GEORGE Burley had planned Scotland's match against Northern Ireland tomorrow as a full dress rehearsal for the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers, but a sizeable number of leading members of the cast has gone missing. Of the five players who failed to turn up at the squad's Loch Lomond headquarters, four would almost certainly have been first choices, leaving the manager to issue an emergency call for understudies.
The absence of Kevin McNaughton and Callum Davidson denies Burley both his starting full-backs, while Gary Caldwell and Paul Hartley would have been automatic selections in central defence and midfield respectively. The fifth defector, Gavin Rae, wou
ld most probably have been on the bench.
It is a measure of the damage done by the withdrawals that Burley had to recall David Weir and Graham Alexander, the two veteran defenders whose international careers had appeared to have been terminated with the announcement of the original 24-man group last week. The summons of the Hearts midfielder, Michael Stewart, is not a surprise, Burley having earlier named him as a player likely to be given an opportunity at some time. Stewart has already made three Scotland appearances, as a Manchester United player, back in 2002.
The upheaval gives the exercise against the Irish at Hampden more of an experimental look than Burley would have liked. He had already spoken of fielding a side that would be as close as possible to the one he would visualise for the opening World Cup qualifier against Macedonia in Skopje next month.
Now, with three-quarters of his probable back four and two experienced midfielders pulled out, some unwanted re-shuffling will be required. Like every other manager, Burley will doubtless try to reduce the severity of the blow by arguing that absenteeism gives others an opportunity.
That proposition, of course, goes rather flat when applied to Weir and Alexander – 38 and almost 37 respectively – but it is certainly relevant in the case of Barry Robson, the Celtic midfielder who is expected to win his third cap. Robson made his debut as a substitute under Alex McLeish against South Africa a year ago, but Burley gave him his first start against the Czech Republic at the end of last season.
With his 30th birthday just three months off, Robson is clearly a late developer in terms of the international game, but he considers this an irrelevance. He takes the view that, whether he had made two or two hundred appearances in the dark blue shirt, he would never consider himself an established first choice.
"I have no disappointments whatsoever about coming into the international game at this stage of my career," said Robson. "Late or not, any time you make the Scotland squad is a good time. I didn't manage to push my way in when Alex McLeish was in charge because the team was doing so well. That's quite understandable.
"And even if I had, and won a bundle of caps, I would never consider myself an established first pick. You can't do that with the national team or with your club. Every game you play is another trial, another opportunity to prove you belong there.
"If you're playing with a very good team, such as Celtic and Scotland, it's obvious you're going to be surrounded by good players, all competing for places. It's a question of doing enough to get in in the first place and treating every match thereafter as if your future depended on it, which it does. You can't ever take your selection for granted."
Having watched the Scots' narrow failure to reach Euro 2008, Robson, a natural optimist, believes the squad is capable of reaching South Africa in two years' time, particularly if they can avoid the "flaw" that he believes was most damaging to the European campaign.
"Sure, you can look at previous experiences and look to repeat the good things you did and try to avoid the not so good," he said. "But, looking back, I think our only drawback was that we were extremely unlucky. We did very well as a squad, and some of the performances and results were unbelievable. I think if we can avoid bad luck, we'll have a good chance in the World Cup qualifying. We are organised and we have some very good players."
The extent of Burley's experimenting will not be known until tomorrow night, but the appearance at some stage of Darren Barr, the young Falkirk captain, in central defence will not be a total surprise. Included in the original squad and playing for a club not regularly associated with providing for the national team – the late John White almost 50 years ago their last representative – Barr is clearly held in some regard by the manager.
His rise to prominence is the more remarkable for the unlikelihood of his turning into a central defender, a role with which he was quite unfamiliar until a couple of years ago.
"I suppose the manager is taking a bit of a chance with me," said the self-effacing Barr. "I had been playing in midfield when I was asked to fill in at centre-half when somebody got injured. So I'm still learning to be a defender, although I suppose you'll do that throughout your career.
"For me, though, it's good that somebody like Jackie McNamara has come to Falkirk. You can learn a lot from him and, of course, the manager, John Hughes, has also been a massive influence. And I'm absolutely certain that I'll learn plenty just being part of the national squad."
The full article contains 939 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
