As Scotland were being put to the sword in the first half in Cardiff, the Sky Sports commentator said that he’d covered a lot of Wales games and this was the best he had ever seen them play. But wait a minute; isn’t it only two months since Scotland made the Norwegians look like world beaters? This is becoming a habit.

Credit to Wales for a cutting-edge performance that will give them new hope. They appear to have some good youngsters coming through. For instance, is there a young Scottish player coming through with the potential of Arsenal’s 18-year-old Aaron Ramsay?

Burley or whoever the coach happens to be, does not have great options available. When the line up was announced I felt Darren Fletcher was the only first choice pick there. The Man United star had a poor game but quite frankly Don Cowie is not an international class player and Naismith and Dorrans have some way to go. I have long sympathised with the lack of quality options available to the Scotland manager. At least with players like Naismith and Dorrans you can see what the plan is in terms of giving them the chance to develop in friendlies.

But Burley has blind faith in Kenny Miller, a striker who probably reached his peak in a Scotland shirt with his performance against Italy at Hampden in 2005. Despite plenty of opportunities, Miller failed to score in the last campaign, and now approaching 30, even clinical performances for Rangers are far too infrequent.

Burley could instead have looked to the future by starting with Steven Fletcher, a player who is currently looking like a better player in the EPL than Miller ever did. Or given a chance to Derek Riordan who often looks more effective in the SPL than the Rangers man.

There was a certain déjà vu about this match in Cardiff. Scotland lost 4-0 there last time in what for me was the last straw in the Vogts’ reign. In this one, Burley lost the benefit of the doubt he had gained at the close of the last campaign. Only a couple of generous decisions by the ref prevented this result from being even worse than Berti's botch up.

Wales were denied a good penalty shout just before half-time. On the box, Davie Provan described this as “a sympathy vote from the ref”. Then early in the second half, keeper David Marshall was very fortunate to only receive a yellow card after rushing from his box and handling outside the area.

Thank heavens Craig Bellamy and a few others weren’t playing. Assessing both squads and the teams they play for, it has to be said that on paper there didn't appear to be much to choose between them today. That suggests to me that this is not down to players but the way they were employed and organised by their respective managers with John Toshack evidently doing a far better job.
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In a post-match interview, Darren Fletcher said Burley and Scotland could recover from this “because it was a friendly”. This argument no longer washes. Wales haven’t a World Cup on the horizon either but on this evidence they have a lot more to look forward to. At the end of the last campaign I said that Burley’s performances must be closely monitored over the next year and that friendlies should count for something as we can’t afford to decide two or three games into the next campaign that he isn’t up to the job.

The recent game in Japan was a write off to an extent because it was effectively a Scotland B team that went out there. This one wasn’t. The report card from the last two games reads played 2 lost 2 for 0 against 5. Add to that the fact a statistic with a longer span: Scotland have failed to score in four consecutive away games for the first time ever. The decision is surely not a difficult one for the SFA. It is time for change and the next coach needs two or three games to bed in before the Euro qualifiers start.