Group B/ Scotland 3 Ukraine 1: Alex Ferguson delivered what was, for him, the ultimate accolade to Cristiano Ronaldo last season when comparing the Manchester United winger to the late, great Celtic legend Jimmy Johnstone.

"Wee Jinky would get kicked all over the place," he reminisced at the football writers' player-of-the-year awards. "But he always wanted the ball back to attack the bully who had kicked him to the ground. That was his mantra. Fantastic courage."

Those memories will have returned as he observed the true extent of Scotland's great leap forward at Hampden Park. Fittingly, a flash of Johnstone's mesmerising skill arrived directly in front of him on Saturday.

James McFadden, the latest darling of the Tartan Army, toyed arrogantly with three Ukrainian players before tempting a wild lunge from Volodymyr Yezerskiy. As the defender lay injured as a consequence of his own excesses McFadden skipped past with the ball. Seconds later - his 13th goal for his country having earlier sealed a sixth consecutive victory for Scotland for the first time in 58 seasons - he greeted his substitution by blowing kisses to the crowd. Here was the maverick spirit reborn.

For the bravery that Ferguson recognised in Johnstone, however, he did not have to look to individuals or isolated incidents.

Scotland, now so close to qualifying for a major tournament for the first time since 1998, personified courage and at times class from the opening whistle.

But a side that are top of a group containing the world champions Italy and the runners-up France does not rise on tenacity or resilience alone, and in the nonchalant dismissal of last summer's quarter-finalists in Germany came confirmation of the calibre of the Group B leaders.

"The best performance at Hampden since I took the job," said Alex McLeish, his efforts at quelling the hysteria surrounding Scotland now a greater task than the feat of reaching Austria and Switzerland next summer.

Not that the Scotland manager has abandoned his own mantra.

"It is still hard for us to qualify but we are still neck and neck with two of the top four teams in the world," he said. "The smart money would still be on the Italians and the French to qualify."

A victory against Georgia in Tbilisi should transform that assessment, and leave France staring at a sporting abyss for the second time in a week. Should Scotland triumph on Wednesday then Raymond Domenech's team will have no margin for error in their remaining fixtures, at home to Lithuania and away in Kiev, but such are the permutations in Group B that McLeish could collect 27 points and still not qualify. Far better to trust in players who, to borrow from Ferguson's tribute to Ronaldo and Johnstone once again, "can paint the canvas whichever way they wanted".

Though stretched against Ukraine's ambitious yet overloaded attacking formation, Scotland - in the outstanding Barry Ferguson, Scott Brown, Alan Hutton and McFadden - were nerveless in possession. This, more than the dogged defending that proved decisive in Paris, was their greatest strength here.

Kenny Miller's fourth-minute header from McFadden's free-kick to the near post and Lee McCulloch's clinical finish from another textbook set-piece, this time delivered by Ferguson, were reward for the adventure McLeish had stressed away from public ears. They were also a reflection of an exuberant team that has forgotten how to win ugly.

McFadden, with Scotland having rediscovered a composure that frayed when Andriy Shevchenko brought Ukraine back into the contest, soothed the regret over two rejected penalty appeals - there was also one for the visitors - when he drilled Hutton's raking pass under Oleksandr Shovkovskiy.

Are we looking at a new golden age of Scottish football? McLeish and co will hardly dare answer that - yet.

• Guardian Service