SCOTLAND escaped from a mauling by Russia 2018-bound Mexico in the Azteca Stadium with a narrow 1-0 defeat in the early hours of this morning.

A first-half Giovani Dos Santos goal was all that separated Alex McLeish’s team from Juan Carlos Osorio’s side at the end of the 90 minutes.

But the national team were on the receiving end of a battering in Central America and could very easily have suffered a heavy defeat.

They had the poor finishing by their hosts, sheer good fortune and the woodwork to thank for keeping the scoreline down in a one-sided encounter.

McLeish, who inherited the tour of Peru and Mexico when he was appointed manager for the second time in February was a relieved man when the final whistle blew.

The 59-year-old has handed debuts to eight new players – including two last night - in the past five days and some of them may go on to enjoy long careers at this level.

But several of those in the yellow Scotland away strip will be lucky to feature again following this doing.

Scott McKenna, the 21-year-old Aberdeen centre half who has impressed with his assured and mature showings for his country since making his debut against Costa Rica at Hampden back in March, captained his country on the occasion of his fourth cap.

Jon Mclaughlin, the Hearts keeper who has enjoyed such an outstanding season at Tynecastle, won his first cap at the age of 30.

McKenna was partnered in the middle of a four man back line by Jack Hendry, the Celtic de-fender who was making his second appearance for his country, with Graeme Shinnie of Aberdeen at left back and Stephen O’Donnell of Kilmarnock on the right.

Shinnie, who made his Scotland debut when he came on as a second-half substitute against Peru in the National Stadium in Lima, was handed his first start as was Johny Russell, the Sporting Kansas City striker who joined the squad earlier in the week.

Dylan McGeouch and Kenny McLean (Norwich City) kept their places and were were deployed as deep-lying midfielders in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

Callum Paterson (Cardiff) played just off lone striker Oliver McBurnie (Swansea City) with Ryan Christie (Celtic) to his left Russell to his right in the three quarter line. It was as young and inexperienced Scotland team as has been fielded.

The same could not be said of Mexico. Osorio was without defenders Hector Moreno and Diego Reyes and midfielder Andres Guardado after the trio arrived from Europe nursing injuries. But players who started for the home still boasted no fewer than 568 caps and 51 goals between them.

Mexico are, along with Brazil and German, the only country to have made it out of the group stages in the last six World Cup finals and look more than capable of progressing from a section that includes Germany, Sweden and South Korea this month.

They took control of the game from kick-off and did not surrender it. Their precise passing and relentless movement off the ball on the wide open spaces of the Azteca meant the tourists had to work hard to close them down. But they did that successfully. Nobody could fault the Scotland players for effort.

They failed, though to deal with a Miguel Layun cross into their area after 13 minutes and that led to the opening goal. Dos Santos played a one-two with his LA Galaxy team mate Carlos Vela on the edge of the Scotland penalty box before stroking a left-footed shot through the defence.

You feared that had opened the floodgates. But the scoreline was 1-0 at the end of the first-half. Layun tried his luck with a long-range effort that beat McLaughlin and struck the right post in 27 minutes. The keeper palmed a Hirving Lozano shot wide 10 minutes later.

Scott Bain, the Celtic goalkeeper, replaced McLaughlin at the start of the second-half and was called into action three times in the opening few minutes of his debut for his country. He denied Lozano, Hector Herrera, Vela in quick succession. Scotland were living dangerously.

But they immediately created two scoring chances themselves. Ryan Christie was in space in the Mexico box with McBurnie outside him only for the striker to pass straight to Layun. Moments later, Russell cut inside from the right and chipped to the forward who rose well, and headed onto the right post.

But it was a minor miracle the score stayed 1-0. McLeish had seen quite enough on the touch-line and made a triple substitution in 55 minutes and went to a five man defence. Off went Christie, McLean and Paterson and on came Charlie Mulgrew, John McGinn and Chris Cadden.

Mulgrew slotted in between Hendry and McKenna and seemed to have a calming affect on a defence that was in a state of utter disarray. Several players looked hopelessly out of their depth. The 400 or so Tartan Army footsoldiers who had made the long and expensive journey to Central America must have been distraught at what they were witnessing.

This was Mexico’s penultimate warm-up match for the World Cup finals – they take on Den-mark in Copenhagen before Russia 2018 gets underway - and their final game on home soil and the world-famous arena was packed with supporters desperate to give them a rousing send-off. It was an intimidating atmosphere for the Scotland players to perform in and some clearly struggled.

In 65 minutes McGeouch passed straight to Layun who fed Lozano in front of him. The PSV Eindhoven man unleashed a ferocious shot which flew past Bain only to ricochet back off the crossbar.

The former Dundee players was having a baptism of fire in interntional football. He did superbly to palm a Lozano header clear shortly after that. Oribe Peralta bundled the rebound into the net only for referee Henry Bejarano to rule he and been offside.

Lewis Morgan, the Ladbrokes Championship player of the Year, replaced McBurnie after 80 minutes. Cadden got a shot on target late on. But at no stage on this trip have Scotland looked liked scoring and that must be a concern.