Ever-hopeful Burley happy to ignore the evidence

Published on Saturday 11 October 2008 23:37

YOU'D excuse the nation if it rolls its eyes this morning at George Burley's pronouncement that all is not lost in the pursuit of World Cup qualification. Burley did his best to be upbeat in the wake of a thoroughly disappointing day at Hampden, spoke of Scotland's prospects in the present tense rather than the past, but you really have to wonder now.

"It's still possible," said the manager. "It can still be done." Of course it can, but it may take wins in Holland and Norway and no more lost points at Hampden. The Tartan Army, in their infinite optimism, are left hoping against hope for the best but surely preparing themselves for the worst.

So much of what Burley said yesterday was odd. He said there were not many chances in the game in the first half when quite clearly there were, virtually all of them falling the way of John Carew. Burley added that his team "did enough in the second half to win the match but we were just not clinical enough" but this completely ignores the amount of chances that Norway had, which out-numbered Scotland's.

In the mind of the manager, Scotland had Norway "on the ropes for long periods" of that second half but, at best, Scotland's period of dominance lasted 20 minutes. After that the Norwegians got themselves right back into it and could have, probably should have, scored two goals in the closing minutes, Steffen Iversen missing the first and Carew failing with the second.

But when Burley mentioned Chris Iwelumo he entered the surreal. "Ninety-nine times out of 100 he'd have scored," he said of Iwelumo's startling second-half blunder. "He should have scored but he's shown that he's a goalscorer. He's got height and strength and he gave Norway problems. He showed he can do well at this level."

Quite how a miss from two yards is proof that Iwelumo is a goalscorer is anybody's guess. Quite what a prolific striker like Kris Boyd made of it all from his spot on the substitute's bench is worth a thought as well. In your wildest imagination you couldn't picture Boyd making a hash of that chance. Your frail granny wouldn't have missed it so there can be little doubt that Boyd would have put it away. Iwelumo has to live with this until March for Scotland are not back on duty until then. You have to feel sorry for him. He comes across as a decent guy but he had a horrific debut.

"We felt that if we got the first goal we'd have gone on and won the game," said Burley. "If Chris had scored I think we'd have won. If we'd scored in that period of the second half, which we completely dominated, then the match would have been won. But qualification is still possible. We said we wanted three points and we haven't got them. The away games are important. We've been to Norway before and we've won. It was always going to be a tight group where anybody can beat anybody else. This is a missed opportunity. You look to win your home games but we gave it everything. We should have finished them off but we can still qualify. There will be twists and turns in the group. Norway have two points, we have four. All is not lost."

Burley, quite rightly, mentioned the need, the absolute necessity, to get something in Holland in March. "We did it in France last time and we'll be battling away right until the end."

From his counterpart, ge Hareide, a different tune. Hareide has been taking some abuse of late for his team's supposedly defensive mindset. More grief followed in the wake of their 2-2 draw at home to Iceland last month. "This is a step forward," he said. Norway play Holland in Oslo on Wednesday night.

"Our defence was good and our chances fell mostly to Carew. It was an OK game for us. We deserved three points here. We had most of the chances overall. In the second half the chances fell both ways but we had most over the 90 minutes. Scotland, obviously, had that open chance (Iwelumo's] but we had great opportunities in the first half and we had two great ones (Iversen and Carew] at the end. The second place spot is going to come down to ourselves, Scotland and Macedonia. We've a good away record so we're in there. Against Iceland we dropped two points but you couldn't say we dropped two points here. One point at Hampden is good. Scotland don't drop too many at home."

They did yesterday and the mood in Hampden was one of mass dejection in the aftermath. Burley is a positive person by nature. He'll comfort himself with the thought that next time his team plays – against the Netherlands away on 28 March – he'll most likely have Barry Ferguson and Alan Hutton in the ranks. That'll be a boost for sure. The cavalry are needed, now more than ever.

• Sports writer Andrew Smith will be online for a live discussion of yesterday's match from noon. Click here to join the debate.