GORDON Strachan heaped praise on Scotland's winning goalscorer Shaun Maloney and said his brilliant free-kick in Macedonia was eight years in the making.

Former Celtic star Maloney scored only his second international goal in his 31st appearance.

But it was a brilliant set-piece into the top corner which hauled Scotland off the foot of Group A.

Strachan has known exactly what Maloney was capable of since they worked together at Parkhead and he saluted the Wigan man's dedication, which he said was shown by his cool free kick for the winner three minutes from time.

The Scotland boss said: "That's not a fluke. He's been practising since I first knew him eight years ago."

Goals from Ikechi Anya and Maloney delivered a 2-1 win in Skopje. The result continued the sense of momentum which had been in danger of petering out after the win in Croatia was followed by defeats to England and Belgium.

When asked if the pressure had been building on him, Strachan broadened the answer: "I would imagine most of the players would think that, whether it was an individual thinking, 'I must prove myself', or as a group.

"To come away with a performance like that is terrific. It's another part of the jigsaw. We're not a great side by any manner of means but we can do terrific things at times.

"As I came to the game I couldn't imagine it being played like that, I thought it would be far scrappier with scrappy goals but it didn't work out that way.

"We weren't allowed to train on the pitch last night. We were only allowed to train on half a pitch so we thought well the other half can't be very good either.

"The Uefa observer said the pitch wasn't good enough to play on. There were a lot of divots put in and sand put on it. The Macedonians tried their best. So to play football like that on a surface like that was a huge bonus.

"What was the most pleasing thing? Everything really. When you drive to the game you look at the surface and you think a win would be great. You wonder how you might win? A couple of breakaways, you try your best.

"But to play like that and to get the win...that was the win and the performance. That was terrific, and against a side who beat Wales.

"In the first half we were exceptional, in the second half we were good. We expected Macedonia to come back at us, we expected the manager to say things at half-time and they did that. But we still tried to play. At all times we tried to play."

Anya's performance, on his first start for Scotland, was one of the night's real highlights. "He must be pleased with himself," said Strachan.

"And he could only give the right-back a torrid time because the rest of the players were brave on the ball to build it up and give Anya the chance to be one-on-one. There had to be a lot of passes and to be brave before he was on the ball. You don't just give him the ball and hope for the best. You have to build up the play, suck in their back four and then give it to him."

The match had a bizarre moment in which French referee Fredy Fautrel started the second half only to stop play seconds later when he realised Macedonia goalkeeper Tome Pachovski was late coming out of the tunnel.

"Briliant! And he blew his whistle. There was no reason for him to. The game should have continued. He cannot stop the game at any time until the ball goes out of play, and then he gets on. That is my understanding," said Strachan.