Smith hails 'finest victory of my career'

Walter Smith hailed the triumph over France as the best result of his career, and most of his players agreed, but the Scotland manager sought to hammer home one important warning afterwards: Remember the Netherlands.

The last time the nation was stirred to such euphoria was in November 2003, when James McFadden's goal was enough to defeat the Netherlands in the first leg of the Euro 2004 qualifying play-offs. Scotland were mauled 6-0 in the reverse fixture.

Thus everyone's focus is now on Wednesday's next qualifier, in Ukraine.

The in-form striker Kenny Miller will be back from suspension, but there is no sense in the squad that Kiev will prove anything but tricky. Among Smith's decisions will be how to regroup his defence because Christian Dailly, booked on Saturday, is suspended.

Not for the first time, Smith is trying to keep perspective. "I thought we needed a major miracle to get through, and I still do," he said. "I never imagined that we'd get nine points out of nine so far, but we have done. [But] I think it's really early yet to be talking about contenders for qualification. I'm not just trying to play down the expectation, because I can't do that, but the other teams will now try to work out what to do to ensure we don't win matches. That will make things difficult for us, but we'll worry about that in the future."

He also pointed out that Scotland needed to peak simply to match France: "While France can look at that game and say there's a level of comfort in which they can play, our boys have to exhaust themselves to get that sort of result."

Gary Caldwell, whose Scotland debut ended in a 5-0 defeat to Paris in 2002 but who scored Saturday's winner, said: "Getting our feet on the ground is what we need. The gaffer reminded us about what happened when we beat [the Netherlands] and then got beaten a few days later." A common phrase from the Scots was "it's not sunk in".

Thierry Henry was gracious in defeat. "If we had been outplayed, out-muscled or didn't turn up I would be unhappy," he said. "But we did turn up and we tried to win. Scotland won, and congratulations. It happens in football ... but let's wait and see who qualifies. Wait and see."

Power of Scotland: Six of their most memorable moments

* England 1 Scotland 5, May 1928, Wembley

Legend says this was Scotland's all-time best display as the "Wizards" cast a spell. Alex James scored three.

* England 2 Scotland 3, April 1967, Wembley

Denis Law, Bobby Lennox and Jim McCalliog scored. Jim Baxter was magic. The world champions were toast.

* Scotland 3 Netherlands 2, June 1978, Argentina

Kenny Dalglish scored but this will forever be the game of Archie Gemmill's wonder goal.

* Scotland 3 Spain 1, November 1984, Hampden

Mo Johnston, with two goals, and Dalglish saw off the Euro '84 finalists in a World Cup qualifier.

* Scotland 1 Switzerland 0, June 1996, Villa Park

Ally McCoist scored in a fine team display that only just failed to win a place in the Euro '96 quarter-finals.

* England 0 Scotland 1, November 1999, Wembley

An outstanding single result (as was 1-0 against the Netherlands in a 2004 play-off) but ultimately a bitter aggregate defeat.