Two planeloads of holidaymakers arrived back at Glasgow from Alicante and Gran Canaria late on Saturday night just as Scotland's footballers were returning from an embarrassing European Championship mission. "Just where are the Faroe Islands?" one of them asked, altogether more roughly and with alliteration.
They are, in fact, a group of 18 small islands covering an area 70 miles long and 47 miles wide in the north Atlantic with a population at the last census of 47,500 which, since 1948, has been a self-governing region of Denmark.
One member of the populace, Hans Hansen who sells freezers for a living, turned up at the Toftir Stadium to head the goal which now leaves Scotland to scuffle around in Group Nine of the tournament to see whether they - and not Estonia or Bosnia - will gain a chance of a play-off match to decide if they are worthy of a place in next year's finals in Holland and Belgium. The words "mighty" and "fallen" spring to mind.
On such occasions it is always useful to have a villain at whom you can hiss noisily and Matt Elliot offered himself up for that role when he was sent-off just before half-time for slapping Todi Jonsson across the face, leaving Scotland with insufficient manpower to defend the lead that Allan Johnston's earlier goal had given them.
The defender's punishment will be to watch all future Scotland games at home on TV. "His place is in jeopardy," said the manager Craig Brown.
For all that, Scotland should not have placed themselves in the position of dropping points in the Faroes and Brown must now keep morale as high as possible before Wednesday night's game against the section's runaway leaders, the Czech Republic, in Prague.
Faroe Islands: Mikkelsen, Johannsen, H. Hansen, Thorsteinsson, O. Hansen (J. Hansen 86), Johnsson, J. Joensen (Borg 69), S. Joensen, Moerkore, Jonsson, Petersen (Arge 79). Subs Not Used: J. Hansen, Knudsen, Benjaminsen, Dam. Booked: Borg. Goals: H. Hansen 90.
Scotland: Sullivan, Weir, Boyd, Calderwood, Elliott, Davidson, Dodds, Lambert, Gallacher (Jess 89), Durrant (Cameron 46), Johnston (Gemmill 86). Subs Not Used: Gould, Whyte, Ritchie, Winters. Sent Off: Elliott (45). Booked: Johnston. Goals: Johnston 38. Att: 1,500.
Referee: P Kalt (France).
