Burley buoyed by display

4:37pm Sunday 7th September 2008

Scotland manager George Burley branded his players "outstanding" against Macedonia - despite crashing to defeat in their first World Cup qualifying game.

The Scots left Skopje empty-handed following Ilcho Naumoski's strike after just five minutes proved to be decisive and Srecko Katanec's men held on to claim all three points.

"We are naturally disappointed, losing a goal so early was not what we wanted. We wanted to start strongly and not concede an early goal - but that's what we did," said Burley.

"It took a while to adjust to the conditions but I thought we were outstanding in the second half.

"We had chances and there was definitely a penalty that we didn't get. Macedonia have shown they are a decent team with the results they have had but in the second half we were the better team.

"We dominated and there aren't many teams who will do that here. Overall, in those conditions, the players couldn't have done any more and deserved at least a point."

Scotland now have to pick themselves up for Wednesday's clash in Iceland as they attempt to put some early points on the board.

Burley added: "It's the first game in the campaign and we are very encouraged by the second half.

"We will take that into the Iceland game and hopefully get a positive result. It's going to be a very competitive group.

"It's always going to be tough to qualify for World Cups but we will take a lot of encouragement from the game."

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