By Chick Young BBC Scotland football correspondent

Once upon a time it was Fortress Hampden. Then for a wee while it turned into a bouncy castle where visitors could come and enjoy themselves.

But once again the National Stadium is building a reputation where the thieving of championship points isn't so easy.

Undefeated in Mount Florida throughout the Group Five campaign has been the key to Scotland's navigation to the Euro 2004 play-offs.

In truth we had two shockers, one in the rock which juts out of the North Atlantic where only puffins can be genuinely happy and one in a Baltic state where we allowed ourselves to be bullied out of a point.

Scotland have become formidable opponents at Hampden

Otherwise, we fair sorted out Lithuania, Iceland and the Faroes.

I know, when you list it like that it doesn't really sound that we have pummelled the might of world football, but nevertheless Scotland have come a long way in a short time.

And I hope there are plenty out there who wanted Berti Vogts exiled will have the decency to get on their knees and start grovelling.

It is a terrible side to the Scottish mentality that we want to judge people too quickly and too readily. Somehow it is not in our psyche to give a guy an even break.

Vogts made his share of mistakes when he arrived here and last week he confessed to me that there were times when did wonder what on earth he was doing here.

But he weathered the storm, stuck in at his English lessons and then began to develop a wee sense of humour - a pre-requisite if you are involved in the wacky world of Scottish football.

I'm not saying that he is ready for a stand-up routine in Las Vegas just yet, but he sure has learned how to relax and go with the flow. And he sure has developed a fantastic spirit in the dressing room.

Let's keep this in perspective, Scotland aren't a threat to the tournament favourites yet and neither are we guilty of over achieving because the play-off place was always the realistic target.

But that doesn't mean there was not huge pressure on the manager and his players to succeed in hitting it because gutting a dressing room and putting together a brand new team doesn't always guarantee immediate success.

However, I did sense at the end of last season that Vogts had turned the corner and that he had found the straight and narrow which may or may not lead all the way to Portigal.

And we could do it, you know. Because Hampden has won back its right to intimidate the opposition.

Furthermore things can only get better.

On top of what the big team is doing the Under 21s are through to a play-off in their tournament, after winning a group that included Germany.

The SFA have offered to host the competition and my Uefa mole tells me that if we win the play-off we have a good chance of winning the bid as a token of compensation for being blown away in our bid for Euro 2008.

And this time we won't have the Irish to hold us back.

On top of all that our two top sides are making their mark in the Champions League.

Crisis? What crisis?