Five goals to the good by half-time, Scotland went on to win 6-0 and record their most emphatic victory since Finland were defeated by the same score at Hampden in 1976. The only pity was several thousand supporters missing the early stages of the slaughter as they queued outside Celtic Park, where the new turnstile technology baffled them.
Inside, Scotland’s strikers were queuing up to score. Their hunger even degenerated into haggling when Kris Boyd and James McFadden both wanted to take a 24th-minute penalty, which the Rangers player eventually converted while the Everton one sulked. The bickering was needless as McFadden was already on the scoresheet by then, while Boyd would claim his second by half-time.
If the spree could be traced back to one man, though, it was Darren Fletcher. The Manchester United midfielder opened the scoring after seven minutes and went on to give a performance of driving excellence throughout the first half. He also brought a touch of mature class to proceedings when winning then pointedly handing Scotland’s second penalty in this period to Kenny Miller. The Celtic striker, who had yet to score at his new home, managed to squeeze it through the dive of Jakup Mikkelsen, a goalkeeper discarded by Partick Thistle who was as porous as a colander. When Fletcher departed at half-time, much of Scotland’s brio went with him and they only added their sixth when Garry O’Connor bundled in McFadden’s cross five minutes from time.
The Lokomotiv Moscow striker was perhaps already familiar with Igor Egorov, the erratic Russian referee, who handed out four red cards and 16 yellow cards at the World Cup finals. After giving Scotland their two penalties, he also handed bookings to Fletcher and Miller which could prove costly later in the campaign. More rigorous tests will come in a group that includes the two World Cup finalists, who meet in Paris on Wednesday, Ukraine and Georgia. Next in Scotland’s sights, though, are Lithuania, another country who have proved pesky in the past, on Wednesday in Kaunas. Smith believes that Fletcher, who took a bang at the junction of his hip and back, should be fit for that test.
How different it was to the misery on a clifftop pitch four years ago in Toftir, when Scotland found themselves two goals down to the North Atlantic islanders within 12 minutes before scraping a 2-2 draw at the start of their Euro 2004 campaign in Berti Vogts’s first competitive game in charge. The German’s attempts to shift the blame afterwards onto his players had ramifications in the premature retirement of David Weir from international football. Brought back by Smith, the Everton stalwart won his 49th cap as captain in the absence of Barry Ferguson and strolled through it in a defence that was rarely troubled.
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Jakup A Borg inflicted much of Scotland’s misery that day as a right-winger but was on the receiving end this time as a right-back. Only seven minutes had gone when Miller skipped past him down Scotland’s left and flashed the ball across the Faroes’ six-yard box. Fletcher connected and although the ball barely crossed the line, he didn’t even bother to look to the Russian linesman before celebrating a goal. It was indeed upheld and Scotland quickly increased their lead. Miller was lining up a shot on the edge of box when he was tackled but the ball broke to McFadden, who found the bottom corner with a precise stroke of his left foot.
With the two scorers flanking Kris Boyd in an attacking 4-3-3, Scotland threatened constantly and also had assistance from Mr Egorov’s sudden propensity for pointing dramatically at the penalty spot. McFadden won the first penalty from a challenge by Oli Johanssen but Boyd grabbed the ball and could not be parted from it. Fletcher drew the second award, after Atli Danielsen handled when making a clumsy sliding challenge on him, and should then have scored himself when McFadden flicked the ball to him in the box but his shot hit Mikkelsen. He soon made amends by slipping a pass through to Boyd, who turned in the rebound after his initial effort was saved.
Craig Gordon was perhaps bored at the other end because he came for a punch when he should have left a cross to Steven Pressley and the subsequent spillage had to be mopped up by Christian Dailly. Yet with Dailly and Gary Naysmith covering back diligently from their forays forward, Scotland were rarely threatened. Nevertheless, they lost much of their impetus without Fletcher. Boyd might have connected when Paul Hartley dropped a pass over his shoulder in the box and McFadden curled a free-kick on target when Johannesen bowled the Rangers striker over on the edge of his box. When Atli Danielsen did the same for the Faroes, Gordon was forced into a rare save which served to emphasise that Scotland’s forward flow had mostly ceased.
Smith introduced O’Connor for Miller in an attempt to get his team going again and also to rest the latter for the harrying shift he performs so well in away games. After much huffing and puffing, O’Connor finally got the sixth. The margin only matched Georgia’s victory in Toftir last month, but Scotland, so often bitten by so-called minnows in the past, were glad to gulp down the goals and confidence.
STAR MAN: Darren Fletcher (Scotland)