Scotland Face North Macedonia 25 Minutes From a Record

Scotland will sit 25 minutes from a 55-year scoring record when they face North Macedonia in Skopje on Saturday. Sebastien Pocognoli takes one point, no goals and an early red-card hangover into the Nacionalna Arena Toše Proeski at 19:45 BST.

The Belgian was hired to make this side more attacking. He now meets a home team that has gone even longer without a goal, in a group already split between the sides that can score and the sides that cannot.

Scotland Are 25 Minutes From the Record

The clock started in Boston on 13 June, when John McGinn’s deflected shot in the 28th minute beat Haiti. Morocco and Brazil then kept Scotland out at the World Cup. Slovenia and Switzerland have done the same in the Nations League. That is four full games plus the rest of the Haiti night, a run of 422 minutes.

The old mark is 447 minutes, set in 1970-71 between John O’Hare’s 14th-minute winner against Denmark and Hugh Curran’s 11th-minute strike in a 3-1 defeat by England at Wembley. If Scotland do not score inside the first 25 minutes in Skopje, they go past it.

THE BARREN RUN

• The clock: 422 minutes since McGinn’s 28th-minute strike against Haiti in Boston.
• The record: 447 minutes without a goal in 1970-71, from O’Hare against Denmark to Curran at Wembley.
• The margin: 25 minutes in Skopje before Scotland own the longer blank.
• The other blank: North Macedonia have now gone 607 minutes and six games without scoring.

Pocognoli has told his players not to live in that history. The arithmetic will still be on the scoreboard if the first chance is delayed. McGinn, the last man to score, is on 91 caps after Tuesday, level with Jim Leighton, and a start on Saturday would move him alone into third on the all-time list.

North Macedonia’s Drought Runs Even Longer

Goce Sedloski’s side sit bottom of Group B1 with no points and no goals. They lost 3-0 at home to Switzerland on 26 September and 2-0 in Slovenia on 29 September. Rangers striker Bojan Miovski was the last Macedonian to score, in a 7-1 defeat by Wales on 18 November 2025. The blank since then is 607 minutes across six matches.

Their last win was 5-0 against Liechtenstein on 7 September 2025. Ten games without a victory have followed. Sedloski has used new players in the last two outings and is asking for time the table will not give him.

I hope that the attack will click. We need patience, but the goals will come.

Goce Sedloski, North Macedonia head coach

Two attacks that cannot score are being asked to settle who avoids the foot of the group. Combined, they have now taken ten matches without a goal into the same stadium. That is the night Pocognoli has to win.

A Group Already Split in Two

Switzerland have six points and six goals from two games, both won 3-0. Slovenia have four points and a clean sheet in each outing, including the 0-0 with Scotland in Ljubljana. Scotland have a single point. North Macedonia have none. The top two have scored eight and conceded none. The bottom two have scored none and conceded eight.

GROUP B1 AFTER TWO MATCHES

Saturday is matchday 3 of the league phase, with Switzerland at home to Slovenia in the other group game. Scotland then host Slovenia at Hampden on Tuesday, 6 October, while Switzerland entertain North Macedonia. The return with North Macedonia is at Hampden on 13 November, before Scotland finish the section in Switzerland on 16 November.

Pocognoli has already said the ranking only moves with a win. A draw in Skopje leaves Scotland on two points from three games and still looking up at Slovenia. A defeat would leave them tied to the bottom on the same zero-win column as the hosts.

The Swiss Night Left One Useful Clue

Tuesday at Hampden was Pocognoli’s home debut and it was over as a contest almost as soon as it started. Dan Ndoye ran off Jack Hendry, the referee first pointed to the spot, and VAR moved the foul outside the box. Hendry’s yellow became a red. Ricardo Rodriguez then curled the resulting free-kick in the 12th minute.

HOW HAMPDEN UNRAVELLED

1. 29 September, early: Hendry hauls down Ndoye, VAR wipes the penalty, and the yellow is upgraded to a red.
2. 12th minute: Rodriguez scores from the free-kick to make it 0-1.
3. 13th minute: Kieron Bowie, on his first start, is withdrawn so Stephen Welsh can restore a back three.
4. 55th minute: Nico Elvedi turns in Ndoye’s cross for 0-2.
5. 59th minute: Ben Gannon-Doak, Ryan Christie and Robbie Ure replace Nathan Patterson, Billy Gilmour and Oli McBurnie.
6. 82nd minute: Zeki Amdouni makes it 0-3 with a shot that went through Angus Gunn.

