GARY MCALLISTER ended a five-year international scoring drought to steer Scotland another giant stride along the road to France in Minsk yesterday.

McAllister's 49th-minute penalty beat Belarus to register three more vital World Cup points for Craig Brown's Braveheatts.

And for captain McAllister it must have wiped out the memory of a Wembley spot-kick miss against England at Euro 96 last June.

Darren Jackson won the award from Turkish referee Ahmed Cakar but there seemed little doubt about its validity with Erik Yakhimovich guilty of the foul.

Now Brown's side have registered a fifth win in eight ties this season as they seek Group Four security in the qualification race with Austria and Sweden.

Belarus, joint bottom of the group, and Latvia have still to come to Scotland in the autumn and six more points will surely guarantee at least second place for Scotland.

The second-half was only three minutes old when Paul Lambert fed the ball forward to Jackson who worked a one two with Durie before inviting a rash challenge from Yakhimovich. The Turkish referee Ahmet Cakar pointed to the spot.

McAllister, who missed against England at Wembley so memorably a year ago accepted his responsibility as captain and fired home the spot-kick.