Scotland manager George Burley may drop Rangers keeper Allan McGregor after error

By Roddy Forsyth

The 3-0 defeat by Bert Marwijk's Dutch side in Amsterdam on Saturday night altered the Scots' status in Group 9 – they are now third on goal difference behind Iceland, who moved up the table without playing.

Burley's biggest dilemma is whether to stick with Allan McGregor, the Rangers goalkeeper, who was culpable at the second Dutch goal, or revert to Craig Gordon, the established No1, although the Sunderland goalkeeper cannot command first-team football at his club.

The goal effectively killed the Scots' chances against the Dutch, who were leading 1-0 from Klaas Jan Huntelaar's free header as the game reached the final seconds of first-half injury time.

Robin van Persie was allowed a second unopposed header from a corner kick to double the margin and although the Arsenal forward should have been picked up by Darren Fletcher, there was no intervention by McGregor.

The Rangers man can claim that he was blocked by Dirk Kuyt, who stood in front of him, but it is very difficult to imagine Gordon – even short of full match fitness – permitting himself to be so easily taken out of the equation.

"It was a body-blow, there is no doubt about that," said Burley. "At 1-0 we definitely felt we could get back into it if we put a bit more pressure on further up the park, and we did that in the second half, but two goals was hard to pull back."

Asked if Gordon would come back into the reckoning, he replied: "We will look at everyone in the squad and assess it again."

The problem for Burley is that he has insisted that his players must be in regular action for their clubs, which was his defence when Rangers' Kris Boyd walked out on the international side earlier in the season. On the other hand, the manager now has no margin for error.

As he conceded: "We need to beat Iceland now, we have to win. We've got to win all our home games if we are going to finish second."

Yet in Burley's 14-month reign the Scots have not recorded a victory at Hampden and in four games there, the record stands at three draws and a defeat. In fact, in Burley's eight matches in charge, Scotland have won only once, against Iceland six months ago in Reykjavik.

"Wednesday's will be a different game altogether," said the manager. "I thought we were fairly positive against Holland in going 4-3-3 towards the end and we competed well against them. Holland are a tremendous team, Iceland a different type of side. We have got to press them higher up, put them under pressure and win the match. We need to win the game. We are all aware of that."

It can be virtually taken as read that Alan Hutton – engaging in top level football for the first time after four months of injury when he came on in the 73rd minute in the ArenA – will start in place of Graham Alexander, who was missing at Huntelaar's goal, leaving Gary Caldwell to try to deal with the Real Madrid player and van Persie.

The Scots had a legitimate complaint that Gary Caldwell's header past Maarten Stekelenburg should have counted in the 75th minute. Laurent Duhamel, the French referee, disallowed it, quite wrongly as the TV replays clearly showed, for obstruction by Gary Teale, but such was the Dutch dominance that it is a stretch to believe that a goal even then would have changed the outcome.

So now the Scots must extend their sequence of victories over Iceland to six out of six. They will play with at least two up front and presumably also free Scott Brown from his weekend role as holding player.

"I think three wins and a draw would be enough for us to finish second and get into the play-offs now, with the draw being in Norway, but we've got to earn the right to do it," said Burley. "It is possible."

Match details

Holland (4-2-3-1): Stekelenburg (Ajax); van der Wiel (Ajax), Ooijer (Blackburn Rovers), Mathijsen (Hamburg), van Bronckhorst (Feyenoord); van Bommel (Bayern Munich), de Jong (Manchester City); Kuyt (Liverpool), van Persie (Arsenal), Robben (Real Madrid); Huntelaar (Real Madrid).

Subs: Sneijder (Real Madrid) for Van Persie 65, Afellay (PSV), for Huntelaar 80, Schaars (AZ) for de Jong 80.

Not used: Boulahrouz (Vfb Stuttgart) (g), Braffheid (FC Twente), van der Vaart (Real Madrid), Timmer (Feyenoord).

Goals: Huntelaar 30, Van Persie 45, Kuyt 78 pen.

Booked: de Jong, Huntelaar.

Scotland (4-5-1): McGregor (Rangers); Alexander (Burnley), Caldwell (Celtic), Berra (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Naysmith (Sheffield United); Teale (Derby County), D Fletcher (Manchester United), Ferguson (Rangers), Brown (Celtic), McCormack (Cardiff City); Miller (Rangers).

Subs: S Fletcher (Hibernian) for Miller 71, Hutton (Tottenham) for Alexander 73, Morrison (West Bromwich Albion) for Teale 85.

Not used: Gordon (Sunderland), Barr (Falkirk), Iwelumo (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Rae (Cardiff City).

Referee: Laurent Duhamel (France).

Taken from telegraph.co.uk