Levein opted for a conservative line-up and dropped usual frontman Kenny Miller to the bench for the clash in Prague.

The plan appeared to be working until the Czechs grabbed the only goal of the game thanks to Roman Hubnik with just over 20 minutes remaining.

Levein said: "I've got no regrets about the way we went about it at all but of course I'm disappointed that we've lost the match.

"I was delighted with the players' application tonight. The game plan was never to come here and attack and open the game up, it was to sit in, to defend, to protect our centre-backs.

"For a long spell in the game it worked perfectly but unfortunately we lost the game and it was disappointing we lost the goal from a set-piece.

"The easiest thing in the world after a defeat is to assume that any other system would have resulted in a victory.

"I think we saw, late in the match when we did open the game up, that the Czech Republic were far more threatening than they were for the previous 70 minutes.

"There are always people who will say that if we had a striker or two strikers we would have had more chance of scoring goals but against a quality team like the Czech Republic you've also got a greater chance of losing goals."

Levein has refused to rule out using the same formation in future despite conceding the gamble did not pay off tonight.

He added: "It's difficult to say the game plan worked when we didn't get something from the match. But I was happy that for long spells of the game exactly what I was looking for occurred.

"The fact that we lost the goal is a huge disappointment but I wouldn't rule out any system. I think it's about trying to select the best way to win the match and that's what I did tonight. It didn't work unfortunately but I'm happy with how the players performed."

However, Levein revealed he will adopt a different approach for the visit of world champions Spain on Tuesday.

He said: "The game on Tuesday night is a different match altogether. As much as I have been studying the Czech Republic for the last three or four months, I've been doing the same with Spain.

"I've got a different game plan for Tuesday and that was always going to be the case."

The Scots may have failed to add to the four points gained against Lithuania and Liechtenstein but the manager does not believe this result will be too harmful to the campaign.

He said: "It's not disastrous. The Czech Republic have still to come to play at Hampden and if we win that game it evens it up over the two matches.

"It's not a fatal blow by any stretch of the imagination. We are still in it, we will keep working as hard as we did this evening and we will do our best to improve for Tuesday and the games that are still to come."