The greater challenge has become more complex but the immediate aim has at least been simplified. Scotland must win in Iceland to maintain a credible challenge for World Cup qualification.

Defeat to Macedonia on Saturday afternoon has taken George Burley to the brink of his first crisis as national coach. A similarly impotent performance in Reykjavik will almost certainly condemn Scotland to Group 9 also-ran status and extend their hiatus from major championship finals still further. To complicate matters, Wednesday's hosts are buoyed by their plunder in a 2-2 draw against Norway in Oslo.

Saturday was a day of reckoning for Burley after three uninspiring friendly results, against Croatia, Czech Republic and Northern Ireland.

His bold tactical outlook and the promise of pride and passion failed to materialise as Scotland wilted in the unforgiving Macedonian heat.

The energy expended for no reward will exacerbate Burley's limited alternatives to Saturday's starting line-up. Overcoming such adversity is now a prerequisite for preserving the reputation enhanced in an enduring crusade for Euro 2008 qualification.

"It is now a massive game in Iceland," said Darren Fletcher.

"We must go there to win, not just get a result. Although we're disappointed, we can't dwell on that when we go to Iceland. We've got to pick ourselves up and use this in the right way, to get a win."

Idealistic tactics, climate, the referee and, most bizarrely of all, Setanta Sports have all been used to explain the paucity of Scotland's play in Skopje. Already, doubts have been cast over the manager's devotion to a more expansive principle. Temperatures in excess of 90 Fahrenheit did not help Scotland's recovery but it is comical to implicate the subscription channel for dictating the kick-off time.

Ultimately, as Fletcher acknowledged, it is the players who are accountable for placing the country in a state of early peril. "You can't afford to start the group with one point or no points," he said. "We have to win in Iceland because it's a difficult group with not many games if you need to play catch-up."

Fletcher squandered Scotland's best chance of salvaging a draw when he showed a lack of conviction in attempting to reach Gary Naysmith's cross during the belated second-half fightback. With a clamour for Scotland to revert to the inhibited, pragmatic style favoured by Burley's predecessors, Alex McLeish and Walter Smith, Fletcher was adamant it was not tactics but human error that left Scotland unable to recover from Ilcho Naumoski's early goal.

"I think if you look at the game, we were the team in the ascendancy," he said. "I know we gave them the early goal, which gave them something to hold on to, but after that we took the game to them. If we hadn't gone with two up front, we might not have been able to do that.

"Different managers have different styles but we need to progress as a nation - we didn't qualify the last time, remember. Maybe, if we want to qualify, we need to be a bit more adventurous. It is difficult, obviously, and I'm sure different games will call for different tactics. We will possibly go with one up in certain games but this called for two up and, although we didn't get a result, we came on to a decent performance."

The heat was prohibitive but Fletcher consoles himself with the fact Macedonia will be a hazardous away fixture for the other teams in the group, Holland, Iceland and Norway.

"I think teams will drop points here," he said. "That's the only thing we can hope for, although we've no control over that."

In order to revive their World Cup qualification bid, Scotland must discover a route to goal. "Looking at the second half, if we perform like that in the rest of our games, we will win many more games than we lose," said Fletcher. "I looked around the lads in the dressing room and every one of them had given their all.

"We camped in their penalty area the entire second half, and got some good crosses in, but their three big centre- halves liked dealing with that. We just couldn't find that cutting edge."