Scotland's embarrassment is incomplete

Faroe Islands 2 Scotland

It was not quite Scapa Flow, but Berti Vogts must have feared his Scotland mission had been scuttled in the waters of the North Atlantic yesterday, until Paul Lambert and Barry Ferguson mounted a salvage operation.

The respective captains of Celtic and Rangers united in the cause of their country, each contributing a goal to stave off the ignominy of defeat by the Faroe Islands in the opening game of the European Championship qualifying campaign.

Scotland seemed to be cut adrift by two early goals from local hero John Petersen until Lambert offered a lifeline and then Ferguson drove in an equaliser seven minutes from the end.

"I can't understand what happened," said Vogts. "We were not on the pitch for the opening 45 minutes and I have to speak to my players – that was not good enough for international football."

Few pre-match journeys at international level can be as unorthodox as the ferry from Torshavn, the largest town in the Faroes, to Toftir, the inhospitable, rocky outcrop where the hosts had famously held the Scots to a draw in a European Championship tie three years ago.

Vogts had criticised the Faroes for using the venue but had conducted a private inspection of the pitch on Friday evening and announced that he had no complaints about the much-criticised surface. The same, sadly, could not be said of his players after the most ignominious first half in Scotland's history.

There seemed little anxiety in the body language of Vogts' team as Lambert led them out to the bizarre sight of Scotland flags nailed into the rock face that acts as a shelter from the biting North Atlantic wind on the far side of the ground.

The islanders are used to the climate, but within 12 minutes they had invented a new way of keeping warm: jumping up and down furiously while hugging their neighbours. Two goals from Petersen had catapulted this tiny football country, just downwind of the north pole, to somewhere over the moon.

There seemed little threat when the Faroes launched their first incursion upfield after six minutes, but Jakup Borg's cross superbly picked out Petersen, exploiting Christian Dailly's lack of awareness to get behind the West Ham defender and summon up a diving header that flew past Robert Douglas.

Scotland visibly froze. Their task suddenly looked hazardous. Five minutes later, it looked like mission impossible. Scott Dobie's poor control allowed Borg to open up Scotland again on the right, but his cross ought to have been cut out by David Weir. Instead, the Everton defender could only watch in agony as Petersen crept in behind him and volleyed his shot past the stunned Douglas.

On the bench, Vogts was motionless. His players mirrored that. It took Scotland half an hour before they could even carve out a chance of their own, but Kevin Kyle failed to keep his header down after Allan Johnston had picked him out.

Johnston had scored on this pitch in 1999, but the Middlesbrough player squandered an opportunity to half the deficit, slicing a volley into the side netting after a cross from Maurice Ross.

Three minutes before the interval, Dailly miscued when faced only by goalkeeper Jens Knudsen, allowing Sjurour Jakobsen to hook the ball off the line.

The sight of Petersen pausing to conduct a television interview at the mouth of the tunnel must have jarred with Scotland's players as they headed for their own question and answer session with Vogts.

Perhaps Petersen's new found-fame went to his head because the Faroes hero threw away the chance to inscribe his hat-trick. Eight minutes into the second half, Weir floundered as Borg eluded him and delivered a cutback that had the goal at Petersen's mercy, but the striker leaned back and blazed his shot over.

It was a reprieve and Scotland made full use of it. Stephen Crainey's throw-in was headed on by Kyle and though Steve Crawford was suffocated by a swarm of Faroes defenders, he shrewdly pushed the ball back into the path of Lambert, whose right foot shot took a deflection on its way past Knudsen. Crawford almost had the game level within three minutes, rounding Jacobsen and striking a fine right-foot shot thatwas spilled and cleared for a corner.

Scotland were far from back, though. The Weir-Dailly axis creaked under the fierce scrutiny and the Everton player's frustration boiled over when he was booked for elbowing Borg in the face.

However, Ferguson dragged Scotland back from the brink of humiliation late on. Crainey'spass was dummied by Crawford to allow Ferguson to profit from his burst through the middle. The Rangers player deftly controlled the ball with his head before steering a shot beyond Knudsen. It was a fleeting moment of composure on a wretched day for the Scots.

Faroe Islands 2
Petersen 6, 12

Scotland 2
Lambert 61, Ferguson 83

Half-time: 2-0 Attendance: 4,000