McBURNIE UPBEAT DESPITE WOODWORK WOE

FROM the moment the ball left Oli McBurnie’s head, the striker expected to mark his fourth Scotland cap with his first international goal. On a punishing night for the woodwork in the Azteca Stadium, a golden chance to snatch a draw against World Cup-bound Mexico after half-time smashed off the upright to safety. ‘I caught it well and, as soon as it left my head, I thought it was in,’ said the Swansea striker. ‘I think there is something wrong with the goalposts here. ‘It’s one of those things, on another day it goes in. But it’s gone now, I used to get hung up on it and I used to let these kind of things affect me. ‘As a striker, you are going to get chances, you are going to miss some, too. ‘I was disappointed not to score but I am not going to let it affect me. ‘It just shows that, at international level, these chances are hard to come by. ‘This is only my fourth cap, so I hope I will learn from it.’ Handed the unenviable task of leading the Scotland line with precious little service in the heat and the altitude of one of football’s great temples, McBurnie branded the conditions some of the hardest he had ever played in. A layer of thin cloud cooled the conditions slightly for players and the 72,000 fans before kick-off. Flying in from Peru a mere 24 hours before kick-off on the advice of sports scientists, however, Scotland had little or no time to acclimatise to the thin air. And McBurnie admits many were breathing hard in the warm-up. ‘There was no oxygen on the pitch and, although it wasn’t as hot by kick-off, it was still an extremely tough shift. ‘That’s unlike anything we are used to, but obviously the Mexican boys are used to it. ‘It probably is one of the most difficult games I’ve played in. It’s one of those when, as a striker, you know you are going to have to run yourself into the ground and you might not get as much of the ball as you would like. ‘It’s more about the defensive side and working channels. We just had to adapt as best we could — and I think we did that.’ It became harder still when Giovani dos Santos took advantage of a lapse in concentration from Jack Hendry to slot a composed shot well beyond keeper Jon McLaughlin in the 13th minute. ‘When you lose an early goal, you have to regroup — and the gaffer made sure we were prepared,’ added McBurnie. ‘They had so many chances and we had to dig in. These two games were never going to be easy. ‘I think nine players made their debuts in total. A lot of the boys didn’t know one another, so we had six or seven days to sort that before we played Peru. ‘I am proud of all the boys, we stuck to it.’