Maloney: Burley was right to drop me but I'm ready now

Published on Friday 5 September 2008 09:54

SHAUN MALONEY had no complaints when he was dropped from the Scotland squad by George Burley – because he knew he did not merit a place in the manager's plans.

The forward found himself out of favour for last month's friendly against Northern Ireland because of his lack of first-team football with Aston Villa. It was a decision that raised a few eyebrows, as Maloney had made a decent contribution to the national team in the past. However, he has earned a prompt recall for the World Cup qualifiers against Macedonia tomorrow and Iceland next Wednesday after only 70 minutes of action upon his return to Celtic. And he would jump at the opportunity to pull on a Scotland jersey again.

"When George first came in, the first game was the Croatia game and I started," he said. "I wasn't playing regularly for my club and my confidence was pretty low, so it was a big boost for him to start me. But to be honest, I didn't do myself much justice in that game.

"From that game I knew I had to start playing regular football or I would find myself out of the squad.

"When it happened again this season, I didn't have any arguments about the manager leaving me out because he had every right to. The recall happened pretty quickly after the first game (for Celtic] so it was a nice surprise. I think I knew it was going to happen at some point."

Maloney suffered disappointment in last weekend's Old Firm derby, when Celtic slumped to a 4-2 defeat by Rangers, but he insists he has no regrets about his return to Parkhead. He added: "The first week was great, the second obviously not so great with the result. I'm still delighted with the move."