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George Burley remained upbeat about Scotland’s 1-0 defeat to Argentina in last night’s friendly international at Hampden Park, though the Scotland manager will certainly desire a more urgent display when his players resume the real thing again against Holland in the World Cup qualifiers in March.

A Maxi RodrÍguez goal after eight minutes proved to be a comfortable cushion for Diego Maradona’s side, who gave Scotland few chances to equalise. Maradona later called some of his team’s play “brilliant”, though it seemed a misplaced compliment.

Of more concern to Gordon Smith, the SFA chief executive, might have been the size of last night’s crowd. At 32,492, Hampden had plenty of empty spaces for a match which is estimated to have cost the association £750,000 to put on. Smith had said that the game was “a risk and a test” and in both senses perhaps the experiment was a failure. A crowd of 40,000 was the break-even figure, but Smith has clearly been stung by a combination of factors, not least a biting recession.

This was the third home match Scotland have failed to score in but Burley is confident the goals will come. “If you make opportunities, I’m sure some of them will go in,” the manager said. “It was a great workout for us. We knew we were facing one of the best football nations in the world. The coverage and interest for our fans was all there.

“In the first 20 minutes Argentina totally dominated us and gave us loads of problems. We were too deep and our midfield couldn’t close them down. But after that I thought we got to grips with the game – we got higher up the park and we caused them some problems. Our best player on the night was Kris Commons – he played like an old-fashioned winger.

We also had Barry Ferguson back after five months, which was great, and Alan Hutton came back too.

“We pitted our wits against the best – you can’t get better than that. But I felt we held our own and we came out of it with a lot of credit. It was a great experience, with a lot of pluses, given the Holland game in March.”

Money is changing hands on how long Maradona will remain as Argentina’s coach, but he looked pleased with his international bow in the role. He spoke to the media later before rushing off to Madrid, where his pregnant daughter, Giannina, has fallen ill.

“I don’t have time because I have to travel to see my daughter,” he said. “But this was a clear victory. For the first 25 minutes we were brilliant and scored a good goal. Maybe we didn’t convert our other half-chances thereafter but we kept the ball pretty much throughout the game.

“I’m a very proud manager. It was a great experience being on the bench for the first time. My players helped to make me feel relaxed throughout. Maybe we lost our way a little bit, and we have been in a bit of a mini-crisis recently, but my players were men not boys, and they showed that throughout. I was thinking of my daughter and her baby. I’d like to thank my players, but all my thoughts are with her.”

Javier Mascherano, the Argentina captain, said he and his teammates were inspired by the sight of Maradona on the bench. “I think it’s a new era,” he said.

The Argentina coach offered one last dig at Terry Butcher, the Scotland assistant manager, who had havered earlier in the week about “never forgiving” Maradona for his infamous “Hand of God” goal against England at the 1986 World Cup.

“Who is this Butcher?” Maradona said. “I greeted the manager of Scotland. Who is Butcher?”