CHRIS IWELUMO apologised to his team-mates and the nation last night after taking his unfortunate place alongside Peter van Vossen and Ronny Rosental in the pantheon of great footballing misses just six minutes into his Scotland debut.

Whether or not it ultimately costs Scotland the chance to participate in the World Cup in South Africa in 2010, the 30-year-old Wolves striker will do well indeed if his international career is not to be defined by the moment in the 64th minute against Norway when he passed up an open goal from two yards out from Gary Naysmith's low centre.

Regardless of the fact that Norway had enough chances of their own to merit at least a draw, Iwelumo himself was brave enough to put his own personal turmoil behind him and face the inquisition afterwards, not least from the assorted members of his extended family in attendance at Hampden yesterday. But then it is not easy to hide when you are 6ft 4in tall.

"Coming into the dressing room I apologised to the boys and to be fair they were all fantastic about it," the Coatbridge-born player said. "I think we had most of the play today, we played the better football and we are all disappointed. I had the chance to put one in and it has not happened for me. I was comfortable and confident when the ball came in, just hoping that I wasn't offside. I was more shocked than anyone else that I missed it.

"I just have to take it on the chin and move on. When I have some time to myself it will definitely be in the back of my mind. But it will only make me stronger."

Scotland's next competitive match is the arduous trip to the Netherlands in March, and Iwelumo is hopeful that, shocking miss or not, he did enough in his half hour on the park to merit staying in George Burley's plans. The fact that it was he, rather than Kris Boyd, who got the call, should at least give him partial encouragement on that score.

"Hopefully I did enough in other aspects of the game, like holding on to the ball and making it stick to keep my involvement with the squad, so fingers crossed," he said. "The chance was massive for everyone and it is going to be the talking point, and that is gutting for me.

"Of course the chance takes the limelight away from most things, but George has been in the game long enough to recognise that it is part and parcel of football."

Given the similarities in their stature and appearance, Iwelumo has been rather simplistically referred to as the Scottish John Carew. Although the Aston Villa striker's fantastic overall contribution disabused that notion somewhat yesterday, the Norwegian did have some words of support for Scotland's unfortunate debutant.

He had missed a similar chance playing in the Champions League some years ago, and it hasn't exactly done him much harm. "The ball bounced just in front, and it is a difficult situation for you when it bounces like that, you never know if it is going to go a bit to the left or right or just straight on," Carew said. "I understand the situation and I felt for him, although I was obviously delighted he didn't score. Although I was surprised because normally the ball would go over, not round the side of the goal.

"I haven't missed one that big, although I did miss one almost that big, but it went over. It was about six or seven years ago, for Valencia against Ajax in the Champions League. What has happened to me definitely shows he shouldn't be too disappointed."

Like his team-mate, John Arne Riise, Carew felt the draw had been the "right result".

Iwelumo's introduction - in a double change with Steven Fletcher, who felt he could have had a penalty when grappled by Brede Hangeland in the box - revitalised a flagging Scotland team, but not everyone was happy about it. The withdrawal of James McFadden caused a sporadic booing from the Scotland support, and the Birmingham City striker himself wasn't exactly delighted about it either. He had been feeling a groin problem at half time, but felt like carrying on.

"I was very disappointed coming off but that is the way it goes in football," McFadden said. "The manager is the manager, he makes the decisions. I never signalled to come off. My groin was a bit sore at half time, but I never spoke to the manager about it. I felt fine to carry on, I was a little bit tired but that was all. It was frustrating we never took the chances, not the fact that I wasn't able to take the chances."

Regardless of Iwelumo's miss, McFadden felt Scotland's Group Nine hopes were still alive. "We can still be positive, the group is not finished yet, we need to believe that we can qualify or we would be as well saying we don't want to play the rest of the games and throw the towel in," he said.

The draw means Scotland will probably need to win their five remaining matches, including a double-header against Holland, but McFadden's optimism was echoed by Scott Brown. The Celtic midfielder said: "I wouldn't say it was a great disappointment. In the second half and first 35 minutes of the first half we played excellent; we passed the ball about and had Norway struggling to defend. They had a few chances; we had a few chances and we were unlucky not to score."

McFadden added: "We have to believe that we can go to Holland and win. If we don't think that, we're as well just giving them the points and not turning up."