SCOTLAND were thoroughly outclassed by England last night at Tynecastle in their final European qualifier, yet Aidy Boothroyd's star-studded youngsters made hard work of finishing off Scot Gemmill's defensively determined side. In the end, it took two supreme moments of quality from Reiss Nelson and Kieran Dowell to earn the points after their near total domination.

This was the fourth time in just 16 months Scotland had faced the Auld Enemy at this level under Scot Gemmill and they'd conceded three times in each of the three games in the Toulon Tournament and the corresponding qualifier in Middlesbrough.

While it could be regarded as a sign of progress they kept the deficit down last night in the capital, it was more a combination of shoddy England finishing and a fine display from goalkeeper Ross Doohan.

England looked massively physically superior to a Scotland side who certainly matched them for effort. For the home fans, it was a truly sobering indication of how hugely ahead England are at this level.

In fairness, this England team are unbeaten in 35 qualifiers now and have qualified for their last seven finals. Scotland's last one was in 1996.

And Scotland do certainly deserve plenty of credit for flinging their bodies on the line and defending for their lives - and they were well organised too. They even mounted a late charge in an attempt for an equaliser, which didn't come before a late sucker punch.

Gemmill opted to drop goalkeeper Robby McCrorie, who made a bad mistake in Ukraine last week and replace him with Celtic's Ross Doohan, who is on loan at Ayr. Hibs' freescoring midfielder Stevie Mallan was also surprisingly left out of the starting line-up, with Chelsea talent Billy Gilmour replacing him. Up front, Hibs' Oli Shaw was in for Eamonn Brophy.

England produced an almost completely different line-up from their 7-0 thrashing last week of an Andorra side Scotland could only draw with away from home, which confirmed their Euro 2019 qualification. Only Sheffield United's on loan from Manchester United goalkeeper Dean Henderson kept his place.

However, they had no fewer than four Chelsea players in their team, albeit all were on loan. And they also boasted a frightening array of multi-million pound talent on the bench.

With Rangers management duo Steven Gerrard and Gary McAllister watching from the Tynecastle main stand, they watched summer transfer target Dominic Solanke head an early chance wide with the Liverpool striker under pressure from Hibs' Ryan Porteous.

Then Tammy Abraham, Aston Villa's on-loan forward from Chelsea, almost flattened Allan Campbell with a thundering shot which the Motherwell midfield terrier blocked. But already the eye-watering gap in physicality was starting to show.

With no pressure on the visitors, they were enjoying themselves. Flicks, tricks and dummies were the order of the day, with Scotland furiously trying to match this with sheer effort. In fairness, a burst of pace from Liam Smith took him past several English midfielders, but his eventual cross was overhit with few options in the middle.

The visitors should have taken a deserved lead midway through the first half when another Stamford Bridge loanee Jake Clarke-Salter headed over unmarked from Everton player Kieran Dowell's corner.

Yet curiously, it was Scotland who nearly scored the opener on the half-hour mark when Rangers' Ross McCrorie hooked over a volley right in front of goal after former team-mate David Bates had looped a header towards him.

But England immediately responded by missing a sitter of their own when West Brom's Harvey Barnes blazed over with only Doohan to beat after Scotland were badly caught out on a quick English counter-attack. Abraham then missed another fantastic chance for the visitors when he smacked a volley from 10 yards wide.

Scotland just about clung on to half time although it took a fantastic diving save from Doohan to keep out a stinging shot from Solanke with his trailing legs as he closed in on the opener. Josh Onomah, the Spurs midfielder who's on loan at Sheffield Wednesday, then sliced wide. It really was incredible it was goalless, such was the scale of England's dominance.

Gemmill took off the anonymous Shaw at half time with Rangers' Glenn Middleton taking his place and at least the Scots won their first corner of the match in the 49th minute.

But normal service was soon resumed and Doohan produced another excellent save from a zippy low drive from Barnes to turn around his post and England retained possession and almost total control of the ball.

The long awaited breakthrough came on the hour mark after McCrorie was booked trying to rescue a hospital pass from Bates. He tripped up Dowell handing England a free kick from 25 yards out.

And the quality of Nelson's sweetly-struck effort was superb as he pinged it into the top corner for Doohan to finally be beaten and give England a richly-deserved lead.

The goal changed nothng. England continued to pour forward, but if they have a fault, it's that they don't turn their undoubted superiority into goals. Indeed, Lewis Morgan even gave them a late scare when he blasted over after fine hold-up play from Middleton.

And Middleton even forced the first save of the match from Henderson late on as the hosts pushed for the unlikeliest of equalisers.

But that would have been a travesty. England are a class above Scotland and at least made the scoreline more accurate when Dowell curled a shot into the net with almost the last kick of the ball.

SCOTLAND (4-2-3-1): Doohan; Smith, Bates, Porteous, Taylor; Ross McCrorie, Gilmour (Ferguson 61); Cadden, Campbell, Morgan; Shaw (Middleton 46).

UNUSED SUBS: Robby McCrorie, McIntyre, Mallan, Ferguson, Watt, Williamson.

BOOKED: Gilmour, McCrorie

ENGLAND (4-2-3-1): Henderson; Bissaka, Tomori, Clarke-Salter, DaSilva; Onomah (Foden 72), Dowell; Nelson (Sessegnon 74), Solanke, Barnes; Abraham.

UNUSED SUBS: Gunn, Cook, Konsa, Lookman, Calvert-Lewin.

BOOKED: None

Ref: M Di Bello (Ita).