Holland 3 - 0 Scotland

DARREN FLETCHER hit out at the dodgy decisions that are wrecking Scotland’s World Cup dream.

Fletch led protests to ropey ref Laurent Duhamel after he ruled out Gary Caldwell’s late lifeline.

It was a chilling echo of the poor decision that robbed George Burley’s Bravehearts of a stonewall spot-kick in an earlier Group Nine clash in Macedonia.

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Duhamel, who has been suspended for blunders in France, would not even speak to Fletch about the flashpoint.

Fletch raged: “We couldn’t understand why it wasn’t given. We couldn’t see anything wrong with it.

“I asked the ref why he disallowed the goal but he wasn’t interested in talking about it.

“The funny thing is I was fouled every time I was going up for a corner but he didn’t notice any of them.

“It was a bit of a surprise he chalked it off but we’ve had a few of those decisions go against us. We had strong penalty claims turned down in Macedonia.

“Hopefully, it’ll swing back in our favour and we’ll get some luck in the games that are left.”

Ref Duhamel ruled out Caldwell’s 74th-minute header — apparently for Gary Teale’s foul on keeper Maarteen Stekelenburg.

Yet, despite the controversy the Dutch were easy winners.

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Robin van Persie were both on target with first-half headers.

And Dirk Kuyt added a late penalty after Christophe Berra was adjudged to have tripped Huntelaar in the box.

Van Persie’s injury-time effort was a killer blow for the Scots. The Arsenal striker said: “Maybe Scotland thought they were nearly through to half-time when we got that corner — I certainly got more space than I expected.

“It was a killer for the Scots and put us in the driving seat.”

But there is still some hope for the Scots.

Victory over Iceland at Hampden on Wednesday would return Burley’s boys to second place in the group.

Holland: Stekelenburg, Van Der Wiel, Mathijsen, Ooijer, Van Bronckhorst, Kuyt, Van Bommel, De Jong (Schaars 80), Robben, Huntelaar (Afellay 80), Van Persie (Sneijder 65). Subs not used: Timmer, Boulahrouz, Braafheid, Van der Vaart. Booked: De Jong, Huntelaar. Goals: Huntelaar 30, Van Persie 45, Kuyt 78 pen.

Scotland: McGregor, Alexander (Hutton 73), Berra, Caldwell, Naysmith, Brown, Darren Fletcher, Ferguson, McCormack, Teale (Morrison 85), Miller (Steven Fletcher 71). Subs not used: Gordon, Barr, Iwelumo, Rae.

Att: 49,552

Ref: Laurent Duhamel (France).