| Billy Stark was full of praise for his Under 21 team that secured a dramatic injury-time winner against Belarus in their European Championship qualifier at St Mirren Park yesterday. Most praise was heaped on Jamie Murphy after he scored the winning goal in the second minute of added time. Stark's charges appeared to be running out of time to get something for their efforts when Murphy burrowed his way in to the right-hand side of the opposition box. He looked to have run out of space but fired in from a tight angle for the three points which left the Scots just behind Group 10 leaders Austria only on goal difference with nine points from four games. National team manager Stark said: "James has a very rare ability. If you have seen our games, he is wiry and deceptive in the way he moves. I've seen him do that so often, showing the ball to an opponent and then he gets the other side of him and along the by-line. I didn't think the defender did much wrong but Jamie had that quickness and it was down to the quality of the finish. But if we had not scored we would still have been praising the players to the hilt. We kept running all day and deserved the goal." Things did not all go Scotland's way as they picked up four bookings along the way. Stark was confused at the booking of Chris Maguire and David Goodwillie by Bosnian referee Rusmir Mrkovic. Maguire was shown his card in the eighth minute for a spat with Belarus skipper Mihail Sivakou, with Goodwillie later picking up a yellow card for kicking the ball away. This means that the Dundee United striker misses the next qualifier in Azerbaijan in November after being booked in a previous game in Albania. Stark said: "We had four bookings and they baffled me. Chris actually went over to pick the guy up and he reacted badly and so he gets booked for nothing. David, a striker, is through and it's very difficult to flick a switch and stop and he gets booked for that. I think that affects us for the next game and that is galling." Murphy was almost speechless with delight at his late winner after he came on as a substitute. By scoring the goal, the Motherwell striker's - on for David Gray in the 67th minute - managed to avoid the wrath of team-mate Barry Bannan, who was waiting for a cut-back. He said: "I still can't put into words how that felt at the end. It was unbelievable - but Barry said if I hadn't scored he would have killed me. The manager said I was unlucky not to start and if I did come on I would take my chance, and I think I did that. I think I played well apart from the goal." Kevin McDonald was relieved to see Murphy taking the pressure off him with the late winner. Fingers would have been pointed at him for missing a first-half sitter when he headed Maguire's cross past the post from around six yards. The Burnley midfielder said: "It was a bad miss, I know that myself. The ball hit off the wrong side of my head. It's all a learning curve for me but I had faith in the rest of the team to score at one point. I knew we would have another chance. I heard Austria scored twice late on against Azerbaijan today so we aren't lucky, it's part of football." | |
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