Rampant Scotland put minnows in their place

Scotland (5) 6 Faroe Islands (0) 0

The sub-arctic climate of the Faroes is not conducive to growing tropical fruit, but the resourceful footballers of the barren North Atlantic islands have been adept at strewing banana skins in Scotland's path. This is the fourth consecutive qualifying campaign to bring these countries together and although the Scots still have to travel to the clifftop eyrie of Toftir – where they were held to stumbling draws during the reigns of Craig Brown and Berti Vogts – they could scarcely have asked for a more emphatic start to their Euro 2008 campaign than was witnessed here yesterday.

Kenny Miller and Kris Boyd
K-class: Kris Boyd (l) celebrates his goal with Kenny Miller

There were still pratfalls, to be sure, but on this occasion the jester's role was worn by Jakup Mikkelsen, the Faroese goalkeeper, who was able only to grasp two shots securely. Allowing for the Faroe Islands' lowly status in the rankings, it would be harsh to heap too much responsibility on Mikkelsen's shoulders, especially since this represented the second game in a row that he and his colleagues have shipped half a dozen goals.

Still, he is not exactly inexperienced – this was his 44th international appearance – and his average concession prior to yesterday was almost exactly two goals a game. Given that Scotland forwards have not figured among the world's most prolific attackers in recent years, the experience was most heartening for them, particularly in view of the more demanding task ahead against Lithuania in Kaunas on Wednesday.

For the first couple of minutes of this contest, old ghosts threatened to haunt the Tartan Army as the Faroese began with vigour and knocked the ball about neatly. Paul Hartley, though, charted a course for his colleagues with a shot from distance which skipped narrowly past Mikkelsen's post.

After seven minutes Kenny Miller demonstrated that he was in livewire form with a darting run that took him clean away from Jakup Borg and into space behind the Faroese defence, from where he struck the ball straight across goal.

Darren Fletcher was lurking near the back post and from a quite improbable angle he struck his shot first time, low and hard. Mikkelsen seemed to be caught out by the unlikely effort and only got his hand to it a foot or so behind the line.

Scotland had precisely the start they craved and the celebratory anthems were still booming from the crowd of 50,059 when the Scots doubled their margin. Again Miller was the catalyst, this time touching a cutback towards James McFadden, who cleverly clipped the ball straight between Mikkelsen and his near post.

Jorgen Martin Olsen, the Faroese coach, screamed at his errant goalkeeper but there was worse to come. Midway through the half the visitors' captain, Oli Johannesen, tripped Miller inside the box and although Mikkelsen got a hand to Kris Boyd's conversion, he lacked the strength to keep it out.

Likewise, when Atli Danielsen toppled Fletcher on the half hour, Miller's attempt from the spot went straight through the keeper to give him his first successful strike on his home ground. Boyd made it 5-0 before the break after Mikkelsen blocked his first attempt but could not stop the Rangers forward turning the rebound home.

The interval brought much talk of records to be broken – the Scotland's best qualifying group score was 8-0 against Cyprus in the World Cup in 1968 – but after the restart it was obvious that Scotland had dropped down a couple of gears and only Garry O'Connor's left foot swipe, utterly fumbled by Mikkelsen, proved productive.

Still, aside from a back spasm that forced the precautionary removal of Fletcher at half time, Scotland had a perfect day. "It was a great start for us because the Faroe Islands have shown in the past that they can be awkward," said Smith.

"We set out our stall to get at them from the start. It doesn't always work but we're very glad of the consequences on this occasion."

Taken from telegraph.co.uk