PASS MARKS FOR BURLEY AND CO

After exceeding all expectations during their Euro 2008, this was the first chance to see if the Scotland National team could prove that their recent success was no flash in the and that they more than deserved their place inside the World top 20.

But following the resignation of Alex McLeish as National Coach, questions were being asked if Scotland could keep them momentum going under the new management team of new Boss, George Burley and his assistant coaches, former England Skipper, Terry Butcher and Celtic defender, Stephen Pressley.

And they could not have asked for a bigger test in one Europe 's top side, Croatia , who had endeared themselves to the Tartan Army when they ended England 's Euro 2008 hopes last year.

With a crucial old firm game just around the corner, Burley came into his debut without the services of seven key old firm players, including Lee McCulloch, Barry Ferguson, Christian Daily, Barry Robson and also Birmingham's, James McFadden

And with this being Croatia's last game before they headed to Austria/Switzerland, this was going to be a baptism of fire for Burley and also for Hibs, Steve Fletcher who deservedly made the step up from under 21s to join Kenny Miller as a new look attacking threat.

Unfortunately as Scotland had not won a friendly game since 1996, this challenge match did not capture the imagination of the Tartan Army, which less than 30, 000 braving the elements.

And for the first ten minutes it looked as if they were experiencing a time warp to the Berti Vogts era with the Scots struggling to make their mark in the game and soon found themselves a goal down when Niko Kranjcar's strike from the edge of the box, caught Craig Gordon off balance with the ball ending in the back of the net.

Croatia continued to dominate with Scotland having to resort to long balls to Kenny Miller, who was in his traditional role as a sole striker.

And on thirty minutes they tables dramatically turned in the home sides favour, when Steven Fletcher, who had been struggling to adjust to the pace of full international football, delivered a point long pass to Kenny Miller, who turned on the pace to shoot home from a tight angle via a heavy deflection off Josip Simunic.

Gavin Rae, a late call-up to Burley's depleted squad, replaced Steven Fletcher at the start of the second half and immediately caused a scare in front of his own goal, with the ball eventually ricocheting off the Cardiff midfielder and going wide.

Scotland then decided that they best form of defence was attack and tried to push forward and came close when Scott Brown shot wide from 20 yards after a neat change of direction and Miller was cleared away by a defender at the near post for a corner

But Scotland continued to live dangerously when they survived a double scare thanks to the reactions of Gordon and Gary Caldwell.

A deflected long-range strike from Kranjcar was clawed away by the Sunderland keeper and the Celtic defender made an acrobatic challenge to deny Ivica Olic a certain goal, knocking in the loose ball from inside the six-yard box.

With both sides making changes in personnel, visitors continued to look the more dangerous side, with Gordon forced to make another fine save to get a hand to a drilled effort from Parma striker Igor Budan.

But the Scots almost nicked it at the death after a terrific run from from Alan Hutton, who set up his former Rangers team-mate Kris Boyd but the substitute's strike was palmed away by Pletikosa.