George Burley could be found greeting the fans of Northern Ireland ahead of his Scotland side's friendly with their British neighbours in Glasgow tonight. The national coach will hope to find himself on a similar excursion at the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa. Scotland have not attended the finals of a major tournament since France in 1998. It has been a pretty gruesome wait when one reflects on a record that allowed the Scots to escape to a World Cup finals every four years between 1974 until 1990.
The qualifying campaign for Euro 2008 gave Scotland great heart in home and away wins over France, and a home success over the Ukraine. A win over Italy in their final match would have sealed a finals spot, but they lost 2-1. The Celtic midfielder Barry Robson is mindful of such a poor recent qualifying record, but is optimistic Scotland can reach the finals from a group that contains Holland, Iceland and Norway. "We want to generate the same [results] again, and hopefully go that step further," said Robson.
Scotland open their campaign on Sept 6 in Macedonia, while Northern Ireland visit Slovakia. @Email:dkane@thenational.ae
