Cardiff striker McCormack made his first international start but it was not a game to remember as Klaas Jan Huntelaar, Robin van Persie and a Dirk Kuyt penalty sealed a comprehensive win for the hosts.

"A defeat to any team is hard to take but to be fair to them, they're world class," said McCormack, who played on the wing tonight.

"We came here and we just tried to put a performance on and if we got anything from the game, it was a bit of a bonus.

"Probably no team in the group is going to come here and take points so it's a good experience for us.

Despite the defeat, McCormack was content with his own display.

He said of the game: "I thoroughly enjoyed it. I felt first half I was getting in behind their left-back a few times.

"Second half, I got switched onto the left and didn't get much joy.

"But for my full debut, I'm going to take confidence from that. Hopefully, I've done enough to keep my place."

The game was still goalless when Kenny Miller wasted a golden opportunity to score for the visitors and McCormack added on Setanta Sports 1: "It would have made a huge difference.

"But, to be fair, he did everything right.

"These are things that if they go for us at that time, it's maybe a different game."

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Manager George Burley agreed, saying: "Goals change games. They got the first goal.

He added: "It was always going to be a difficult game. We gave it everything we've got.

"Holland are a tremendous team; they're one of the top six in the world."

Burley and McCormack were both mystified as to why Gary Caldwell saw a headed goal chalked off while the score was 2-0.

McCormack said: "Most of the boys thought it was okay. I took the corner; I didn't see any infringement in the box."

Burley added: "We scored a perfectly good goal. Why the the referee disallowed it...

"Certainly, decisions went totally against us."

Burley was also unhappy with Holland's second goal, claiming goalkeeper Allan McGregor was impeded by Dirk Kuyt when Van Persie attacked the ball.

He said: "The trouble was the ball's whipped in from the corner and the player's blocked Allan McGregor - he couldn't get to it."

Focusing on the positives, Burley said: "We had a couple of (full) debuts: Christophe Berra, Ross McCormack. I thought, overall, they worked very hard."

Turning his attention to Wednesday night's clash against Iceland, which is far more vital to Scotland's hopes of qualifying from Group 10, he added: "Now we've got to look forward to the home game against Iceland.

"Every game at international level is difficult; every game is so important, none more so than Wednesday evening.

"We've got three home games which we've certainly got to look to win, starting from Wednesday."

McCormack said: "We're going to pick ourselves up and have a right go. We need the three points."