Scots struggle past world’s worst team

A two-goal win over the worst team in the world rankings certainly does not constitute redemption for Alex Mcleish as far as the Tartan Army are concerned. That much was evident from the catcalls and jeers which frequently emanated from the travelling support in the Stadio Olimpico as Scotland made hard labour of getting their first points on the board in Group I.

It will take more than this scrappy performance to ease the pressure on Mcleish and, for those who opposed his appointment in the first place, it will only serve to reinforce enduring scepticism.

Still, the manager can point out that, on their fourth visit to the hillside arena in the microstate of San Marino, he did no worse than the visits of 1991, 1995 and 2000, all of which produced the same outcome.

The TV audience and those in the ground were united in debate over the manager’s selection, which ditched half the outfield players who took part in the ignominious 3-0 defeat in Kazakhstan.

Stephen O’donnell and Andrew Robertson filled the full-back berths in place of Liam Palmer and Graeme Shinnie, with Kenny Mclean in for John Mcginn in midfield. The three-man forward line was discarded in its entirety, with Johnny Russell, Callum Paterson and Ryan Fraser coming in. The talking point to this displacement was the inclusion of Paterson, pushed forward, who had in common with the absent strikers that he had never scored at this level.

Neither, for that matter, had Mclean, but the Norwich City man set Scotland on the way after only four minutes when he met a Fraser cross with a clever header away beyond Elia Benedettini for an opener which lanced the tension that had lingered from the loss in Nursultan.

Another of the same was needed to lift the Scottish support but, in an all too familiar fashion, it was withheld, partly by Benedettini – who produced a double save to deny Stuart Armstrong – and by San Marino’s two banks of five.

As half-time approached, with no change to the status quo, noisy dissatisfaction emanated from the visiting fans, whose mood was not