Chris Coleman's team came from a goal down to win the fiercely-contested qualifier, but the post-match reaction centered around Wales' equaliser from the penalty spot.
Shaun Maloney cleared the Spurs man of taking a dive and apologised to his Scottish team-mates for his challenge which all but ends Craig Levein's hopes of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup.
"The penalty decision swung the game in their favour and I feel awful about that. I think there might have been a bit of contact, to be fair to Bale," he told The Daily Record.
“It wasn’t a challenge as such, he just ran across me and part of his legs touched mine. I don’t think he dived. It was just a coming together.
“I haven’t seen it again but I have to be honest – my gut feeling was that he didn’t dive. I’m pretty sure I didn't put a challenge in but I think there was some contact.
“It happened numerous times in the game. I tried to track back and help Danny Fox, as that was my job on the night. It’s just unfortunate that this one time he got in front of me and when he ran across me he ended up winning the penalty.
“I can only apologise to my team-mates. It’s just one of these things that can happen in a match. But it’s devastating after the effort that everyone put in and it’s something I’m going to regret for a very long time.”
Wales manager Chris Coleman also came out in defence of his star player, who he believes has wrongly picked up a reputation for diving.
He told reporters: "Don't get me wrong, I don't like to see anybody diving. The finger has been pointed at Gareth once or twice but I don't think he dived tonight. I thought he was running at great pace in the box.
"And watch the expression on Maloney's face because he knows there's been a little bit of contact. There's no reason for Gareth to go down because he's either going to square it or shoot, so I don't think there's a question of that [diving] tonight."
