Burley: Beat Moldova or it's all over

Craig Burley believes the Scottish Football Association must move to axe manager Berti Vogts if the German’s team come up short against Moldova on Wednesday.

With the Tartan Army becoming increasingly despondent about Scotland’s chances of qualifying for the 2006 World Cup, after just one point from their opening two games, the match against the Moldovans has taken on enormous significance.

Burley, capped 46 times by Scotland, has been disheartened by a series of poor results and performances under Vogts, the latest of which was Saturday’s 1-0 defeat by Norway at Hampden Park.

Vogts is desperate to lead Scotland to the next World Cup, not least because it is being staged in his native Germany.

But Burley is pessimistic about whether that might happen.

“I think if we lose on Wednesday then it’s not possible for him to survive, unless the SFA bottle everything up and don’t make a decision,” he added.

“Even it they win the game, I think it’ll be a long slow process for Berti eventually to lose his job, because there’s such a media backlash against him that it’s inevitable.”