Era ends with a sobering view of the future

Scotland 2 Latvia 1

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Brown says Ferguson may be tempted

Wherever the coaching flair, man-management skills and unrivalled knowledge of Europe's footballers lead Craig Brown – and managerless Leicester City, for one, would clearly benefit from such attributes – he will not dwell on his Scotland swansong with any fondness.

True, Brown departed with a final World Cup qualifying victory. Yet a display bereft of pace, invention and confidence, against a team lying below Congo, Oman and Burkina Faso in Fifa's world rankings, highlighted the largely humdrum quality of the players his successor will inherit.

The prospect of Scotland's scoring the six or seven goals that might have given them a shot at the play-offs – in the forlorn hope that Belgium won in Croatia – was always remote. Even allowing for that, few of the 23,000 diehards and super-optimists can have expected such a struggle.

Brown's tactics, at least in the first half, were among his less successful. In a putative 3-4-3 formation, Don Hutchison drifted too deep and Neil McCann too wide to support Dougie Freedman on his debut. Only after the break, on reverting to their familiar 3-5-2, did the Scots find cohesion.

By then, a Latvian side cleverly prompted by Vitaly Astafyevs, who cannot even make the bench at Bristol Rovers, had seized and surrendered the lead. Andrei Rubins pounced after a blunder by Christian Dailly, himself bailing out the toiling Matt Elliott, and Neil Sullivan had to be at his best to prevent further goals.

Freedman equalised, haplessly abetted by his club goalkeeping colleague, Alexander Kolinko, and David Weir headed the winner. But even after another switch, to 4-3-3, Scotland were thankful Latvia's best chances fell to the wasteful Rubins and not Marian Pahars.

Barry Nicholson, Scott Severin and Gavin Rae received an opportunity to confound those who maintain Scotland have no outstanding young players emerging. Despite a second-half improvement, an occasion heavy with the sense of an era ending was no context in which to judge the trio.

That will come in the qualifying for Portugal 2004, when the Scots will, for the first time, be drawn from the third "pot" with Wales, Northern Ireland, Latvia and their ilk. As Brown bows out, with dignity intact, such status is a sobering thought for would-be Scotland managers.

Goals: Rubins (21) 0-1; Freedman (44) 1-1; Weir (53) 2-1.

SCOTLAND (3-4-3): Sullivan (Tottenham); Dailly (West Ham), Elliott (Leicester), Weir (Everton); Nicholson (Dunfermline), Burley (Derby), Cameron (Wolves), Davidson (Leicester); Freedman (Crystal Palace), Hutchison (West Ham), McCann (Rangers). Substitutes: Booth (Twente Enschede) for Nicholson, 63; Rae (Dundee) for Elliott, 72; Severin (Hearts) for Hutchison, 77.

LATVIA (4-4-2): Kolinko (Crystal Palace); Isakovs (Dinaburg Daugavpils), I N Stepanovs (Arsenal), Zakreshevsky (Skonto Riga), Blagonadezhdin (Skonto); Bleidelis (Southampton), Astafyevs (Bristol Rovers), Laizans (CSKA Moscow), Rubins (Crystal Palace); Verpakovsky (Skonto), Pahars (Southampton). Substitutes: Kolesnichenko (Skonto) for Bleidelis, 76; Dobrecovs (Metalurgs Liepaja) for Rubins, 83.

Referee: T Hauge (Norway). Bookings: Scotland: Weir. Latvia: Zakrashevsky.

Man of the match: Cameron.

Attendance: 23,228.