JAMES McFadden has assured the Tartan Army his partnership with Kenny Miller will click soon after Scotland suffered an early setback in their quest to qualify for the World Cup in South Africa.
The duo have featured together just twice since George Burley became national team manager, with their first outing ending in the goalless draw against Northern Ireland at Hampden last month. However, Saturday's World Cup qualifier in scorching Mac
edonia also saw the duo draw a blank.
Next up is Wednesday night's visit to Iceland and McFadden insisted: "The goals will come. I enjoyed playing alongside Kenny, even though the conditions were difficult and we couldn't link as much. Hopefully, it will click soon and we will start scoring goals."
McFadden admits Scotland are under pressure already and that nothing less than a victory in Reykjavik will do.
"It will probably be too cold for us in Iceland!" joked the Birmingham striker. "It will give us the chance to play our own game and not have to worry about the conditions. If that had been the case in Macedonia then we would have won the game. But we didn't and we just have to march on to Iceland and try to keep positive.
"We just need to win the next seven games. It was very disappointing in Macedonia. I think we deserved to take something from the game. Now we have to pick ourselves up for Iceland.
"We created chances in the second half and, despite the heat, we kept going and never gave up. We were right in it until the end."
As far as McFadden is concerned, two factors prevented the Scots from returning from Skopje with at least a point – the referee and the stifling conditions.
"It was difficult – you are more used to that type of heat on a sunbed," he said.
"But it was the same for them and we managed to keep going, tried to pass the ball and create chances. It was hot and you couldn't keep running about, you had to get a breather and then get back in.
"As soon as you started running, it was hard to breath and hard to swallow, it was burning your throat. The conditions were difficult and it was maybe deliberate to play the game at that time of day.
"It shouldn't have happened but it did and there are no excuses.
"Maybe on a cooler day, it would have been an easier game for us and definitely a different result."
McFadden felt he was denied a "stonewall" penalty when tripped by goalkeeper Petar Milosevski in the second half on a day where both nations were unhappy with the decisions made by inexperienced referee Pavel Kralovec.
"It was a penalty," McFadden insisted. "It was a stonewaller and you expect at this level for those decisions to be given. But it wasn't and the show must go on."
The full article contains 492 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
