THIS was a match that was meant to allow George Burley to purr about the options available to him ahead of the next European Championship qualifying campaign
In the end, however, it saw the choices reduced to just one, after the travelling fans turned en masse on the Scotland manager and a pledge of support for Burley from Gordon Smith was conspicuous by its absence.
It was an insignificant game which turned into something quite significant although, remarkably, it could have been worse for Burley.
As it is, the Scottish Football Association will hold a board meeting this midweek to discuss the best course of action. It seems likely that Burley's time as manager will be brought to an end, although no official comment was being issued yesterday.
Had the scale of defeat increased to four or possibly five goals on Saturday, his position would surely have been immediately untenable. The stasis of the second-half in Cardiff on Saturday, when Wales sat on their 3-0 lead and Scotland failed to make any impact on it, meant the loss was not tolerable, but not quite utterly devastating. Berti Vogts, after all, survived a 4-0 shaming in Cardiff five years ago. But that was with an experimental defence made up by the likes of Paul Ritchie. Saturday's back four included Stephen McManus and Gary Caldwell, a pair of players long lauded by Burley, and who he wished to place at the fulcrum of his 'new' Scotland.
The manner of this defeat, and the fact it slid so quickly towards dispiriting failure, leaves Burley stricken.
The manager had issued an up-beat battle-cry on Friday, on the eve of the Welsh fixture. The European Championship qualifiers start here, he thundered. It is just as well they don't, following this merry skip towards victory by a fresh-faced Wales team. Woundingly, tea and sympathy was again offered by the Welsh hosts, who could not have anticipated another romp against Scotland.
This was not Burley's first team, clearly. Injuries to Craig Gordon and Scott Brown meant that it couldn't be. But it was a near approximation of it. The defence which was ripped apart almost at will by the rampant home team was as close to full-strength as any department, and included three players who have the right to regard themselves as first-choice. Danny Fox, at left-back, was brought in with a clear view to solving Scotland's problem position. Burley has been perhaps foolishly insistent that his favoured pairing at centre-half are McManus and Caldwell. This is despite other options being at hand, including Rangers' David Weir. No-one is saying he might have made a difference here, but the performance of Caldwell and McManus surely means they can no longer count themselves as automatic picks – for Burley, or anyone else. The latter, in particular, looks to be currently shot, and needs to be revitalised for both club and country.
Burley has even less room for manoeuvre than he did at the conclusion of the recent World Cup qualifying campaign, the last time he was left at such a crossroads. Goodwill had been engendered by Scotland's performances in their final two matches, against the Netherlands and FYR Macedonia. Consequently, Burley was handed another chance. But, following two more friendlies where Scotland have looked abject, his approval rating has drastically subsided. It has long passed the point of the Tartan Army sinking towards indifference. A good 4,000 of them travelled to watch Scotland on Saturday, and even the most reasonable of them had seemed to acknowledge the futility of this project. Perhaps they did not lend their own voice to the chants which urged Burley to go, but they did not disagree with the sentiment.
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Of course, it was not only Burley in the fans' sights. Gordon Smith spent an uncomfortable afternoon sitting among his Welsh FA counterparts as his name was abused too. He, along with SFA president George Peat, will now have a decision to make. Both were known to be downbeat yesterday, though making no statements – not even off the record.
They will be alert to the lessons of history, and the consequence of Vogts being left to limp on after Scotland fell by four goals in their last visit to Cardiff. Scotland embarked on an ill-fated World Cup qualifying programme, during which Vogts was finally removed. But by then it was too late. The damage had been done by results such as a 1-1 draw in Moldova, and another major finals passed without Scotland's involvement. The feeling among the fans on Saturday was that such inertia must be avoided. At a time of crisis, impatience should gain the upper-hand. The SFA must depart from a tradition of soft speech and restraint.
The personal toll of all this on Burley must be acknowledged. It was painful enough just observing his struggles on Saturday, and as he attempted to effect a difference with a raft of second-half substitutes. He refused to hide later, and sought to answer all the questions on his future as well as he could. He knew it was up for debate, he confessed. He even conceded that it probably should be.
He had stood by his dug-out and surveyed the disorder on the pitch, his afternoon sound-tracked by the barracking from the visiting fans. Burley himself, despite repeated comments about how much he loves the job, must have an endurance threshold. The Tartan Army certainly do. Sad to report, but it arrived on a bleak November afternoon two days ago.
BURLEY'S RECORD• 26 March 2008: 1-1 v Croatia (h)
• 30 May 2008: 1-3 v Czech Republic (a)
• 20 August 2008: 0-0 v Northern Ireland (h)
• 6 September 2008: 0-1 v Macedonia (a)
• 10 September 2008: 2-1 v Iceland (a)
• 11 October 2008: 0-0 v Norway (h)
• 19 November 2008: 0-1 v Argentina (h)
• 28 March 2009: 0-3 v Holland (a)
• 1 April 2009: 2-1 v Iceland (h)
• 12 August 2009: 0-4 v Norway (a)
• 5 September 2009: 2-0 v Macedonia (h)
• 9 Sept 2009: 0-1 v Holland (h)
• 10 October 2009: 0-2 v Japan (a)
• 14 November 2009: 0-3 v Wales (a)
