"England's shame" read some of the most over-the-top headlines as Macedonian football rose to a new level of prominence - in the British media at least - when they held Sven-Goran Eriksson's much-lauded side to a 2-2 draw in Southampton in 2002.
England recovered, winning 2-1 in Skopje, to make the 2004 European Championship finals, but it will act as a warning to Scotland as George Burley makes his competitive debut as manager in Macedonia on Saturday.
Srecko Katanec aims to beat Scotland in Skopje
The Macedonians, despite losing again at home - 1-0 this time - in the following Euro qualifying campaign, again became a thorn in the flesh of English football managers when Steve McClaren's side slumped to a 0-0 draw at Old Trafford in 2006.
Bereft of household names it may be, but eight of that team were named in Srecko Katanec's latest squad.
Striker Goran Pendev is the best known, the 25-year-old having been linked recently with a transfer to Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur after four productive years in Serie A with Lazio.
Pandev scored twice as Macedonia won their most recent warm-up friendly 4-1 away to Luxembourg.
His partner against Scotland could be Ilco Naumoski, just two days younger, who has been linked with Middlesbrough and Reading but now seems likely to have to wait out the final year of his contract with Austrian outfit Mattersburg before heading for English football.
He will hope that his time in the UK is more fruitful than that experienced by Mattersburg team-mate Goce Sedloski, who had a short spell with Sheffield Wednesday in 1997 but played only four times before heading for Dinamo Zagreb.
Nevertheless, the 34-year-old could still provide a significant barrier to the Scottish attack along with Igor Mitreski, who has been touted for big-money moves during the 29-year-old's time in Germany's Bundesliga with Energie Cottbus and reportedly came close to signing for Portsmouth in 2005.
Velice Shumulikoski is already strutting his stuff in the English Championship but has yet to live up to his billing as "the Balkan Gerrard".
However, the 27-year-old's attempt to match the midfield mastery of Liverpool's Steve was hampered by a shin injury that ended his season early last term, just 14 games into his spell with Ipswich Town, following his move from Bursaspor.
Ilco Naumoski starred against England two years ago
Two other potential members of the Macedonia defence are settling into careers with new clubs - Robert Petrov has joined Greek outfit Panserraikos from CSKA Sofia, while Vlade Lazarevski has joined Polonia Warsaw from Dyskobolia Groclin after a loan spell with Metalist Kharkiv.
Meanwhile, Nikolce Noveski is looking for a move - and was being linked with Norwich City - after being relegated from the Bundesliga with Mainz.
Midfielder Ertan Demiri has joined Belgian outfit Lokeren from the Macedonian side for whom goalkeeper Tome Pacovski starred as they were edged out of the Uefa Cup 2-1 by Bolton Wanderers in the 2007 qualifying round.
Jane Nikolovski, the hero of that 0-0 draw at Old Trafford, is no longer part of the Macedonia squad, but Katanec can also turn to veteran keeper Petar Milosevski, who played in the draw four years earlier in England.
There was some disquiet among Macedonian journalists when Katanec did not call in any replacements to his small squad after defender Goran Popov, who has just moved to the Dutch top tier with Heerenveen from Levadiakos, pulled out of the games against Scotland and Netherlands through injury.
Such injuries will stetch their limited resources, so Macedonia will be considered outsiders for qualification behind Netherlands, Norway and the Scots.
But Katanec will be dreaming of turning a side that can produce the occasional shock result into one capable of reaching major finals.
The Slovenian did just that with his own, newly-created national side, leading them to the 2000 Euro finals and the World Cup climax in 2002.
Katanec failed to translate that success into club football during an ill-fated short spell as Olympiakos coach before taking charge of Macedonia.
And Burley and his Scotland side will be hoping that Katanec has lost his magic touch at international level.
Macedonia
Goalkeepers: Petar Milosevski (Enosis Neon Paralimni), Tome Pacovski (Vardar Skopje)
Defenders: Goce Sedloski (Mattersburg), Igor Mitreski (Energie Cottbus), Vlade Lazarevski (Polonia Warsaw), Nikolce Noveski (Mainz), Robert Petrov (Panserraikos), Miroslav Vajs (Vardar Skopje), Boban Grncarov (Gent)
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