Scotland secured a 2-0 victory over North Macedonia on Saturday as captain Andy Robertson made his 100th international appearance in their Nations League clash in Skopje.
Kieron Bowie opened the scoring with his first goal for Scotland before John McGinn converted a second-half penalty to seal the victory for the visitors.
The result was a welcome response for Scotland, who had failed to score in their opening two Nations League matches.
They dominated large periods of the encounter despite finishing the game with 10 men following Scott McKenna’s late red card.
Robertson, who became only the second Scotland player to reach 100 caps, came close to marking the milestone with a goal but saw two early efforts fail to beat goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski.
Scotland eventually took the lead in the seventh minute when Bowie collected the ball outside the box and fired a powerful effort into the bottom corner for his first international goal.
The visitors continued to threaten, with Ben Gannon-Doak also going close before half-time.
Play was briefly interrupted when a dog ran onto the pitch during the first half.
Scotland were initially awarded a penalty after Gannon-Doak went down in the box shortly after the restart, but referee Francois Letexier overturned the decision after reviewing the incident on the pitchside monitor.
However, the visitors were awarded another penalty in the 64th minute after McKenna’s effort struck the post and Bowie’s rebound appeared to hit North Macedonia forward Bojan Miovski’s arm.
McGinn stepped up and calmly sent the goalkeeper the wrong way to double Scotland’s advantage and score his 27th international goal.
Scotland’s comfortable position was threatened late on when McKenna was shown a straight red card in the 83rd minute for a last-man challenge on Agon Elezi.
The victory was Sebastien Pocognoli’s first as Scotland captain, with the team now preparing to host Slovenia at Hampden Park on Tuesday in their next Nations League fixture.
