We should have had a penalty, says Burley

AND FOR his next trick George Burley will attempt to put a positive spin on the worldwide recession and talk up the benefits of global warming and soaring unemployment. Clearly he is qualified.

After his performance in the aftermath of this dispiriting defeat in the oven of Skopje Burley is seemingly capable of arguing anything, no matter how outlandish.

Burley wore a relatively contented face and spoke volumes about his team's second half display, describing it over and over again as "outstanding." The fact that Scotland failed to win a game that many saw as pivotal didn't appear to upset him all that much. He banged on about the upside, the bravery in the heat and the injustice of having what he saw as a clear cut penalty waved away.

That came midway through the second half when James McFadden went down in the penalty area following a challenge from goalkeeper Petar Milosevski. The striker shouted blue murder for a penalty, so much so that he got booked as a result.

"The second half was outstanding," said Burley. "We had all the possession, the chances and we had a definite penalty that we didn't get. We deserved at least a draw but referees don't get every decision right. He (Pavel Kralovec] got our penalty decision wrong. Sometimes you just don't get what you deserve and we deserved a point. I'm very encouraged with the second half. We deserved something because we dominated it in the second half and we weren't meant to do that."

Perhaps McFadden did indeed deserve a penalty but to say Scotland earned a point out of this encounter was stretching things too far and for Burley to be so upbeat was quite obviously ridiculous. They must, simply must, beat Iceland on Wednesday night. Already, after just one game, Scotland are scrambling for survival.

Macedonia earned their three points. Burley talked about a penalty decision that was turned down but his counterpart, Srecko Katanec, could do the same. In fact, Katanec could list quite a number of goal scoring opportunities that Macedonia spurned whereas Burley could really only point to one or two. Unquestionably the hosts had the better chances, something their manager took no time in pointing out later on. "Our win is clear," he said. "We were the much better team in the first half. We had a clear penalty at 1-0. The referee, for me, was not the same for my team as he was for the Scottish team."

Asked about his players' propensity to collapse in a heap at the slightest contact, Katanec took umbrage. "I don't like to talk about referees any more," he said before adding some critical words for the Scots. "When a player (meaning one of his players] gets a kick, it's difficult to stay calm. Look and you will see a minimum of seven to eight fouls against our players in areas where we can strike at goal, right from the first minute."

Katanec also denied an allegation of Macedonian chicanery in terms of the kick-off time scheduled for 3pm local time, in the burning heat. "We would have preferred to play at 8.30 at night," he said. "Sky TV is at fault because we have to play now. I wanted to play the game in the evening."

Burley did, at least, concede that his players were slow out of the box, accepting that they gave their opponents far too much room to manoeuvre in that awful opening half. But he didn't dwell on the negative. Of course, that is his prerogative. You might say that it is essential, given the scale of the job ahead in Iceland, but asking the nation to buy his arguments is a little hopeful. "When you concede an early goal like that it knocks you back, it gives Macedonia a lift but we fought back in the second half. We took a step forward and that was encouraging. The decisions didn't go for us. What do you do? You keep battling away. Sometimes you don't always get the breaks."

It wasn't about the breaks, it was about the justice and Scotland got what they deserved. Their qualifying bid will now rise or fall based on what happens on Wednesday.