SEVEN years ago Shaun Maloney was unable to stop Scotland's hopes of playing at Euro 2008 being dealt a hammer blow in Georgia.

So he is desperate to help the national team kick-start their bid to reach the 2016 European Championships when he lines up against the same team tomorrow.

Maloney was a key member of Alex McLeish's team in the Group B fixture at the Boris Paichadze Stadium in Tbilisi back on October 17, 2007.

We appeared to have one foot in the finals in Austria and Switzerland after some outstanding results in the qualifying campaign.

Scotland had beaten the Georgians at Hampden plus Lithuania, Faroe Islands and Ukraine and recorded famous home-and-away wins over France, our victory in Paris coming courtesy of a James McFadden wonder goal.

But Maloney and his team-mates crashed to a 2-0 defeat that severely dented their qualification hopes.

And a month later they lost narrowly to Italy at Hampden in their final game to end up finishing third in their group and just miss out.

As he prepared for this weekend's Euro 2016 match with Temuri Ketsbaia's side, Maloney admitted memories of that match in Tbilisi still rankle with him. "It sticks in my mind for being particularly disappointing," the Wigan star said from the Scotland team hotel outside Erskine.

"We had done so well up to then but that result had a massive say on whether we qualified. We were beaten by a far better team on the night.

"It's not like we played well and the result could have been different. We were certainly outplayed. It paved the way for a really sickening end to that campaign."

Scotland are expected to collect all three points from their second Group D tie.

Gordon Strachan's team performed admirably against World Cup winners Germany in Dortmund last month and were unlucky to lose 2-1.

Yet Maloney, who is back playing regularly for Wigan in the English Championship after injury, will approach the fixture cautiously given his past experience.

He said: "We always find it tough playing against teams from Georgia's part of the world. I certainly don't expect it to be an easy match.

"We have some really good players and we're enjoying a good spell but we can't afford to be too complacent against any side in this group."

MALONEY admitted that winning this fixture would give a huge boost to our hopes of getting to France in two years' time.

It is now 16 long years since Scotland reached the finals of a major tournament - the World Cup in France in 1998.

But the Tartan Army are optimistic our painful barren run will come to an end in the near future.

Maloney, who came off the bench in Germany, insisted that the forthcoming double-header against Georgia and Poland won't make or break our campaign.

However, he did admit that the resurgence shown by the national team over the past 16 months has filled him with great hope for the future.

"Every game is going to have a big influence on how the group finishes," he said. "These two games will be no different from the others.

"We're trying to qualify for a major championship, so every game is going to be loaded with pressure.

"But we have to be quietly confident after all our hard work over the last year or so.

"We are still sitting on zero points after one game, so our first home game is going to be very important.

"But it is still reasonably early in this group.

"There are three or four countries who will take points off one another home and away. We really have no idea about how this group will go at the moment.

"We have a good chance of getting through. But we have been in this position before.

"Walter Smith and Alex McLeish came close. George Burley came close as well in the qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup."

BACK in September 2009 Scotland went into their last group match against Holland at Hampden looking for a win to make the play-offs. But they lost 1-0.

Maloney recalled: "We had several chances at 0-0 but we then lost a late goal.

"But this time, with the top two in our group qualifying and with our recent form, this is probably as confident a squad as I have known for the start of a campaign."

The 31-year-old midfielder revealed he's looking forward to playing again at Ibrox, where he made his debut for Celtic in April 2001.

He came off the bench to help Martin O'Neill's team beat Rangers 3-0 thanks to a Lubomir Moravcik double and a Henrik Larsson strike.

That victory remains one of the cherished memories of Maloney's career to date.

He said: "I've won games at Ibrox and been on the losing side too. Ibrox holds some amazing memories for me.

"If you get a win there as a Celtic player it outshines any other result that year.

"I've been lucky enough to play in a couple of victories at Ibrox that I will never forget.Making my senior debut at the stadium certainly sticks out in my memory.

"We also won 1-0 at Ibrox in February 2006 when Maciej Zurawski scored the goal and Roy Keane played for Celtic.

"I remember that result was particularly pleasing for us, even though I didn't play great. But it was a really good team performance.

"We all got a real satisfaction from working so hard for that win, especially because it helped Celtic to go on and win the league that season.

"Hopefully I can be part of another victory at Ibrox this weekend."