Even a cursory glance at the countries who will contest the World Cup qualifying playoffs should be sufficient reason for a collection among Scotland fans to commission a statue in honour of Craig Brown. The astuteness with which the national coach has devised, stabilised, organised and manipulated a team palpably short of devastating virtuosity surely deserves nothing less.

The 2-0 victory over Latvia, taking the Scots straight to France without passing through the ordeal of a play-off - where such formidable adversaries as Italy, Russia, Croatia, Yugoslavia and Ukraine lie in ambush - removed the shudders of apprehension which would have accompanied today's draw among the remaining eight runners-up from the European qualifying groups.

It was also confirmation of Brown's extraordinary ability to overcome weaknesses in his own squad and exploit those of opponents by studious, indeed meticulous, attention to detail and to his incomparable understanding of the geometry of the modern game.

At the end of an emotional day - can there be another area in which pragmatism leads to such headiness? - Brown rushed to share the credit with his coaches, Alex Miller and Alan Hodgkinson, and his medical back-up team. This diffidence is characteristic, but is a futile attempt at deflecting the truth, which is that, in the international football theatre, Brown is a world-class act.

He has managed to qualify the Scots for the only two major championships they have contested in his charge, successfully negotiating the huge obstacles in the way of a small country having to segue from Euro '96 to France '98 on extremely limited resources.

Brown said after the adventure in England last summer that the team which performed creditably against Holland, Switzerland and the host nation would have to be overhauled for the World Cup campaign. His subtle tinkering has been so effective that six players who were hardly on the periphery a year ago are likely to be essential elements in France.

Nobody could have foreseen that Blackburn's Kevin Gallacher would emerge as the principal striker after the three years he lost following a hideous leg break and its resultant complications. Gallacher's opening goal against Latvia, a six-yard header after the goalkeeper, Olegs Karavajevs, had conveniently flipped John Collins's drive into the air, was his sixth in his last five internationals.

Before his conversion by Brown from a wide forward to a striker, he had scored two in 28 appearances. Christian Dailly of Derby holds a world record 31 caps at under-21 level, but had seemed not to be in the public consciousness where the A squad was concerned.

But Brown, typically, had monitored his progress as a central defender and used the long-term injury to Rangers' Alan Mclaren as an opportunity to establish Dailly as a prime asset. Craig Burley of Celtic is being utilised as a wing-back, but his club performances as a creative force in midfield make him something of a treasure and Brown will maximise his value when the occasion arises.

Paul Lambert himself could not have envisaged a year in which he would move from Motherwell to Borussia Dortmund, win a European Cup medal and become central to Scotland's reaching the World Cup finals. These four are complemented by the emergent David Hopkin, the Leeds midfielder, and Simon Donnelly, the Celtic forward.

They were on the bench against Latvia - Donnelly replaced Gordon Durie for the last seven minutes - but seem likely to become integral parts of the team in the months between now and the finals. Donnelly did not replace Durie until three minutes after the latter had ensured victory with the same header as Gallacher after the Blackburn man had chipped the ball against the crossbar.

Durie had simply to nod the ball over the line when dropped on to his forehead. If there were tremors of anguish among the 47,613 crowd at Celtic Park for long periods of a fraught 90 minutes, they would not be shared by Brown. His confidence in his players' ability to adhere to The Plan is absolute.

"I knew when we scored the first goal that they could be relied upon not to give anything away," he said.