NATIONS CUP Scotland 3 Northern Ireland 0:JUST IN case anyone is keeping track of this tournament, Scotland joined the Republic of Ireland at the top of the Carling Nations Cup table last night thanks to a comprehensive defeat of Northern Ireland in a game which at times felt as if it was being played behind closed doors.

There were in fact some 12,041 spectators at the Aviva Stadium, making for a combined official attendance of slightly over 30,000 for this tournament’s opening round of games.

None among them can have seen too much to inspire confidence that whoever wins the thing will ever get to defend the title bar, perhaps, in two years when England are considering staging a slightly expanded version. And on the strength of the last couple of nights Wayne Rooney and co might just fancy their chances.

A little bit of history was made before the kick-off when God Save the Queenwas played for a Northern Irish side visiting Dublin. In the absence of any old-school local supporters to react badly, the Scots stepped into the breach, booing the anthem roundly from start to finish and following up with some choice chants of their own.

They were outnumbered roughly two to one by rival supporters at the other end of the ground but, in truth, the northerners simply had no answers for the vocal barrage mounted by the Scots, at least until the final whistle when they loudly booed the result.

On the pitch it was a somewhat similar story with the Irish briefly threatening to make a match of it before tamely rolling over and suffering their worse defeat at the hands of the Scots in 12 meetings and 34 years.

As with the Republic’s victory over Wales on Tuesday night, it was difficult to tell how good Craig Levein’s side was because their opponents, like the Welsh, were badly depleted by injuries and played poorly.

That was flagged all too effectively by the defending for the opening goal.

A potential attraction of the game for local neutrals had been the rare sight in Dublin of Celtic’s former Derry City players Pat McCourt and Niall McGinn, neither of whom had featured for Celtic in Monday’s friendly against Shamrock Rovers. The pair started brightly enough too, with the former releasing the latter for what was to prove their side’s best chance until well into the second half, but in the end the shot was easily saved by Allan McGregor.

They were, to be fair, probably both back somewhere inside their area for the opening goal but neither is likely to be bragging about it.

The real culprits in green, though, were Rory McArdle and Stephen Craigan who combined comically to tee up Kenny Miller a couple of yards out after Charlie Adam’s corner had been flicked on by Phil Bardsley 20 minutes in.

The most obvious error for the second was probably the scorer’s, for James McArthur looked to be attempting a cross to the far post when his chipped ball flew over Jonathan Tuffey before dropping into the top left corner.

And for the third the Irish were simply carved open. The Scots covered a fair bit of ground unchallenged before James Morrison fed Steven Naismith whose first-time ball for the unmarked Kris Commons was coolly turned past the stranded goalkeeper.

There was almost 40 minutes left to play, but despite a couple of chances at both ends the game petered out until referee Tom Connolly, a late replacement for Alan Kelly, who had been taken ill not long before kick-off, sounded the final whistle and the northern fans found their collective voice.

NORTHERN IRELAND: Tuffey, McArdle (Hodson 46), Baird, McAuley, Craigan (Thompson 66), McCourt, Evans, Davis (Norwood 58), McCann (Healy 46), McGinn (Boyce 72), Patterson. Subs not used: Blayney. Booked: Healy.

SCOTLAND: McGregor, Hutton, Steven Caldwell, Berra, Bardsley (Mark Wilson 57), Morrison (Maguire 79), Adam (Bannan 57), Commons (Conway 72), McArthur, Naismith (Snodgrass 58), Miller (Danny Wilson 90). Subs not used: Bell, Hanley, Gary Caldwell. Booked: Mark Wilson.

Referee: T Connolly(Republic of Ireland).

Next up . . .

May 24th: Republic of Ireland v Northern Ireland; May 25th: Wales v Scotland; May 27th: Wales v Northern Ireland; May 29th: Republic of Ireland v Scotland.