EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP/Group Five:Lithuania - 1 Scotland - 0:One German manager departed this freezing arena last night buoyed with his side's qualification chances dramatically improved, but it was not Berti Vogts. Instead, as Rudi Voller saunters home, Scotland's players awake this morning humiliated in ignominious defeat.
Lithuania may have owed their unlikely success to a dubious penalty, awarded by an error-prone Austrian official, but the Scots only had themselves to blame. Against a side ranked 43 places below them, Scotland laboured as if transfixed by their coach's pre-match rhetoric which suggested a point would suffice. Such limited ambition was always likely to cost them. Jackie McNamara's apparent trip on the substitute Darius Maciulevicius - there was slight contact - was punished by Tomas Razanauskas's penalty.
With the concession went top spot in the group - Germany rescaled the summit on goal difference with Algihantas Liubinskas's side joining the bottleneck on seven points - though demotion to second place was less of a concern. More worrying was this toothless display as Vogts departed to a chorus of boos.
In truth, they should have strolled to victory against shambolic opponents though there was far too much strolling and not enough urgency. Lee Wilkie's choked volley from Kenny Miller's lay-off, gathered by Gintaras Stauce after 15 minutes, represented their only effort of a mind-numbing first half. Steven Pressley's header just over the bar from Graham Alexander's free-kick was the only opportunity created from which to muster parity.
The dithering home side's centre halves gawped ridiculously whenever Alexander or Gary Naysmith wriggled wide and mustered centres, though Don Hutchison was too often on the periphery supplying his wing-backs with possession.
Neither Miller nor Steve Crawford carried any aerial threat. Paul Devlin's introduction briefly offered the impetus lacking previously, his presence unnerving Nerijus Barasa sufficiently to prompt the defender to lunge in the Birmingham winger's face off the ball. At that stage it appeared the home side's sloppy display on an uncomfortably uneven pitch would ensure the Scots would escape such profligacy with a point.
The Lithuanians were a pale shadow of the side who had plucked a point from Nuremberg at the weekend, with Edgars Jamkauskas's awkward volley from Razanauskas's corner their only effort of note. Paul Gallacher dived amid the mess of bodies on the goal-line to claim that attempt. Other than an array of hopeful shots, that was as busy as he got until the penalty.
Guardian Service
LITHUANIA: Stauce, Semberas, Deruda, Barasa, Petrenko (Maciulevicius 72), Zvirgzdauskas, Morinas, Saulius Mikalajunas (Buitkus 90), Jankauskas (Fomenko 62), Razanauskas, Gleveckas. Subs Not Used: Karcemarkas, Papeckys, Poderis, Dziaukstas. Booked: Gleveckas, Fomenko. Goals: Razanauskas 73 pen.
SCOTLAND: Gallacher, Pressley, Dailly, Wilkie, Graham Alexander, Lambert, McNamara (Gray 78), Naysmith, Hutchison (Cameron 85), Miller, Crawford (Devlin 57). Subs Not Used: Arthur, Malcolm, Gemmill, Ross.
Referee: Fritz Stuchlik (Austria).
