Scotland U21s handed tough draw

Scotland Under-21 coach Billy Stark admitted his disappointment at seeing his side go into the latest European qualifying draw as third seeds after his team were paired with the Netherlands and old foes Austria.

The Netherlands, who lost in the play-offs for this summer's finals like Scotland, were top seeds and Austria, who Scotland beat to top spot in their group, were second.

Scotland will also face Bulgaria and Luxembourg in their quest to reach the finals of the 2013 Uefa Under-21 Championship, with the action set to kick off in March this year.

Chris Maguire's late goal earned Scotland a 2-1 victory over Austria at Pittodrie in September and top spot in the group, an outcome all the sweeter given the Scotland camp had accused an Austrian player of spitting on the Aberdeen striker during their 1-0 away defeat.

Stark said: "We were pretty hopeful of moving up a pot this year after reaching the play-offs last time round. But then we were seeded third last year and won the group so we won't linger on it.

"As with all draws you come away feeling it could have been better, but it also could have been worse. The most important part now is entering into the fixture meeting and trying to get a favourable schedule out of the discussions.

"In the last campaign we took a double header against Albania early on and took six points, so that worked well for us. But the dynamics of this group are different again."

Stark will gather his squad together for a three-day training camp next week, during which they will play two bounce games.

"We played closed-door games at this stage last campaign and I feel I can see more of the players during these games," Stark said. "We don't have the restrictions of Uefa substitution rules so I can see all of the players in action this way."

The ten group winners and four best runners-up will go into play-offs to join hosts Israel in the eight-team tournament in the summer of 2013.

England were drawn to face Belgium, Iceland, Norway and Azerbaijan. Stuart Pearce's side, who reached their third consecutive finals by winning through to this summer's showpiece in Denmark, will begin their attempt to make it four in a row in August.

England were forced to qualify after their bid to host the tournament failed last week, with Israel preferred by Uefa.

That also scuppered the Football Association's plan to temporarily scrap the under-21 team and replace it with the new Great Britain side in the build-up to the 2012 Olympics.

Pearce said of yesterday's draw: "We're not getting too far ahead of ourselves given we have a finals tournament first in the summer, but this will be another tricky qualifying campaign for us.

"Iceland are at the finals in Denmark and we'll face difficult trips to Azerbaijan, as well as Norway and Belgium."