Pocognoli called Hendry’s dismissal a collective red card and took a yellow himself before half-time. Hendry, who plays for Al-Ettifaq, is banned on Saturday. Welsh, the Swansea defender who debuted in Slovenia on the left of the three and then filled in on the right at Hampden, is the player that night promoted. Luis Binks, the Brondby centre-back handed a debut against the Swiss, stayed on and will be in the conversation again.

Gunn, 30, was Steve Clarke’s World Cup starter and remains the number one. He has conceded 23 goals in 11 MLS appearances for San Jose Earthquakes, with two clean sheets and a 2.09 goals-against average. Scott Bain is at Falkirk, Jon McCracken at Bradford in League One, and Liam Kelly has yet to start for Rangers this season. Gunn said after Hampden that the strikes were good and that he is still disappointed when the ball goes in. The more likely change is in front of him, not behind.

Where Does Gannon-Doak Fit on Saturday?

The 20-year-old Bournemouth winger has been the liveliest Scotland attacker in both of Pocognoli’s games and has still not started either. Andy Halliday said he would be shocked if Gannon-Doak did not begin against Group B1’s bottom side. The problem is the shape. Pocognoli has used a back three with wing-backs, and there is no clean home in that for a player who does his damage on the touchline.

Wing-back would be the forced fit. Aaron Hickey and Patterson are the more natural holders of that job. Putting Gannon-Doak there asks him to defend like them, which is the same squeeze the last manager used when a wide player did not match the diagram. He can live as an impact substitute. That would also mean Scotland’s most direct runner stays off the pitch for the 25 minutes that decide whether the 1970-71 mark still stands.

Binks, speaking after the Swiss defeat, refused to talk the camp down. “I wouldn’t say the confidence is too low. Back-to-back wins gets everyone back onside.” Saturday and Tuesday are the two games that line would actually test.

CALLS FOR SKOPJE

• The goal: Gunn is still the likely starter because the other three keepers are short of minutes at a higher level.
• The back three: Welsh is the straightforward replacement for Hendry, with Scott McKenna and Binks the other names.
• The wide threat: Gannon-Doak has changed both games from the bench and still has no listed slot in the 3-4-1-2.
• The midfield: McGinn, Gilmour and Lewis Ferguson remain the spine, even if McGinn has not hit his Aston Villa level.
• The strike pair: Bowie’s first start lasted a little over ten minutes, and McBurnie’s running as a lone target was the one clear plus from Hampden.

James Wilson of Hearts is in the senior squad and has just been finishing for the Under-21s. He is a different type of penalty-box player from McBurnie. He is also untried at this level, which is why he sits behind the two who have already started.

Robertson Reaches 100 Caps in Skopje

Andy Robertson is expected to make his 100th Scotland appearance, twelve and a half years after his debut against Poland in March 2014. He won his 99th against Switzerland and was withdrawn on 74 minutes for Josh Doig. A century on the left of a wing-back line, away, with the scoring record in the waiting room, is a thin way to mark it.

Scotland’s record in this city is mixed. George Burley’s side lost 1-0 in Skopje in 2009. Four years later Ikechi Anya and Shaun Maloney won 2-1 there. At Hampden they beat Macedonia 2-0 in 2009, Scott Brown and James McFadden, and drew 1-1 in 2012. None of those nights had this much drought on both benches.

I think we need to win if we want to step up the rankings. It is a tough place to go, but if we can combine performance and result, I will be happy.

Sebastien Pocognoli, Scotland head coach, Scottish FA preview

He also said the squad should start from zero, stay calm, and avoid another rollercoaster. The Swiss game began with a high press and ended with ten men chasing shadows. The Slovenia second half, when the same system looked quicker, is the tape he wants copied, not the Hampden one.

Saturday Starts With a 25-Minute Clock

Bowie and McBurnie had about 20 minutes together in Ljubljana and almost none at Hampden after the red card. McBurnie, back in the squad five years after his last run of caps, held the ball up as a solo striker and won the flick-ons Bowie was no longer there to meet. Pocognoli has inherited Clarke’s oldest problem in a new kit. The side still cannot score, and the new shape has yet to start the winger who looks most like a goal.

Away tickets for Skopje are sold out. The match is live on BBC Two Scotland from 7:30pm, kick-off 7:45pm UK time. The squad trains at Lesser Hampden on Friday before the flight. Tickets remain for Slovenia at Hampden on Tuesday and for North Macedonia’s visit in November.

If a Scotland player scores before the 25th minute, the 1970-71 mark survives and Pocognoli has his first goal as well as, perhaps, his first win. If the game stays blank into the second quarter-hour, two dry teams will be playing under a record neither of them came to Skopje to set.