Better and better

welovefitba failed to predict the scoreline on Saturday, so apologies if any of you were looking here for betting advice (very inadvisable). We were halfway there... Scotland obliged with a goal from a Paul Hartley corner, but France blew it by failing to find the net themselves. In the circumstances, we're very happy to be proved wrong.

(Happy, also, to laugh at the Daily Mirror tipster, and any punters he persuaded to part with their money. He recommended backing Scotland to lose against both France and the Ukraine at 7-4 - because it was "a certainty").

If you were being French, you could argue that Scotland rode their luck. But the home side had put themselves in the position to benefit from any good fortune through astute tactics and hard work. The first half was mostly one-way traffic, as France attacked time and time again, but Scotland never lost their shape or composure. Instead, they remained organised and focused, each player performing their role. They knew that if they could frustrate their visitors long enough, an opportunity might present itself to snatch a goal of their own. And that's exactly what happened.

The 5-4-1 formation was not a surprise, but Walter Smith had unexpectedly given James McFadden the opportunity to lead the line. McFadden lacks the physical presence or predatory instinct desirable in a lone striker, and fluffed the one clear chance he got, but he harried and hassled every minute he was on the pitch, helping to stop France grab control of the game. In midfield, Hartley, Ferguson and Fletcher all did well, while the back line never stopped working. And when all that failed, Scotland had Craig Gordon in goal, who looks better and better with each game. Apparently, Arsene Wenger is a fan.

The set-up will be the same in Kiev on Wednesday, although Dailly is suspended and will need to be replaced at right-back. Kenny Miller will return, fresh after his own suspension, and surely McFadden will stay in the team, although pushed to the left of midfield. The only sour note of the weekend was revealed this morning, when Garry O'Connor failed to show up at the team hotel and was dropped from the squad. The Locomotiv Moscow player is unhappy in Russia and wants to return to the UK, with his family apparently unsettled. Scuppering his place in the squad seems an odd way to engineer a move, however, and his conduct is inexcusable. Scotland are on the up, but their revival has been based on discipline. This applies off the pitch as well as on it.