George Burley’s job is once more on the line — and rightly so. Picture, if you will, the woeful scene. I was sitting next to the BBC’s Chick Young in the Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday, watching Burley’s Scotland being torn limb from limb by Wales (average age, 22). When Aaron Ramsey’s third Wales goal went in after a mere 35 minutes I turned to Chick — who had to yank off his headphones to hear what I was saying — and said: “This is bordering on a straight resignation issue for Burley.”

An hour later, with the game over and Scotland caned, I said “good luck” to the bold Mr Young as he clambered from his press pew to make his way down to conduct one of the first post-match interviews with the Scotland manager.

There was growling and much use of industrial language from the newspaper boys in the Cardiff media room later. In today’s papers, in the time-honoured fashion, columnists will be groping around trying to find a fresh way of saying, “Burley Must Go”.

They have a case. Cardiff on Saturday was excruciating for Scotland. John Toshack claimed that the 3-0 scoreline “was not a true reflection” on the game and that Scotland at times had made the afternoon “uncomfortable” for Wales, but this was tosh from Toshack. Burley and his players were a hopeless bunch.

The SFA board is to meet tomorrow to discuss Burley’s future. After Saturday’s wounding episode, it is now a question of the credibility of the Scotland team manager. I suspect Burley is done for.

The score should have been 4-0 to Wales at half-time in Cardiff. Having gone three up after just 35 minutes, Graham Dorrans then barged Simon Church in the box for what should have been a penalty, then David Marshall was forced to save at point-blank range from Ched Evans with 40 minutes not yet on the clock.

Meanwhile, before our very sore eyes, Scotland’s players went into hiding: traumatised, being out-thought, and worst of all, looking scared to take the ball.

How much of this was Burley’s fault? A fair chunk of it. I’ve never been one for glibly bawling that every mishap on the pitch is the manager’s fault. In Norway in September, for example, Scotland were playing well until Gary Caldwell was sent off, injured defenders began to fall like ninepins, and Norway went on to bash four past them.

Back then Burley looked to me as innocent as a skier looking up and seeing an avalanche roaring towards him. But not in Cardiff on Saturday. This time Scotland were a highly unimpressive expression of their manager’s planning and motivation. Even worse, Burley stated that the six changes he made to his team to try to rescue the situation as the game unfolded “didn’t really change much”.

Conclusion: the Scotland manager appeared impotent while trying to apply a remedy. It had started out pretty poorly and Burley did nothing that brought any improvement. It was a terrible experience for the Scotland manager and severely damaged his reputation.

The SFA now has a fresh decision to make — to continue with Burley or to sack him this week. Gordon Smith, the SFA chief executive, will be mulling this over today, and will talk with George Peat, the SFA president, who was not actually in Cardiff on Saturday, having made the wise and joyous decision to travel to lovely Azerbaijan instead to watch Scotland’s under-21s. Smith and Peat and the SFA board have some serious thinking to do.

Burley will either be sacked, or be allowed to lurch on to Scotland’s next match, which is a friendly against the Czech Republic in Glasgow on March 3. Having gone through all the deliberations of keeping Burley in place five weeks ago, and wiping the slate clean, the SFA might decide that sacking him as quickly as this doesn’t make sense. But I fear the Scotland manager’s days are numbered.

If Burley is allowed to toil on to the Czech game, he will carry a terrible pressure into that fixture. That evening at Hampden would be a professional do-or-die for him. If his team did not play convincingly — or heaven forbid, have another disaster such as on Saturday — he would be swiftly removed. There would be no point in the SFA continuing to invest their hopes in him.

There is one other factor here: the Tartan Army. In Cardiff the 4,000 Scottish fans made it perfectly plain what they thought of it all, telling Burley to “get to f***” on more than one occasion. Many of them were tanked-up and, in such adversity, a football crowd is by nature abusive, but the Scotland support still has an influential voice in all this. If it becomes obvious that they, too, are no longer prepared to back Burley, the SFA would be foolish not to view it as a significant consideration.

Burley is now in the last-chance saloon. Indeed, at this rate, there is probably already a bullet somewhere that has his name on it.

And another thing...

It’s a good job those fans enjoyed weekend bevvy

The Tartan Army are a lovable bunch, but how the heck do they manage to drink so much? On these junkets with Scotland, I thought we in the media were pretty good at knocking it back, but we are prissy incompetents compared to the kilted hordes.

It was commonplace in Cardiff to see Scotland fans sitting around at 8am, their energies certainly low, shifting pints of lager or darker stuff. Well, you know what they say — there’s nothing like a good hearty breakfast to set you up for the day.

By the time they reached the Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday quite a lot of Scottish fans, who at all times seemed good-natured, were well-oiled. After the game, of course, there is a mere eight more hours of bevvying to be done before the head slaps stociously on to the pillow.

It is quite an amazing phenomenon. Such scenes are also a reminder that, in truth, these Scotland trips for the supporters are about the socialising as much as the football. I’m not knocking it, but in some ways these are not football diehards. Take the actual football out of the equation, and there might not be too many protests from the travellers. Take the bevvy away, however, and . . .

Watch your step, Dazza

What’s that sound I hear? Why, the dainty footsteps of Darryl Broadfoot, the new head of communications at the SFA, coming to take up his new reins. Dazza: if you thought writing up the sort of dross the football press corps does for a living was wearying, wait till you get your teeth into this SFA mess. As Ed Murrow used to say: “Good night, and good luck.”

Don’t call us . . .

The one area where angry football hacks become vulnerable over this whole Burley situation is this: what would we do that was different? “It’s disgraceful! I mean, Gary Caldwell and Stephen McManus can’t defend!” Yep, so who would you play instead?

Er . . .

“I mean, Burley’s a fool! The midfield was all wrong!” Yep, so which Scottish geniuses would you put there in place of those clots, Darren Fletcher and James McFadden?

Um . . .

It’s quite fun being angry, just so long as no one asks us to fix it. I’m not defending Burley, but it’s a painful old truth: good Scottish players are thin on the ground these days.