Gallus Scotland demand to be taken seriously

What a week! An morally satisfying victory over Lithuania on Saturday was followed on Wednesday night by a stunning win in Paris that leaves Scotland as very serious contenders for Euro 2008 qualification. If the chances of participating in the first major competition since the 1998 World Cup still seemed slightly fancifal a week ago, they now look very, very real.

Lithuania were eventually dispatched with goals from Kris Boyd, Stephen McManus and James McFadden, but not before Lithuania had scored a penalty to level the match at 1-1. Lithuania means mostly one thing to Scottish fans these days - it's the country which runs Hearts - and suitably it was a Hearts player, Saulius Mikoliunas, who conned the referee into giving the penalty, by falling over Darren Fletcher's non-challenge. Typically, this injustice rattled Scotland, but made the eventual win all the sweeter.

Not half as sweet as beating France, though. Scotland are now top of the group on 21 points. With Italy on 20 and France on 19, the job is far from complete, but the fact that Ukraine are now out of the picture on 13 is measure of just what Scotland have achieved so far. Most pundits predicted us finishing no higher than 4th.

Of course, beating France was no easy matter, with Scotland desperately hanging on at times against wave after wave of attack. But, as at Hampden last October, France could not find a way through. Scotland held their own in midfield, forcing their opponents to attack from the flanks, and then threw everything in the way of the ball. When all else failed, Craig Gordon furthered his own claim as one of the best emerging goalkeepers in the world with a number of breathtaking saves. Having given themselves a platform, McFadden then popped up to score the only goal of the game.

Last month, McLeish had talked about the gallus nature of players like McFadden and Scott Brown - a self-confidence, even cockiness, in their natures that allows them to ignore the natural order of things and refuse to accept that anyone is better than them. But the suspicion was that he was really talking about himself, and the attitude and belief now bursting out of the Scotland team. They may line up in a defensive 4-5-1 formation against the big teams in this group, but there is no sense of inferiority amongst the players once on the park.

Scotland now believe they can qualify for Euro 2008. Cocky? Maybe. But France and Italy now know they have a real fight on their hands.