Scotland 2 Macedonia 0:George Burley survived to fight another day as Scotland manager as goals from Scott Brown and James McFadden secured a crucial 2-0 victory against Macedonia to keep their World Cup play-off hopes alive.

Pressure had been mounting on Burley since last month's 4-0 thrashing in Norway left the nation's chances of qualifying for next summer's finals in South Africa in the balance and he knew defeat at Hampden could have spelled the end of his tenure.

But the Scots rose to the challenge after a nervous first half had ended goalless when Brown claimed his first international goal after the restart and McFadden ensured the victory late on ahead of another crunch match on Wednesday night against Holland.

Afterwards Burley praised the team and fans for playing their part in a win which kept them in with a shout of qualification for South Africa.

Burley said: "It was a great team performance and that includes everybody - the whole of Scotland, the fans, they really spurred us on.

"Overall I thought the atmosphere was really tremendous.

"Trying to get to the World Cup finals is never easy but they did the country proud today."

It was not all good news for Burley though, as a booking for McFadden means he will be ruled out of Wednesday's game against Group Nine winners Holland, while Brown had to be substituted late on after picking up a knock.

Of McFadden, Burley said: "I don't know what really happened. That was unfortunate, it was something that could have been stopped if the referee had more sense.

"It gives other people opportunities. Shaun Maloney came on and did really well but I thought the passion and commitment from the team and the fans was tremendous."

McFadden was equally nonplussed by the decision, which came after a melee and looked like it might have been harsh on the forward.

He said: "I got booked for kicking the ball out of play. I don't know what I've done, I just went to take the corner.

"It's a shocking decision if you ask me."

He continued: "We've not had the best results or performances in this group and it was about time we had a decent game.

"I keep saying, the manager's been under pressure since he took the job, a lot of bad press, and it was a good result for the manager. This shows we're all together.

Brown admitted he had not expected his near-post header to provide him with his first goal for Scotland.

He said: "I didn't actually know I'd scored, I just flicked it on and hoped for the best.

"We kept the ball well in the second half and we deserved the win."

Brown also added he hoped his ankle would recover in time for Wednesday, saying: "I hope so, we'll see."

Burley said: "He's very key and we think the world of Scott, but it's another three days away so fingers crossed."