SCOTLAND salvaged a draw against ten-man Latvia thanks to an injury-time penalty from substitute Ryan Hardie, but they will be bitterly disappointed at dropping points in a game they completely dominated.
The Latvians – who Scotland had beaten 2-0 last month – took a shock lead in injury time of a first half that was delayed after a floodlight failure at McDiarmid Park with their only attack of the match.
And despite Scot Gemmill's side flinging everything at their opponents – who were reduced to ten men midway through the first half – they didn't create nearly enough in the way of clear-cut chances.
But they got out of jail thanks to a penalty with almost the last kick of the ball, converted by Rangers striker Hardie.
The young Scots started on the front foot and Lewis Morgan, the highly-rated St Mirren midfielder, tested Latvian goalkeeper Kristaps Zommers early on.
Oliver McBurnie was a threat to the Baltic nation and he set up Aberdeen's Scott Wright with a volleyed chance before he himself saw a header blocked as Scotland ramped up the pressure.
A terrific move midway inside the first half saw McBurnie collect the ball from Kilmarnock full-back Greg Taylor, skip away from a couple of challenges before playing a one-two with Barnsley's Stevie Mallan and curling an effort on goal.
Scotland were disrupted by a seven-minute stoppage after one of McDiarmid Park's floodlights went out. But play resumed once it spluttered back into life.
McBurnie was coming closer and closer and another slalom run into the box ended with a low shot that was saved by Zommers.
So it came as something of a shock when the Latvians went broke the deadlock inside the eight minutes of first-half injury time. Scotland were cut open in central defensive from a cross and when Raivis Jurkovskis headed against the bar, Robert Uldrikis bundled home the rebound despite the efforts of keeper Ryan Fulton trying to claw the ball out.
McBurnie and Wright both went close after the restart, before keeper Zommers continued his personal battle with Swansea City striker McBurnie by making a terrific reaction save when McBurnie flicked Wright's cross at goal.
Mallan floated a free kick on to the roof of the net as Scotland began to pepper the Latvian goal and their cause was helped hugely when Ingars Stuglis was shown a straight red card in the 68th minute for a terrible lunge on Motherwell's Chris Cadden, who was lucky to escape serious injury.
Sub Hardie twice went close as Scotland camped in the Latvian half and Lewis Morgan drove wide from the edge of the area. The visitors had well and truly parked the bus by this stage, but Scotland didn't help themselves – time and time again crosses were overhit and didn't find McBurnie, who was crying out for decent service.
Greg Taylor and Hardie again went close as the minutes ticked on, but just when it looked like they had ran out of ideas, Kristaps Liepa was penalised for holding Aberdeen's Scott McKenna in the box and Hardie rescued a point.
"I was delighted to get the goal at the end," admitted a relieved Scotland manager Scott Gemmill. "The second half display merited the goal. We must have had over 20 attempts on goal. It shows we have quality in the team and a threat in the team. Anyone who saw it will hopefully go home knowing there’s a lot to be positive about."
SCOTLAND (4-2-3-1): Fulton; Smith (Hardie 64), Souttar (McCrorie 69), McKenna, Taylor; Campbell, Mallan; Wright (Thomas 87), Cadden, Morgan; McBurnie.
UNUSED SUBS: Ruddy, Williamson, Docherty, Archibald.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel