Scotland 0-1 Belarus

"We never competed in any aspect in the first half," said Smith.

"The second half was much better but we failed to reach any level of fluency. We showed greater determination and that led to a couple of chances.

"Credit to Belarus, they created several openings and were better than us in possession of the ball."

Smith must now look forward to building a side capable of challenging for a place at Euro 2008.

And he added: "Everyone involved with the team is disappointed and now it's time to sit down and think about where we can improve."

Goalkeeper Craig Gordon is one of the players Smith can count on and the Hearts youngster had one eye on the future after the setback.

"We're all bitterly disappointed," Gordon told BBC Sport.

"We didn't seem to get going in the first half and gave them too much room on the ball.

"If we're going to do well, we have to handle the high levels of expectation for important games.

"But we've got a lot of young players in the squad and hopefully, we're going in the right direction."

Barry Ferguson is suspended for the trip to Slovenia

Kenny Miller had been in red-hot form, scoring four goals in his previous three Scotland outings, but the Wolves striker wasted Scotland's best chance of the match.

After breaking free of the Belarus defence, Miller shot over the crossbar with just the goalkeeper to beat.

"I'm really disappointed I didn't at least make the 'keeper work," Miller told BBC Sport.

"We let ourselves down and it's pretty quiet in the dressing room.

"We set a standard in the last two games against Italy and Norway and we fell below that."

Scotland skipper Barry Ferguson picked up a booking at Hampden and is suspended for Wednesday's final group match in Slovenia.

Ferguson told BBC Sport: "We knew it wasn't good enough and the gaffer gave us a bit of a roasting when we went in at half-time which was deserved.

"At least, we showed a bit of fight in the second half but it wasn't enough."