Somali-born teenager Islam Feruz grabbed an assist on his Scotland debut but couldn't prevent the under-17’s going down 2-1 to Cyprus at East End Park.

The 14-year-old Celtic youngster – the first to pull on the national jersey under revised eligibility rules – provided a pinpoint 40-yard cross for Callum McGregor to open the scoring.

But the Cypriots scored twice in the final ten minutes through Pieros Sotiriou and Nikos Englezou to leave the Scots with plenty to do to qualify for the European Championships.

"It was a disappointing result, but, of course, the high spot was the debut of Islam,” said Scotland coach Ross Mathie.

“We saw enough to know that we have a player but he is young and hopefully things will settle down for him now that he is a Scotland player.

"The last player who got me as excited when he got on the ball at a young age was Pat Nevin when I was at Clyde and he turned out OK."

Scotland: Thomson (Celtic), Mullen (Hearts), McHattie (Dunfermline Athletic) (Hunter (Rangers) 65), Kerr (Birmingham City), Hutchison (Lincoln City), MacGregor (Bolton Wanderers), Walker (Hearts) (Ramsay (St Mirren) 58), McGeough (Rangers), McAusland (Rangers) (Feruz (Celtic) 41), Fyvie (Aberdeen), McGregor (Celtic).

Unused subs: Wightman (Celtic Gk), Young (Celtic), Smith (Hearts), Main (Rangers).

Cyprus: Daniil, Chatzigeorgiou, Christofi, Kalyommatos, Kyprianou (Adamou 54), Andreou, Sotiriou, Laifis, Englezou, Kastanas, Theodorou.

Unused subs: Parpounas, Foklas, Charalampous, Efthimiou, Kontou, Kyriakou.