McDonald had enough of goal talk

It's the nagging statistic that follows Qantas Socceroos striker Scott McDonald around and he's well and truly had enough of it. Eleven games for Australia, no goals.

DUBAI, June 3 AAP - It's the nagging statistic that follows Qantas Socceroos striker Scott McDonald around and he's well and truly had enough of it. Eleven games for Australia, no goals.

The diminutive striker, who has been a prolific scorer for his Scottish club Celtic, insists the fact he is yet to net a goal for his country doesn't play on his mind. He's just sick of it continually being brought up.

"This is the last time I'm going to talk about it," a frustrated McDonald said in Dubai ahead of Australia's clash with Qatar in Doha on Sunday (AEST).

"It's an ongoing saga and it will be until I score.

"For me, it's finished now and we get on with it and hopefully I shut that up come the next game, simple."

McDonald has proved he has the ability to score with regularity at the highest level.

In two seasons at Celtic, he has netted 44 times - including a stunning strike against Manchester United in the Champions League - so he is rightly confident his international duck won't last much longer.

"Of course I want to be scoring goals but as soon as I'm off the field, it's 'okay, next one, lets try again'," he said.

"Hopefully it's only a matter of time before I get the first one, and once you get that first one it will kick on from there."

McDonald said he would use the upcoming qualifiers to help move on from the disappointment of Celtic missing out on the Scottish Premier League title to Old Firm rivals Rangers.

The 25-year-old said playing in the World Cup would be a "dream" after he was overlooked for the Socceroos' historic campaign in Germany three years ago.

"I wanted to be there last time, no question about that, and when you're young you think `I should be there'," he said.

"But the truth is I wasn't ready, simple as that, and there was a lot of quality players there already.

"Now I've stepped up and hopefully this is the time to prove myself."

McDonald looks to be vying with Josh Kennedy for a starting berth in a lone striking role against Qatar but hinted he was hoping coach Pim Verbeek would opt to start both in the match.