Elliott confirms first strike capability

CRAIG BROWN was 20 minutes from the firing squad last night but will this morning wake up to the sight of his Scottish team as clear leaders of their World Cup group. The challenge, which characteristically proves most difficult of all for Brown's group - dismissing Europe's small fry - brought him to the brink of calamity in San Marino. Typically, as the wolves began to gather, Brown was saved by two late goals which enabled him to instead boast of his impressive sequence of recent away matches.

Scotland were laboured and lacked composure against opposition whose tactics were unsophisticated but almost effective. Only once from 44 competitive games had San Marino avoided defeat, but they almost claimed another scalp last night - seven years after drawing with Turkey.

Scotland's 2-0 victory was the third time they had achieved that scoreline in three visits to San Marino, but last night's victory was the most anxious and difficult of all. A series of chances were squandered, which could be ominous going into Wednesday's clash with Croatia. In Zagreb, there may be only one chance for Scotland to miss, and Miroslav Blazevic's side can be relied upon to pose more of a threat to Neil Sullivan than San Marino did last night. Sullivan, who did not have a save to make, may as well have spent the evening wondering around the tourist stalls of San Marino.

"It was not an ideal type of game. We got victory but not the goals we should have had. You can't make serious judgements on these types of games. I am not critical of the players because there was no lack of effort. We just did not get the breaks. It wasn't a comfortable hour or so for us because the breakthrough was a long time coming.

"You have to remember they didn't even have a shot at our goalkeeper and we also hit the woodwork twice. With San Marino it is damage limitation.

"We know we are not a heaven-sent team, but there is no lack of effort and it is hard to criticise after drawing two and winning five of our last seven away games."

Brown revealed Christian Dailly, who suffered a clash of heads in the first half, had sustained a broken nose and required three stitches. He is now very doubtful for the Croatia match while Neil McCann must also recover from the ankle injury which ended his involvement at half time. Craig Burley, however, will return to the side in Zagreb, although it seems likely that Dominic Matteo will be unavailable and will have to wait for the chance to make his international debut.

Matt Elliott scored his first goal for Scotland and had suspected the breakthrough would never come. The Leicester captain was one of several players guilty of squandering chances when he fired an early shot at the goalkeeper which should have brought a goal. Only 20 minutes from the end did the breakthrough come.

He said: "A few of the lads, myself included, had one or two great opportunities early on and failed to take them. If we had failed to score at all there would have been others to blame as well, not just myself. A few words were said at half time. We were not getting too tense but it was at the back of our minds it could be one of those bad luck nights. The goal came at the right time. The supporters were getting a bit nervous and I think the goal settled them down as well.

"It is a great honour to score an international goal. It's been a little while coming, but it's a great moment for me and it helped the team as well.

"It would have been nice to go on and justify the amount of possession we had with goals. We had the chances but it wasn't to be. It could have been a bigger win, but on the other hand could also have been a lot worse. Most importantly we now have six points.

"We had a number of chances and I don't think the score really reflected the status between the two teams although at the end 2-0 is a reasonable score for us.

"Croatia will be different, a quality side and a great atmosphere. They are one of the top sides and we will have to be on the top of our game to get something out of it."

While Elliott was on target for the first time for his country, Don Hutchison's goal was his sixth in 12 international appearances. The Sunderland man began in an attacking midfield role, but Scotland's territorial advantage was so overwhelming that everyone bar Neil Sullivan pushed up throughout the match.

Until Hutchison scored the second, though, it threatened to be the first humiliation he had suffered since coming into Brown's squad.

"It was getting frustrating because at half time we felt we could have been five or six up," he said. "In the first half if we were guilty of anything it was trying too hard. We relaxed a bit after the break.

"In the first half we were creating and missing chances and when that happens you always feel that it could be one of those nights. That is San Marino's style, not majorly technically gifted. 0-0 is a major result for them. They feel they should get a bit of credit and the longer it stays at 0-0 the more they are putting into the game.