Scotland's hopes boosted by Boyd

Group B - Scotland 6 Faroe Islands 0: Walter Smith was cautiously optimistic about Scotland's Euro 2008 qualifier in Lithuania…

Group B - Scotland 6 Faroe Islands 0: Walter Smith was cautiously optimistic about Scotland's Euro 2008 qualifier in Lithuania on Wednesday after the six-goal demolition of the Faroe Islands on Saturday.

A Kris Boyd double, along with strikes from Darren Fletcher, James McFadden, Kenny Miller and Garry O'Connor, saw the Scots claim their biggest competitive win for 37 years.

Scotland have scored 11 goals in their last three matches but the manager has also been delighted with conceding just one goal in the same period as he prepares for the game in Kaunas. Smith said: "We are never that sure until we get there. Scotland have not fared that well over there in the past, so it will be a big challenge for us. But we have certainly settled a bit now and are confident we can defend well enough away from home.

Smith was thrilled by the contribution of in-form Ibrox forward Boyd. The 23-year-old scored twice on his international debut as Scotland claimed a 5-1 win over Bulgaria before winning the Kirin Cup in Japan last May.

READ MORE

Smith said: "Goalscorers are always welcome at any time. We need that. There are parts of Kris's game which he knows, as a younger player, he has to improve on. We are just happy to have him at the present moment."

Scotland took the initiative with five goals in the first period to avoid any potential embarrassment. Smith said: "If a game goes exactly as your game plan, you are very lucky. But we had a good pace of game to start with and, if the likes of Kenny Miller and James McFadden could get at them, we could get something and we managed to do so.

"It worked out all right in that respect. We did not have a situation where we were getting a little frustrated at having a lot of possession and not getting the goals. But we did score where, sometimes, Scotland have previously struggled to do so. And that effectively killed the game in the first half."