AT 4.48PM last Saturday, Kris Boyd had finally cracked it. Regardless of club loyalties, or any of those oft-repeated reservations about his attitude or work rate, at last the consensus was all in his favour.

It was totally inconceivable that Scotland's most instinctive goalscorer should spend all afternoon kicking his heels on the bench, while a must-win World Cup qualifier against Norway ticked agonisingly by. Whether it was from the start, at half time, 10 minutes into the second period, even in the last desperate 10 minutes; Scotland's need for that trademark penalty box goal had rarely been greater.

OK, so Boyd has never been trusted at either club or international level to play the lone striker's role, but it would have been difficult for him to have been significantly less effective in that position on that particular afternoon than James McFadden. And he would certainly have offered a greater presence in the penalty box on those few occasions when Scotland did manage to engineer a reasonable position to cross from.

Finally - undeniably - regardless of the fact that Chris Iwelumo and Steven Fletcher improved Scotland immeasurably after the hour, Iwelumo's two-yard miss presented the prosecution with an open-and-shut case. For once the clamour for Boyd to be given a more important role in forthcoming matches would have been irresistible.

So it is still somewhat remarkable to relate that when the news of his dramatic departure from the squad filtered out the very next day, not only had this most potent of strikers missed an open target, he had actually scored the most spectacular of own goals.

In making himself unavailable for all future games under George Burley, all that goodwill had been sacrificed in favour of a gesture that is likely to look increasingly cheap as the campaign proceeds.

By midweek, as results elsewhere in Group Nine permitted Scotland to fight another day, it was clear that all Boyd had done was prevent himself from being invited to the party.

If the 25-year-old's intention was to make it a straight choice between him and the manager, then clearly he miscalculated. Unlike the Barry Ferguson - Paul Le Guen stand-off at Rangers, there are plenty out there who have no desire to take sides or feel neither party has covered himself in glory in the last few days.

The whole tawdry spectacle, with Boyd damning the manager by word and deed, and Burley countering with thinly veiled condemnations about the player's lack of patriotism, has done nothing to aid Scotland's efforts to reach South Africa in 2010. Boyd felt such question marks over his patriotism were "below the belt" but it would have been easier if he had never provided the ammunition in the first place.

No-one is suggesting Boyd should be happy about the situation. His goalscoring record means he is entitled to hope for more playing time than 28 minutes in six international matches, and he may well have been correct to regard himself as fifth choice striker. But his position is undermined by the fact that he continues to be omitted from Rangers' toughest games.

If Scotland are to return to a major championships for the first time in ten years, they are going to need players prepared to suffer such indignities as being left out of starting line-ups, playing out of position, or wasted journeys on international duty. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion Boyd is less concerned about such matters than winning his own battle of wills with his manager and generating a few column inches.

Having said that, it would have been an equally pointless grandstanding gesture had the SFA refused to keep the door open for his return. International retirement is not what it used to be, with Luis Figo, Pavel Nedved, Zinedine Zidane, Claude Makelele and Lilian Thuram having all played at the 2006 World Cup despite having "retired" after Euro 2004. Not to mention Henrik Larsson, who may still be getting talked out of retirement to assist the Swedish cause when he is in his 50s.

The apparently pre-meditated nature of the announcement, and its precursor in the Lee McCulloch saga, led some to the conclusion of some mischievous Rangers coup, but for me the main inference to be drawn from the retirements is the scale of Burley's desire for root and branch change in the Scotland team.

Burley's mundane public utterances hide the fact that he desires to transform the team from a counter-punching unit into one capable of dominating possession and creating openings through skill and mobility on the flanks.

That - whether Scotland are good enough to do it or not is the reason why there is no longer much room in the starting XI for McCulloch, much as is the case at Ibrox.

Likewise, it was always uncertain exactly where Boyd, the man who Darren Fletcher called the worst trainer in the squad, would fit into it. Until, that was, he made George Burley's decision for him.

W ITH the first Edinburgh derby of the season live on Setanta this afternoon, it was good to spend some time in the company of Gary Mackay earlier this week.

The former Hearts midfielder has his autobiography to promote, and was talking about how important it was for of the likes of those more fired-up members of either side, Hearts' Michael Stewart and Hibs' Derek Riordan, to channel their energies in the correct manner.

"I got sent off when we were getting beaten 2-1 in Jim Jefferies' first game for stamping on Gareth Evans," MacKay recalled. But what was his excuse?

"I thought it was Darren Jackson," Mackay deadpanned.