SCOTLAND appear to have mastered the black art of taking a roasting without being burned. Certainly the 2,000 or so Swedes who formed part of a 46,738 capacity crowd at Ibrox would leave with the conviction that some malevolent sorcery was at work against a visiting team who generally outplayed the Scots and missed enough scoring chances to have won an entire series of World Cup qualifiers.
The concept of luck usually has no place in the pragmatic business of football, but those who witnessed a victory which takes Craig Brown's side to the top of Group Four would be entitled to argue with that observation.
The idea that the Swedes had been not so much in decline as unfortunate since finishing third in the 1994 World Cup finals had been circulating freely before yesterday's game. Brown himself said they had virtually overrun Austria in Stockholm last month and lost 1-0, including among their woes a missed penalty by Kennet Andersson.
The towering Bologna striker - replaced the injured Dahlin after only 16 minutes yesterday and spent the remaining 74 demonstrating how he has managed not to score a single goat for his club this season. By way of contrast, John McGinlay scored with the only genuinely convertible chance the Scots created in the entire match.
Only nine minutes had gone when Boyd played the ball in from the left and Jackson's - dummy allowed it to run towards the penalty area. McGinlay, whose hot streak at Bolton in recent months made him a good choice for his country, took it in his stride, held off Bjorklund as he moved to the right and sent a low drive from 12 yards away to the right of Ravelli.
The Swedish coach, Tommy Svensson, changed his normal 4-4-2 formation to a 4-5-1 to ensure that the Scots' wide players, McNamara and Tosh McKinlay, would be clamped. That accomplished, players such as Thern, Zetterberg and Schwarz proceeded to dominate the heart of the midfield and make menacing progress towards Leighton.
Once in the vicinity, however, they found a veteran goalkeeper in the form of a twentysomething, leaping to make saves, sprinting out to block at forwards' feet and springing up to punch or hold the crosses and corners which Blomqvist and Alexandersson hurled towards him with alarming regularity.
If, however, Leighton was brilliant - and ably supported by the twin pillars, Hendry and Calderwood - Kennet Andersson must have left the stadium so depressed that he might have gone looking for a tall building.
There would have been nothing Leighton could have done in the 37th minute when Bjorklund laid a centre from the right plumb on the forehead of the big striker. The ball, from 10 yards, hurtled away to the goalkeeper's left, but wide of the post.
Blomqvist, the Gothenburg winger who is so highly regarded throughout Europe that he is expected to join AC Milan in the next week or so, was yet again a source of anxiety for Svensson. He has now played 18 internationals without a goal or a memorable performance.
His form for his country seemed to be typified midway through the second half when he was left looking at the whites of Leighton's eyes by a magnificent chip from Kennet Andersson. The goalkeeper stood his ground and Blomqvist drove the ball against him.
The Scots will surely play better when some injured players return. But they are unlikely ever to match such a terrific result to such a poor performance.
