GEORGE Burley bemoaned Scotland's bad luck in the wake of this World Cup qualifier, asking serious questions of referee Laurent Duhamel's performance at the Amsterdam Arena.
Maybe it was a device intended to deflect from the comprehensive hiding his team suffered but the Scotland manager was about as unhappy as his mild manner would allow, claiming, rightly, that his team had a goal disallowed for no good reason and sugg
esting also that the Netherlands' second goal should not have stood because of a foul on Allan McGregor.
"I've spoken to six people who have seen our goal on the replay and there was no reason why it should not stood," he said of Gary Caldwell's second-half header. The score at the time was 2-0.
"It was a clear header. Gary didn't foul anybody. Why he (Duhamel] didn't give it is a mystery to everybody who's watched it. We scored a perfectly good goal to put us back in the game but it wasn't allowed. You need referees to make the right decisions."
Burley reckoned the Caldwell goal could have launched a Scotland comeback. "Who knows?" he said, stretching credibility a little too far, it has to be said. He was unhappy, too, at the immediate preamble to Robin van Persie's goal, a routine header from a corner. It was a shockingly soft score to concede but Burley said foul play was involved. "Allan's been blocked a bit for that one," said Burley. "The Dutch players got away with it."
Drawing attention to a supposed interference with his goalkeeper is all fine and well, but Scotland's marking for the first two goals was abject, even allowing for his patched-up back four. Marking is an organisational thing, not an experience thing. For the first, they allowed Klaas-Jan Huntelaar loads of space to punish them and for the second they allowed Van Persie to make his initial run without anybody picking him up. Basic stuff.
"The first one was a free header and that was disappointing and losing a goal on half-time was not ideal," said the manager. "Overall, we limited their opportunities. We conceded the second goal but they didn't drop their heads.
"We always knew it was going to be hard coming here. They're one of the top six teams in the world. We had one or two mistakes but there were good performances out there, there was lots of commitment and endeavour. It didn't happen for us but it wasn't for want of effort. We had a very solid opening 20 minutes and were not overawed."
Iceland now visit Hampden on Wednesday in a game of seismic significance to Scotland's campaign and, to boot, Burley's reputation.
He could shed no light on his walking wounded, the legion of players who withdrew from this qualifier. They'll be assessed at Hampden tomorrow.
"It's going to be massive on Wednesday," said Burley.
By the sound of it, Alan Hutton will not be risked from the start midweek despite making his return to action in the second half at the Arena. Quite what he is doing to do with his strikeforce is unknown. Kenny Miller missed a great chance last night and can't be seen as any kind of solution up front. Better play Ross McCormack up there. At least McCormack is familiar with the concept of scoring a goal, unlike the affable but drastically limited Miller.
For his part, Bert van Marwijk, not one of life's moonbeams, was pretty dismissive of the Scots in the aftermath. Who did he think would finish in second place in the group? "I don't know," he sighed. "It doesn't interest me to be honest."
And did he expect more from Burley's team? "We expected them to be defensive and they did. Maybe in the second half I thought they might try something else, but they didn't."
Burley would argue that they tried hard and got a legitimate goal, but that's neither here nor there at this stage. The whole shooting match sweeps on to Hampden now and the meeting with Iceland.
If the vague hope of qualification is to carry on a while longer then Burley needs a win like he's never needed a win before.
