Scotland are world-beaters again!

Yup, we've battered the Faroe Islands, so surely that's Scotland on the way to Euro 2008 then?

In fairness, even the Scotland manager, Walter Smith, refused to get carried away with the 6-0 result on Saturday at Celtic Park (Hampden was unavailable because of a Robbie Williams concert, naturally) even though reasons to celebrate the success of the national team have been limited in recent years. There's another game to come on Wednesday against Hearts (sorry, Lithuania) and he knows more than anybody that only after that game can Scotland's start to the qualifying campaign be properly assessed.

Yet there are several reasons for optimism that Scotland can book their place at their first major finals since the 1998 World Cup, despite a Group of Death that includes France, Italy and Ukraine. Some are rational, some less so, but football is often an irrational game.

The first is that Scottish football is surely bouncing back from its lowest point, and the determination never to return to the lows of just a couple of years ago will spur the team on. Berti Vogts may have had a decent record as manager (he won Euro 96 with Germany) but as Scotland boss he was diabolical. Sure, he didn't have exceptional talent to work with, but when you see players asking the bench what the formation is supposed to be during a game, as happened during the World Cup qualifiers, you know there are serious communication problems. Having hired him on a lengthy and expensive contract, the Scottish Football Association dug their heels in and backed their man, long after it was clear he had no idea what he was doing, and Scotland's status and results suffered as a result. You can only hope the SFA have learned their lesson.

At last, there are some decent players coming through. It's too early to talk about a golden generation, and the Under-21s loss to France shows there is some way to go, but the financial crisis in the domestic game had an unexpected benefit - suddenly clubs were forced to play their youth players, because their was no money to bring anyone else in. Most famously, there are the Hibs Kids, 2 of whom - Kenny Miller and Garry O'Connor - scored yesterday. But other clubs, such as Motherwell, have played their part. The side Scotland put out yesterday was young, with Kenny Miller by far the oldest forward at 26.

Training and development is still too poor, and there is no guarantee that the kids will develop into world class players, even if they have the talent. But the potential is there, and the lack of facilities and proper youth coaching is a talking point across the game. The Scotland team has the look of the side that has yet to reach its peak.

Finally, there's the romantic notion that somehow Scotland are destined to appear in Austria and Switzerland in 2 summer's time. Scotland put in a bid to host Euro 2008, which fell down because their bid partner, Ireland, were arguing about whether they should allow football to be played at "Gaelic sports" grounds. Not surprisingly, UEFA ran a mile from that can of worms.

Of course, the bid attracted the usual derision from South of the border, that the only way Scotland could hope to be at Euro 2008 was by qualifting as host. To get there on merit would be a very satisfying repost.

So, there's a long way to go, and there will no doubt be plenty of heart-in-mouth moments over the next year or so. But Scotland have at last given their supporters something to cheer about.