The pain of yet another Hampden friendly defeat was heightened for Paul �Hartley and Chris Iwelumo last night with the pair picking up �injuries that may preclude their involvement in their clubs� forthcoming fixtures.
The pain of yet another Hampden friendly defeat was heightened for Paul Hartley and Chris Iwelumo last night with the pair picking up injuries that may preclude their involvement in their clubs' forthcoming fixtures.
Hartley sustained an ankle knock that could keep him out of Celtic's Clydesdale Bank Premier League match with St Mirren on Saturday, as well as the vital Champions League tie with Aalborg on Tuesday evening. With Barry Robson and Aiden McGeady also struggling for fitness, Hartley said he will assess his situation closer to the weekend.
"I came off after 60 minutes with a knock and I'll need to see the medical staff at Celtic before I know if I'll be fit for the weekend," he said. "I've taken a kick on my ankle, it's swollen up and it's stiff just now.
"It's obviously not what my club manager wants to hear. We have a fair amount of injuries already and Barry Robson has been injured too. I just hope I'll be okay for Saturday and I'll see how it goes over the next 48 hours.
"If I can, I would rather play both against St Mirren and Aalborg, but we'll need to see what happens."
Iwelumo was handed his first international start as he looked to avenge the disappointment of his last Hampden appearance when he passed up a glorious chance to cap his debut with the winning goal against Norway. He enjoyed no more luck on this occasion, departing the field at half-time after feeling a leg muscle tightening midway through the first half.
"I started feeling my right hamstring tight after about 25 minutes," he said. "I'm gutted as I wanted to come out in the second half, but I came off as a precautionary measure. They the coaching staff said I had to look at the bigger picture as I've got a lot of football ahead of me.
"You don't play against Argentina every week, so I did want to come back out. Maybe I should have just kept my mouth shut and got on with it."
Both players were effusive in their praise of the visitors, who won the match courtesy of Maxi Rodriguez's early goal. Scotland rallied after surviving the predictable onslaught but rarely looked like claiming an equaliser. "You know you are playing against top quality players," Hartley added. "You know their movement will be excellent and that they will create chances. You have to enjoy the experience of coming up against these guys.
"I felt that we got into the game after the first 15 minutes. We just tried to settle down and play our own game. We got up the park more and got closer to them, forcing them to make some mistakes."
Iwelumo was even more complimentary, confirming that Martin Demichelis and Gabriel Heinze were the toughest defenders he had ever faced.
"They were fantastic players with every single one of them comfortable on the ball. Their movement was fantastic and it was chasing shadows at times. Tonight showed you the class of Argentina. I thought they were awesome. They passed and moved the ball about and we were chasing it a bit. It's a learning experience and I was just delighted to be involved even though I had to come off with the injury.
"It was 1-0 against a team ranked probably the third best in the world - or up there anyway - and I thought we gave a good account of ourselves."
Scotland's next match will be the World Cup qualifying tie against the Netherlands in March and Hartley felt the test from Argentina served as a useful warm-up.
"Argentina are probably on the same level as Holland, so this was a good game before what we know will be a very difficult one against the Dutch in March."
