The visitors were the better of the two teams in a tetchy game which was spoiled by too many free-kicks, most conceded by Lithuania.

Scotland boss Levein told BBC Scotland: "The biggest disappointment for me was the fact that we weren't allowed to play.

"Any time we got any momentum going it was free-kick after free-kick and I felt the referee should have been harsher.

"I expected our players to be able to play a little bit but every time we got the ball there were crude challenges coming in.

"I was hoping that the referee would really stamp down and make sure that we were allowed to play football.

"He should have done more and the tackle at the end on Alan Hutton was disgraceful.

"Some of the guys in their team were picked up for fouls, five, six or seven times, and that annoyed me more than anything else.

"I am a little bit angry and frustrated.

"I was delighted with players' work rate and attitude."

The Scotland players were equally incensed about the tactics of the Lithuanians and the performance of the referee.

Hutton told BBC Scotland: "Every time we attacked, went forward or did something positive it seemed to be in their mindset to bring us down or break down the play.

"It was frustrating and it was tough but overall we did well.

"At the end of the day we can take a lot of positives out of the game.

"We attacked well and defended well so I think there is a lot to build on for Tuesday night."

Darren Fletcher added: "The whole game was stop-start, there were fouls every minute.

"When we built up momentum or counter-attacked they just looked to foul.

"The referee could have been a little bit stronger in that respect.

"It was a real difficult game. Ideally we would have liked to have won, I think we deserved to win.

"We created the better chances and had the better of the game.

"I thought the performance was good, the only disappointing thing was we didn't get three points."