Feeble Faroes gift Scots rich pickings for feast

Scotland 6

Fletcher (7)
McFadden (10)
Boyd (24pen, 38)
Miller (30pen)
O’Connor (85)

Faroe Islands 0

SCOTLAND'S association with the Faroe Islands has much in common with Sean Connery's relationship with money. "I've been poor and I've been rich," the veteran actor once said, when discussing his colourful financial history. "Rich is better."

Over the years, under different managers, the national team's collisions with the little Danish dependency in the north Atlantic have produced similar extremes of highs and humiliations.

As Walter Smith would confirm after this latest meeting, the opening match in the Euro 2008 qualifying series, the top end of the spectrum is emphatically more rewarding.

Whether or not the form may be a measure of the prospects of success in future, assuredly more demanding fixtures in Group B is, for the time being, something of an irrelevance.

The priority at present is to welcome the wide-margin victory for what it is, Scotland's biggest win for 30 years and an immensely pleasing change to the starts made in the 2006 World Cup and Euro 2004 campaigns, which yielded, respectively, a fortunate scoreless draw at home to Slovenia and a hapless 2-2 draw in the Faroes.

In any case, as Lithuania discovered in their 1-1 draw in Italy later in the day, there are no easy games in international football these days. Unless, that is, you are confronted with a goalkeeper suffering the kind of paralysis that appeared to affect the wretched Jakup Mikkelsen at Celtic Park.

When the one-time Partick Thistle player made hand contact with - but failed to stop - the penalty kick conversion that brought Kris Boyd the first of his two goals, the kindly view would be that he may have been a little unfortunate. When he got his body down on top of the attempt from the spot by Kenny Miller soon after, however, allowing the ball to squirm over the line suggested extreme carelessness. By the time, late in the match, he allowed substitute Garry O'Connor's miscued left-foot shot to bobble over the line for the sixth goal, Mikkelsen was clearly traumatised.

In a way, the goalkeeper's dreaminess detracted slightly from the comprehensive authority of the Scots' performance. If, as it is easy to suspect, the Faroes team have deteriorated in the past couple of years - they had, after all, lost 6-0 at home to Georgia in their first game - it is also reasonable to suggest that claims for the improvement in morale and self-belief wrought by Smith in the Scotland squad are quite legitimate.

While some of the goals may have seemed to have been procured cheaply, there was no avoiding the conviction and the refusal to have anything to do with failure that coursed through the home side.

The fact that Craig Gordon, in goal, had about as much to do in the game as a passer-by, was testimony to the comfort of a back four that comprised Christian Dailly on the right, Steven Pressley and David Weir in the middle and Gary Naysmith on the left.

Their collective idleness would have much to do with the control imposed in midfield by Darren Fletcher - the Manchester United man's work would be continued by his replacement, Gary Teale, after the half-time break - Paul Hartley and, until his removal for Scott Severin seven minutes from the end, Nigel Quashie.

This trio's possessiveness, with Hartley's perceptiveness and accuracy in the pass especially effective, ensured that the forwards, Miller, Boyd and James McFadden would be regularly supplied with opportunities to pester the over-worked Faroese defenders.

Players with the skill of McFadden regard these one-sided occasions as an invitation to demonstrate - and to enjoy - the talent with which they have been endowed.

It is an indicator of the Everton striker's urge to maximise the pleasure he derives from his gifts that he should take the huff when Boyd rushed to snatch the ball to take the first penalty.

McFadden had been brought down by Oli Johannesen and clearly felt that he should execute the conversion. But the former Motherwell man was already on the scorers' list and would continue to provide an astonishing 50,000-plus crowd with the entertainment aspect of the business.

McFadden's was, in fact, the best of the six goals in that it was the most difficult to score and the purest of finishes.

It was after Miller had forced his way inside from the left and had his shot blocked that McFadden left-footed the loose ball from the edge of the penalty area low and far to the right of Mikkelsen.

Fletcher's opener had also been the product of skilful aggression from Miller, the Celtic forward nimbly escaping challenges on the left before carrying the ball along the by-line and sending it with pace across the goalmouth with the outside of his right foot.

Fletcher came in from the right to first-time his right-foot drive and the entire exercise would have been more thrilling had Mikkelsen not stopped the ball about a foot over the goal line, leaving the stand-side referee's assistant to confirm that the Scots had taken their early lead.

It was after Atli Danielsen had handled when attempting to tackle Fletcher on the left that Miller finally scored his first goal of the season.

Boyd completed his double, giving him an extraordinary four goals from three international appearances, when running on to Fletcher's incisive through pass, hitting Mikkelsen with his shot, and following up to slide the rebound left-footed over the line from close range.

If Smith was not entirely satisfied with the performance on the grounds that there was a noticeable reduction in effectiveness in the second half before O'Connor's late strike, he would, nevertheless, be as warmed as everyone else in the stadium by the Scots' widest-margin of victory in a competitive match since the 8-0 defeat of Cyprus in 1969.

As the great Hungarian team of the 1950s consistently showed, running up an impressive total against inferior opposition can be beneficial in terms of self-belief for the more rigorous tests that lie ahead.

After their own gratifying achievement in Naples at the weekend, Lithuania in Kaunas on Wednesday may be one of them.

Scotland: Gordon; Dailly, Weir, Pressley, Naysmith; Fletcher (Teale 45), Hartley, Quashie (Severin 84); Miller (O'Connor 61), Boyd, McFadden. Subs not used: N Alexander, G Alexander, Anderson, Caldwell.

Faroe Islands: Mikkelsen, P Hansen, Johannesen, Danielsen, J Joensen, Benjaminsen, Johnsson (Simun Samuelsen 76), Borg, Frederiksberg (Thorleifsson 60), C Jacobsen, R Jacobsen (Nielsen 84). Subs not used: M Joensen, C Jorgensen, H Samuelsen, Mortensen.

Taken from the Scotsman