in November will show whether that was enough.