Scotland keeper Craig Gordon claims the depth of talent available to George Burley should give the national coach grounds for great optimism.Gordon was encouraged by the 1-1 friendly draw with Croatia, as Kenny Miller cancelled out Nico Krancjar's early opener at Hampden.

The Sunderland shot-stopper kept Croatia out in the second half as Burley began his reign as manager with a decent result against the Euro 2008-bound visitors.

Seven injured players pulled out of the Scotland squad two days before the game, but Gordon won his 30th cap against Slaven Bilic's side and believes Scotland now have suitable cover in the event of what might previously have been considered a selection crisis.

The likes of Steven Fletcher, Gavin Rae and Shaun Maloney played their part, and Gordon said: "I think this was a good start. The new manager has only had a few days to work with the lads, but he is already definitely trying to get his points across.

"We had a young side out there and it worked well for us as we came away with a very credible result against a good team.

"Our line-up was very young and inexperienced for an international team, so to put in a show like that must be very pleasing for all the coaching staff.

"Now we're starting to show that there's a little bit of strength in depth developing, and we'll definitely need that as it's going to be a long campaign over two years to qualify for the World Cup."

Scotland will face Holland, Norway, FYR Macedonia and Iceland in their qualifying group for the 2010 finals.

Gordon, 25, said: "It's going to be a difficult one as there are a lot of good quality sides in our group, and we'll have to continue the progression that we've been making to look towards the finals at the end of it.

"We had success under the previous regimes so there isn't a lot to change; it's a continuation process and the new manager will add one or two things in as we go along.

"I was quite pleased with the way I played - I knew Croatia would be dangerous as they're a quality team and perhaps I would have to pull out a few saves, but the lads did well, put in a good performance to get a goal on the break, and to defend as well as we did was pleasing."

Midfield team-mate Paul Hartley was delighted to be reunited at national level with his former manager at Hearts.

And Hartley, now at Celtic, revealed the squad were in a positive mood after their first match assignment under Burley.

He said: "The manager is trying to stamp his own ideas on the side and get us to play in a certain way.

"I already know his qualities and what he can bring to the team, and training under him this week has been excellent and we've enjoyed it.

"It was a tough game against quality opposition; Croatia have qualified for the European Championship and beat England twice on the way so we knew we would be in for a tough match, but considering it was the manager's first game, we're very pleased with the result."

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