Craig Levein let down by players, says frustrated Kenny Miller WHILE Craig Levein will bear the ultimate responsibility of what already appears to be an eighth successive failed bid by Scotland to reach a major tournament finals, there are those willing to accept their share of the blame. For Kenny Miller, last Friday night's 2-1 defeat against Wales was a desolate experience on more than one level. Disappointed in the first instance to be dropped from the starting line-up by Levein, the 32-year-old was restricted to a minor role in the shattering loss in Cardiff which he knows may have seen his last chance of making it to a finals with his country disappear. The Vancouver Whitecaps striker, selected for Scotland more often by Levein than any of the other five Scotland managers he has worked under since making his debut back in 2001, insists his beleaguered current boss has been sold short by the players at the start of the 2014 World Cup campaign. "In the first three games, we have let ourselves down and we've let the manager down," said Miller. We are 100 per cent behind him. The buck stops with him, but we fully support him. We love working with him, we like the set-up but we can only justify that by getting results on the park. I said before the first game against Serbia last month that we can go on all day about how we have better players and how we are progressing, but we need to show it. It's a results business we're in. I do believe we have made progress coming into this campaign. But in the last few games we have not shown it. We're not playing great and we're drawing or losing the games. You boys in the media have been calling for a lot of things and you pretty much get what you want. The lads who you called for (Steven Fletcher and Kris Commons) have been there and again it's another disappointing result. But we totally believe he (Levein) is the right man for the job. We believe we are making progress although we have not shown it on the field. We believe in what he's trying to do. Despite scoring in the previous World Cup qualifier against Macedonia, Miller would not have been surprised to be relegated to the substitutes" bench by Levein in Cardiff to make way for returning Sunderland striker Fletcher. But his pride was bruised nonetheless. "Of course it hurts," added Miller. But the manager is paid to make these decisions. He would expect me to be disappointed. If you're happy to come away and sit on the bench, then there's no point. In a squad of 24, there isn't anyone who wants to be on the bench. I want to play. I'm on a ten-hour flight to get here and I want to play. But it's not about individuals, it's about the team pulling together. If the manager thinks a particular team can win the game, then he will pick it whether or not individuals like it or not. You have to support the lads who are out there and be right when it's your time to come on. That's where I was mentally. I wanted to play and I was disappointed, but there were another 10 lads disappointed and the manager wouldn't want any of us to be happy with that. Miller is already coming to terms with the prospect of finishing his Scotland career without appearing at a major finals, although he has not completely ruled out playing a part in the 2016 European Championship campaign. "Of course it would be a blot on your CV if you don't make it to a finals," he said. This is probably my last chance and it's disappearing fast. There's a generation of players now who are looking at that. Playing at a finals would be the highlight of anyone's career, not just for me. Look at the likes of Barry Ferguson in my time who never made a finals. Gary Caldwell is coming into that category too. Darren Fletcher will have a few more campaigns, but he's come through times when we are toiling. In general, it's always hard for us to get to finals because of the play-off system now rather than the top two teams in a group qualifying. But we have come close at times and you could write a book on the hard luck stories. You're looking at possibly my last campaign, although I'll be 36 for the next Euros and with 24 teams qualifying I might just hang on in there. After appearing for just the closing six minutes against Wales, Miller is hopeful of being handed a more significant role in Brussels tomorrow night when only victory against Belgium will restore any credibility to Scotland's lingering hopes of success in Group A. "That's the gaffer's decision to make," added Miller. If he feels that we should stick to the way we've been playing for a long time now, then we will. The manager will pick the team he thinks will win the game. We have seven games left and we can still win them, but we'll have to play an awful lot better than we have been doing if we're going to do that. Going to Belgium is a tough game but we have to win. There's no point dressing it up any more, we have to win. Miller believes Scotland must show greater levels of resilience and concentration in Brussels after what he feels was unforgivably slack work in allowing Gareth Bale the space and time to plunder his spectacular late winner for Wales on Friday. "If you look at the goal, they get a free-kick near halfway and it's touched to Bale and he's run on unchallenged and then stuck it in the top corner," he said. Whether someone has switched off for the free-kick or not, others have to come and try and block it. He had a free run and while it's a hell of a strike and I knew it was in from the second it left his boot, he was able to stride on unopposed from the halfway line. That's where we have to look at it. It's a poor, poor goal to lose when we know he's the dangerman. He's run 30 yards maybe to the edge of the box and had a free shot at goal. That cannot happen. I thought we were comfortable for most of the game. The danger from the Welsh was there for all to see. Every time Bale got the ball he was a threat. There's not a player on the park who could match him for pace. It looked as if he'd clipped himself for the penalty from where I was. You can talk about the refereeing decisions. Fletch has scored a goal that looked good to me. And at 2-0 the game would be over. If they had gone 2-0 down given the results they have had before, then it's all over. That would have been a big result for us too. Then the guy we knew was their big dangerman has come up with an incredible goal right at the end to win it. From my point of view it's preventable. The last goal was too easy for them. It was sloppy.