Maradona happy with Argentina's renewed confidence

By Rex Gowar

GLASGOW (Reuters) - Argentina did enough to dispel memories of their poor recent form in a 1-0 friendly victory over Scotland on Wednesday, coach Diego Maradona said after his first match in charge of the team.

Maradona said he was pleased with the work the squad had done to overcome a bleak period in which the team won only once in eight matches.

"Argentina had 25 brilliant minutes at the beginning and couldn't put away more chances. It was a totally fair result," Maradona told a news conference after Maxi Rodriguez's early goal gave the South Americans victory.

"We gave the ball away later on but Scotland were unable to profit from that...We could have had the ball more and won by more.

"The match with Chile was a bad experience that is now behind us," added Maradona in reference to a 1-0 defeat in Santiago in a World Cup qualifier last month that sparked former coach Alfio Basile's resignation.

"It was easy to overcome the mini-crisis of the Chile match which had been a breaking point for all of us," he said.

"We put a lot of work into that, looking for the reasons why the team had not been able to win for such a long time."

The only exception after a run of six draws in a row was an unconvincing 2-1 home win over Uruguay four days before the match in Chile.