James McFadden was the outstanding contributor to Scotland's dramatic, enduring quest to reach Euro 2008. Yet the Birmingham City striker's suffering is likely to be more pronounced than that of his international colleagues this summer.

McFadden earned a £6m transfer to Birmingham City on the back of his Scotland exploits and, specifically, his iconic swipe of the left boot to vanquish the World Cup finalists, France, at the Parc des Princes. Now Scotland's failure to reach the Euro 2008 finals in Austria and Switzerland has been compounded by his club's Barclays Premier League peril.

Alex McLeish has been unable to transmit his international heroism to the increasingly forlorn cause at St Andrews. A late collapse has sent Birmingham on a downward spiral towards the Coca-Cola Championship. They face Blackburn Rovers on the last day of the season on Sunday knowing that victory may not be enough to spare them the costly indignity of relegation. Wins for either resurgent Fulham or teetering Reading would put either - or both - of them out of reach, regardless of Birmingham's result.

The imminent threat of relegation represents a major come-down for Scotland's idol and the country's former coaching team of McLeish, Andy Watson and Roy Aitken. Already the manager has been assured, ominously, by both David Sullivan, the chairman, and Karren Brady, the chief executive, that his job is secure.

Yesterday, as he picked up the Scottish Football Writers' Association/Tennents International Player of the Year award, McFadden pledged to stay at St Andrews even if he is consigned to Championship football next season. The Herald understands a clause is in place to enable McFadden to leave for a set fee in the event of demotion but, having only recently arrived at the club, he declared his faith in McLeish's work in progress.

"There is a good chance we could go down but I only joined in January and I am in no hurry to leave," said McFadden. " The pressure is off us in a way because we are in the bottom three, but we know it is must-win against Blackburn. If we go down, it is not a question of what's going to happen to the manager because, when he was appointed, it was not with a quick fix in mind.

"He will be here regardless and, if we go down, then at least I know that if I am playing every week and scoring goals, it should not make that much of a difference to my international prospects."

The epic final game of Euro 2008 qualification Group B, against Italy at Hampden Park on November 17, now seems a distant memory as a season of relentless domestic drama reaches a thrilling climax north and south of the border. McFadden is convinced that the real sense of disappointment will only emerge when the finals begin at the start of June.

"It is nice to get a personal award but I would gladly swap it to be at the Euro 2008 finals," he said after collecting the inaugural award at Birmingham's training ground. "I am sure we will all be reminded how close we came come the summer when we are stuck watching it on the TV.

"I try not to look back too much but beating France, the World Cup finalists, in Paris and scoring the winner with a good goal is special. I want to look ahead and hopefully provide a few more moments like that myself."

Already, the Everton manager, David Moyes, has publicly acknowledged that selling the maverick McFadden at a crucial stage of the season was a mistake. None the less, the 22-year-old craved regular first-team football after a fitful three years at Goodison Park and his feats for Scotland generated a new-found recognition of his capabilities.

"I really don't know how big the impact of that goal has been but I know that, down here, when I meet people they always say nice things about that goal against France," said McFadden. "I suppose the recognition has increased but to be honest I did not know the impact that goal was going to have. It probably still hasn't sunk in yet.

"It has been great playing for my country in so many high-profile matches and it was a good break from not playing regularly with Everton. I think it definitely helped me because I knew I had something to look forward to, even if I was not involved regularly with my club."

He has since been a mainstay and a resounding success at Birmingham but McLeish's progress has been, perhaps fatally, undermined by defensive ineptitude. It is one of the main curiosities of McLeish's tenure that, having acknowledged a leaky rearguard immediately on his arrival he opted to enhance his striking array with McFadden and Mauro Zarate, while only David Murphy was brought in to galvanise his defence.

A 5-1 thumping at the hands of their Birmingham rivals, Aston Villa, started the panic and, after racing into a 2-0 lead against Liverpool, a 2-2 draw at St Andrews left them with an uphill struggle for survival. Saturday's 2-0 defeat to Fulham at Craven Cottage plunged Birmingham into a full-blown crisis.

"It would be the great escape but, if we go down, we have nobody to blame but ourselves," said McFadden, who has scored four goals in 10 league starts. "We got ourselves into the position, now we have one game left to get out of it.

If we lose we have failed.

"I think in a lot of the games, we have dropped points from good positions. We were 2-0 up against Liverpool and drew 2-2 and that has been a theme of the season. Losing to Aston Villa was a real blow because of the manner of the defeat and I think it set us back. Our home form has been quite good but mistakes have cost us dearly and we now need to produce a big performance on Sunday."

Regardless of where he will be playing his football, McFadden will remain a key component of Scotland's World Cup qualification campaign when it kicks off in September.

"We now have the belief that we can do it and qualify for the World Cup," he said. "We went into the Euro 2008 campaign with no real target of qualifying but now, without getting carried away, we have the belief that we can do it."