Hard day’s night ahead for Scots by Glen Gibbons

Bosko Balaban rises above Dominic Matteo Neil McCann tussles with Croatia's Stjepan Tomas Mario Stanic spent a lot of time on the floor Tudor grabs Gary Naysmith Neil McCann puts pressure on Stipe Pletikosa but could not find a way through   Craig Burley couldn't break the stalemate as Croatia battled for a point Scott Booth comes close Lambert tumbles over Igor Tudor | Stjepan Tomas tackles Craig Burley

Disappointment is nourished by a series of memorable moments, the recollection of each might-have-been prolonging and deepening the misery. It is a curious form of simultaneously grieving and consoling at which followers of football are expert.

Those who accompany Scotland’s national team through the ordeal of qualifying for the finals of major championships may not be any more accomplished in this field, but they will certainly have had more practice.

More than five months after the agonising 2-2 draw with Belgium at Hampden in the latest expedition, Barry Ferguson’s missed sitter when the Scots were 2-0 ahead - the conversion of which would have virtually guaranteed victory - was still being recalled as the instant in which the prospects of reaching Japan and Korea next summer may have collapsed.

There was more fuel to be drawn from this outing against Croatia and it will comfort no member of the Tartan Army to be reminded that, in the pursuit of reasoned analysis, it is impossible to deny that the visiting support could, without argument, dwell on at least as many near things as the Scots. In these circumstances, hindsight is equipped with an eye patch.

The way matches unfold is also likely to cause the memory to become selective, play in the later stages often obliterating the image of what went before. This was a classic example, Croatia having appeared unbridgeably superior for the first 35 minutes before being frustrated and, ultimately, discouraged by the spirit, commitment and, most significantly, the re-organisation of the Scots.

During that first third of the game, when Neil Sullivan made vital saves from Mario Stanic and Zvonimir Soldo and, close to the interval, Bosko Balaban zipped away from the stumbling Matt Elliott and pulled his 12-yards shot wide, those fans wearing the red-and-white chequered shirts would be doing all the lamenting.

With Robert Prosinecki and Soldo, complemented by Stjepan Tomas and Boris Zivkovic, in control of midfield and Robert Jarni marauding on the left and delivering crosses which would have liquefied a vampire, the dread of embarrassment must have infiltrated the thoughts of every Scot in the ground.

Apart from opponents with superior technique, Scotland’s main problem derived from being outnumbered in central midfield, where Paul Lambert and Craig Burley were, in the words of Burley himself, "pulled all over the place." It was when Dominic Matteo moved forward from defence as reinforcement that the home side started first to contain and then to assert.

It said much for their character - and for their own skill - that they were able to effect the change in fortunes so emphatically that the home support would leave Hampden Park at the finish reminiscing on the chances that could have won the match and made automatic qualification for the World Cup probable rather than long odds-against.

The first of these was, understandably, missed by the Slovakian referee, Lubos Michel, who had followed the play out of the Croatian penalty area when Robert Kovac deliberately forearmed Scott Booth in the face, leaving the Twente Enschede striker with temporarily impaired vision in his left eye.

On another day, the Scots might have been blessed with a linesman who habitually keeps watching the events in the penalty box after the ball has gone.

Such vigilance has often enough in the past yielded the penalty kick and the red card which have mystified watchers from the stands until TV replays confirm the official’s good work.

Television on this occasion revealed that Kovac was guilty of deliberate delinquency. It also highlighted the correctness of the decision by the other linesman, Martin Balko, to disallow Billy Dodds’s goals close to the finish. Once again, there have been days when the man with the flag has been deceived by the quickness of the action by the little Rangers striker to flick the low, driven centre from Burley high past Stipe Pletikosa.

This moment of danger, like the one when Matteo broke into clear space on the left with Dodds and Don Hutchison inside him and curled the low pass too early - allowing Igor Tudor to stretch out a foot and concede the corner - came from the Scots’ ever-deepening self-belief and their ability to switch from defence to attack as quickly and as effectively as the Croatians had done earlier.

It was a change in tactics and execution which Burley insisted should have been achieved much earlier, the Derby midfielder obviously still irked by the early inefficiency and regretting what he obviously considered to be a lost opportunity.

"I know a draw was probably fair on the day," he said, "but we really wanted to win that one and thought we could.

"It’s fair enough us having a go by playing three in attack [Hutchison, Booth and Neil McCann], but it was obvious early on that it wasn’t working. They had the extra man in midfield and Paul and I were pulled all over the place. We couldn’t get to them, couldn’t put any kind of pressure on them until we changed things.

"It was very frustrating at the finish, although not as bad as when we allowed Belgium to draw after we led by two goals. That day, we threw the victory away; today, we just didn’t do quite enough to win."

Burley, like the rest of the players and the manager himself, is unlikely to dwell as long as supporters on self-sympathy, readying himself for a match against Belgium on Wednesday whose result could yet make the Scots odds-on for second place (a draw) and even favourites to finish first (a victory).

"Belgium may not have as many talented players as Croatia," said Burley, "but I wouldn’t say that makes them not as good a team. Like ourselves, they have other strengths and they’ll be at home, so it will be another hard game for us."

Nobody who has followed this Scotland team since the last-minute victory over Latvia in Riga on day one would expect anything less.