Birmingham striker O'Connor returns to the international fold for the upcoming qualifiers in Macedonia and Iceland almost a year since his last cap against Ukraine.

The 25-year-old was part of the Scotland set-up under Walter Smith and Alex McLeish which came so close to reaching Euro 2008.

And he believes fostering the same team spirit from the start of the current campaign can see the side go one better this time.

He told Birmingham's official website: "Walter Smith and Alex McLeish did a fantastic job and it will be a hard act to follow what they have done for the national team.

"But if George creates the same spirit in the squad then I think we'll do all right because there was a real togetherness."

O'Connor was named in Burley's first squad for March's friendly against Croatia but did not play and has been out of the frame since.

But he can understand why he was not in the picture for last week's Hampden Park clash with Northern Ireland.

He said: "They think of me as an experienced player and they left out five or six experienced ones as George was looking at the bigger picture.

"Now we've got to be looking to get off to a flying start by winning these two qualifiers, as we did in our last campaign."