GROUP NINE: SHOULD MACEDONIA prove the end game for George Burley, whose fate will be sealed with anything less than a Scotland victory against Macedonia this afternoon, then his 20 months in charge can be surmised by the final preparations for this defining encounter at Hampden Park: a shambles not entirely of the manager's making.

Fewer than 2,000 tickets remained last night for the penultimate game of an arduous campaign but, while the Tartan Army remain behind their team, the leaders of the SFA have manoeuvred behind Burley.

There was barely a mention of Macedonia at Burley’s press conference yesterday thanks to George Peat, the president of the SFA, deriding Scotland’s fall in the world rankings and blaming their predicament on Chris Iwelumo’s infamous miss against Norway last year.

“If a certain individual didn’t miss an open goal,” Peat stated repeatedly 24 hours before Burley spoke, showing contemptuous disregard for the striker and putting his manager in another awkward corner. Were that not enough, he reinforced the views of Gordon Smith, the SFA chief executive, that finishing third in Group Nine will equate to failure.

“Everybody needs to stick together, including the SFA,” said Burley. “It is not one man’s fault, or one player’s fault, or one association’s fault. In Scotland we all have to pull together to develop the game, which has not been developed properly for 25 to 30 years.

“We have not developed enough quality players in that time but the reasons for that, such as society, are for down the road. All that matters now is Macedonia.”

Burley spent Thursday night on the phone to Iwelumo, forewarning the Wolves man of what had been said and assuring the injured striker that he remained in his plans.

Scotland have only beaten and scored against Iceland in this qualifying campaign and Burley appealed for support against Macedonia and Holland, next Wednesday’s final opponents.

“There is no secret formula,” he said. “You just need to keep working at it and get a few breaks. I was a club manager for 15 years, I took teams into Europe . . . Now the most important thing for me is to f*****g win on Saturday.”

Guardian Service