Caldwell: We beat Iceland for boss

Players back manager

By Sean Wallace

Published:

DEFENDER Gary Caldwell today revealed Scotland were desperate to beat Iceland to prove George Burley is the man to lead the nation to the World Cup finals.

He reckons mounting criticism of their gaffer, and speculation Burley had lost the dressing room, fired up the Scots to grab their first points of the campaign.

Now that Scotland are off the mark after the 2-1 win in Iceland, Caldwell has backed them to qualify for the first championships in more than 10 years.

He said: “That win proved George Burley is the right man to lead this Scotland squad in the qualifying campaign, and to the World Cup finals.

“Some of the criticism he received was ridiculous, but the reaction of the players proved just how much we are behind the manager.

“There is a great camaraderie within the squad, and with a young team it is looking good for the future under George.

“From the first minute to the final whistle, every single player gave everything they had and battled hard for the cause – and that is down to the manager.

“We know we are good enough to qualify for the finals and getting our first win is a tremendous boost.

“We are off the mark now and can definitely qualify for South Africa.”

With Scotland moving off the foot of Group Nine, the Hoops stopper is already looking forward to next month’s Hampden showdown against Norway.

Now confidence is sky high after dispatching the Icelanders, Caldwell is looking for nothing less than three points against Norway to pile pressure on their rivals.

“Despite all the criticism, we have taken three points from two tough away games,” he said.

“Ideally we wanted four so we are a point down, but it still makes for a decent start.

“Those difficult away trips are behind us now and we have a few games at Hampden to look forward to where we are very strong.

“If we can beat Norway at home next month that would put us in a fantastic position for the trip to Holland next year.’’

Caldwell will have to anchor the defence against Norway with a new centre-back partnership after Stephen McManus was red carded for hand-ball.

McManus will be suspended for the next World Cup qualifier.

But Caldwell insists they have enough cover to more than compensate for the loss of the stand-in skipper.

“We deserved to be two goals up and looked good for the win until the sending off,” he said.

“That changed the game and we were up against it for the last 10 minutes.

“Stephen handled, and it was a fantastic ball in which is difficult to defend.

“It is disappointing that he will miss the next game but we have a strong squad who can do a job.”