SOCCER / Scotland 1 Holland 0: To any Hibernocentrics out there this might best be described as a game between a side that provided Mick McCarthy with the best day of his career in international management and the one against which Brian Kerr made a winning start after taking over the Irish team last February.
To judge by Saturday's performance the Scots have come a long way in nine months while the Dutch are still the perfect guests to have round for a crunch qualifying game.
Both managers were at pains, of course, to stress afterwards that the contest is only at the half-way point although, with James McFadden's first-half strike in this match giving the Scots a slim, but important, advantage to take to the Amsterdam Arena on Wednesday, the Dutch know they will have to step up a gear or two if they to avoid another humiliating exit from a major championship.
A passionate display by the home team in front a crowd of 50,677, most of whom never really recovered their composure from the time Mel Gibson's call to arms from the film Braveheart was belted out to them at full volume 10 minutes before the kick-off, was just the latest instalment in what has been a quite remarkable turnaround since Berti Vogts's men pretty much hit rock bottom in April.
They had added a defeat by Lithuania in Kaunus back then to the slightly fortunate draw in the Faroe Islands which they had played out in their opening game of this qualifying campaign and afterwards even the dogs in the street had it that the SFA would have sent their German coach packing if only they could have afforded the pay-off.
On Saturday even Vogts half-heartedly played down the scale of the achievement since, the former World Cup winner observing that "we changed a lot of things, the players, the system but even now we have a club team rather than a national team so to beat a Dutch side with so many quality players, some of the best in the world, is brilliant, easily the best since I have been here".
Vogts, treated with fairly open derision in the aftermath of Ireland's 2-0 win was listened to with newly acquired respect as he spoke, was a stark contrast from Advocaat's press conference which descended into a long and testy exchange between the coach and the Dutch media over tactics and the apportionment of blame. As was also the case with Louis van Gaal in Dublin two years ago, the former Rangers boss was baffled as to why his players had failed him.
Part of the answer certainly lay in the relentless determination of a technically inferior Scottish side not to be brushed aside. Pitting Steven Pressley and Lee Wilkie against Patrick Kluivert and Ruud van Nistelrooy is, you would think, something Vogts would do with a heavy heart but the two central defenders were inspired, making a succession of vital tackles or blocks over the course of the 90 minutes.
Deployed once again just in front of the defence, Christian Dailly was also outstanding in this, his 50th international appearance, and the West Ham defender will be sorely missed on Wednesday - more so, one suspects than Jaap Stam, who is also due to be suspended - if, as expected, the Scots fail to have his first-half booking overturned by UEFA over the coming days.
Vogts, though, insists that his team now has nothing to lose as they travel to Amsterdam where the pressure will all be on their more illustrious opponents and to judge by their demeanour afterwards the Dutch agreed.
With 70 minutes still to play when they conceded the goal, the visitors proved incapable of opening up their hosts and the majority of their opportunities were hurried half chances, not at all what would be expected from such gifted technicians.
They should, to be fair, have had a penalty after 36 minutes when Jackie McNamara tripped Marc Overmars, while Gary Naysmith also had to clear off the line from Frank de Boer before the break.
Steadily they tightened their grip on the proceedings, enjoying some 60 per cent of the possession, managing 16 attempts on goal compared with the Scots's six and winning 11 corners to just one for the home side. It made no difference, however, for the visitors managed little real penetration and while a couple of good chances were squandered, Rafael van der Vaart's shot against the crossbar in the 64th minute was the only occasion on which Robert Douglas looked beaten.
The Scots, meanwhile, managed to maintain a slight threat, with breaks late on, but always looked as if they felt McFadden's goal was an advantage they were prepared to settle for ahead of the second leg. The striker took his chance well with the ball coming back to him after his short corner thanks to Darren Fletcher's clever flick and though his first-time shot took a deflection off de Boer on the way past Edwin van der Sar, there was no doubt that the pair, whose overall contribution was huge, deserved all of the credit.
It would be nice to think that the small but significant injection of young blood we are likely to see in the Irish side might have as positive an impact.
SCOTLAND: Douglas; McNamara, Pressley, Wilkie, Naysmith; Dailly; Fletcher, Ferguson, McCann (Pearson, 71 mins); Dickov (Miller, 65 mins), McFadden (Hutchison, 91 mins).
HOLLAND: Van der Sar; Ooijer, Stam, F de Boer, Van Bronckhorst (Seedorf, half-time); Cocu, Davids (van der Vaart, 60 mins); Van der Meyde, Kluivert (Makaay, 76 mins), Overmars; Van Nistelrooy.
Referee: T Hauge (Norway).
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