The new king of Scotland

But when James McFadden, the new idol of Scottish football, hit their third goal, the Hampden Park atmosphere relaxed and the celebrations began.

There is still a way to go — four points maximum to be won from the remaining two Euro 2008 Group B ties away to Georgia on Wednesday and at home to world champions Italy next month.

But such is the confidence of this resurrected Scotland set-up that qualification for next summer's finals now appears a reasonable and justifiable target.

The Scots raced into a two-goal lead after just 10 minutes with glorious strikes from Kenny Miller and Lee McCulloch, only for Andriy Shevchenko — a different man in national colours from the forlorn one of Stamford Bridge — to expose deficiencies in the Tartan defence when he scored in the 24th minute.

There was a period after that when Ukraine, inspired by Liverpool's Andriy Voronin,might have equalised and even gone on to capture all three points.

But their revival ended on the strength of another McFadden special when he finished off a surging attack with a left-foot shot that produced his 13th goal in 35 appearances for Scotland.

The tension dissipated at that moment and manager Alex McLeish hugged his assistant Andy Watson and coach Roy Aitken on the touchline with justifiable pride for his team have become the first Scottish side since 1948-49 to win six successive matches.

McLeish said: "The team keep confounding people with their commitment,their finishing and their defending."

Scotland, who have beaten World Cup finalists France twice from this group, are, in McLeish's words, just "two more cup finals" away from achieving their target of appearing in next summer's finals.

The Scotland boss added: "This is the best game we've played at Hampden since I took over.We got off to a flyer and there was a spell when they were in the ascendancy and we knew we would have to deal with it.

"Ukraine made a goal out of nothing but I can't be critical of these players of mine.

"This was a massive step for us. In the past Scotland have tended to prove people wrong but now we're proving them right when they make us favourites.We were favourites here and dealt with that."

Scotland's victory yesterday did come at a cost. Goalscorer McCulloch was yellow-carded, along with substitute Garry O'Connor, and both are now suspended for the tough tie in Georgia.

The great news for McLeish is that Darren Fletcher, who missed the match through injury, has been given the all-clear by his Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, to travel and play in Tbilisi.

Few Scotland teams have managed a sweeter start than this one yesterday. Miller headed his 10th goal for his country in the fourth minute after being set up by a perfect free-kick from McFadden.

Six minutes later McCulloch drove in No 2 from another free-kick which arrived at his feet when skipper Barry Ferguson swung the ball his way.

It was McCulloch's first goal for his country in 14 internationals and it is one he and the Tartan Army will remember for its importance and the excellence of its execution.

Even so, real hesitancy began to appear in the Scotland defence.

And the nerves presented Shevchenko with his chance to score — an opportunity he took so typically with a shot driven high into the net and away from keeper Craig Gordon. Scotland might have had a couple of penalties in the first half when first Alan Hutton and then McFadden tumbled in the area but Dutch referee Pieter Vink turned down the appeals.

Ukraine were also denied one by Vink but the matter was settled by McFadden in the 68th minute when he drove a shot past keeper Oleksander Shovkovskiy with that magical left foot of his.

McLeish ended his post-match analysis when he summed up another exceptional performance and result. He said: "I should mention them all, not simply talk about individuals. They all contributed quite magnificently. James McFadden? Everybody needs a player who can make a difference — an ace in the pack. He has proved that time and again for us."