Scotland cruise to victory

Colin Hendry is congratulated on opening the scoring

Scotland 4-0 San Marino

While there was never any danger of Scotland emulating Belgium's 10-1 victory over the tiny republic of San Marino, the Scots' domination of this game was complete.

Two goals from skipper Colin Hendry and one apiece for Billy Dodds and Colin Cameron tells only a fraction of the story.

Goalkeeper Neil Sullivan was called on only once, with the scoresheet blank, to halt the Sammarinese.

His counterpart, Federico Gasperoni, was somewhat busier at the other end with the Scots camped in the minnows' penalty area.

Craig Brown's men were always going to find it hard to emerge from such a game with any real credit.

Rocketed

Indeed, the first quarter of the match was somewhat tedious, with Scotland unable to break down the ten man-defence of the visitors.

It was left to captain Hendry to show his forwards the way to goal, and he did it in some style.

Craig Burley's corner from the left was headed against the upright by Matt Elliott, and with Gasperoni grounded, Hendry lashed the ball into the top corner with his left foot.

As if that was not enough for the veteran defender, he proceeded to better it with his second.

Another Burley corner, this time from the right, was missed by everyone in the penalty area and when the ball fell to Hendry, his right-foot shot fairly rocketed by Gasperoni.

While Hendry spent the rest of the match desperately trying to notch his hat-trick, Scotland played some good football, though the resistance offered was minimal.

Billy Dodds heads home no.3

Billy Dodds grabbed his third goal in the space of five days just a minute after Hendry's second, when the sublime Hutchison hit an inch-perfect cross for the little striker to head past Gasperoni.

Dodds might have scored a second before half-time when a header came back off the post and Colin Cameron got himself into good shooting positions, but his finishing let him down.

Cameron did get the goal he deserved in the second half, capitalising on a knock-down by Kevin Gallacher who had just replaced Dominic Matteo.

Pleased

Scotland can probably consider themselves unfortunate not to have scored more, with several chances going a-begging.

Hutchison missed a glaring opportunity at the beginning of the second half, Dodds should have had a penalty and Gasperoni made three or four good stops to keep the scoreline respectable.

Colin Cameron makes it 4-0

The Scots can be relatively pleased with the performance, if not with the lack of quality finishing.

San Marino, for their part, did what was expected of them - defended in numbers - and deserve credit for only conceding four.

Their one professional player, striker Andy Selva, ploughed a lone furrow up front and showed that, in a better team, he could be dangerous.

Colin Hendry took the shine off his and the team's performance late on with a sickening elbow on substitute Albani.

The incident was missed by the match officials but Uefa are sure to discipline the defender for his actions.

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Scotland: Sullivan, Hendry, Elliott, Weir, Matteo, Cameron, Lambert, Burley, Johnston, Hutchison, Dodds.

Subs: Douglas, Pressley, Holt, Boyd, Gallacher, Gemmill, Rae.

San Marino: Federico Gasperoni, Della Balda, Marani, Bacciocche, Matteoni, Gobbi, Riccardo Muccioli, Zonzoni, Vanucci, Manzaroli, Andy Selva.

Subs: De Luigi, Roberto Selva, Montagna, Cristian Selva, Ceccoli, Albani, Bugli.

Referee: P Kari (Finland)