Miller time as super Scots back in the hunt for play-off place

Norway 1 Scotland 2

And Scotland manager Walter Smith has called on his players for one last push in their bid to claim a World Cup play-off place next month.

Miller's first-half brace moved the Scots to within two points of the second-placed Group Five side.

Norwegian substitute Ole Martin Arst hit a late consolation, but Scotland held on for a 2-1 win to keep their hopes of a place at the finals in Germany next summer alive.

Scotland now have two games against Belarus at Hampden Park and in Slovenia next month to claim a play-off berth, which was considered unlikely when Smith took over in December. But the former Everton and Rangers boss has challenged his players to build on the momentum of the win at the Ullevaal Stadium.

"This has brought us a real focus now. We wanted to get back in contention and now we have done that.

"But we have to put pressure on the teams above us in the last two matches in the competition. I am delighted to get into that position, but I was looking at the performance more than the anything else," Smith said.

"It is going to be extremely difficult to get the play-off place, but we can do it. We just have to put pressure on them now. We are in a better position than what we were earlier this week and we must not throw this chance away."

Smith hailed the commitment of his players which has placed them back in contention for a possible place in Germany next summer.

"People may look at the team and say we might not have a lot of things, but we certainly don't lack commitment. We can take confidence from that. We started slowly in terms of possession, but, after 30 minutes, we started picking the ball up and frustrating Norway."

Arst gave the home side an 89th-minute consolation but Smith was delighted with the performance of his defence.

"We had to work very hard to get the win because Norway are a very difficult side to play against. They put us under a lot of pressure physically and we had to handle that, which we did very well," he said.

"We didn't give them many opportunities to score and I was delighted to get a couple ourselves.

"They put us under an awful lot of pressure, but we handled everything they threw at us."

Miller would have been celebrating a hat-trick had his shot not deflected off Andre Bergdolmo before the Wolves forward had to leave the field with a hip injury.

Smith said: "I thought Kenny Miller might have had a hat-trick when he had that opportunity, but he was injured."

But Norway coach Aage Hareide insists his side are still in control of their own destiny, although he struggled to explain his team's poor display.

"It was disastrous. Scotland never got near our goal," he said.

"But they scored twice, which is a concern, but we are still favourites to finish second."

NORWAY: Myhre, Bergdolmo, Riseth, Lundekvam, Riise, Solli, Andresen, Grindheim, Valencia, Carew, Ostenstad.

SCOTLAND: Gordon, Alexander, Weir, Pressley, Webster, Fletcher, Ferguson, McNamara, McFadden, Hartley, Miller.

Referee: Alain Hamer (Luxembourg)