McFadden's spectacular winner in France last month sent expectation levels soaring ahead of the Hampden clash as Scotland looked to hold on to top spot in Group B.

And they came racing out of the blocks with two goals in the first 10 minutes from Kenny Miller and Lee McCulloch before McFadden sealed the points in the second half following Andriy Shevchenko's reply.

While the game was the talking point for most of the country this week, the Everton forward claimed ignoring the topic was vital for the players.

"There is massive expectation but for some reason this week, even in training and sitting about the hotel, nobody even spoke about the game," McFadden said.

"And I think that was a good thing because our minds weren't really on the game until kick-off. That was the most important thing for me, just chilling out and then playing the game when it comes and trying not to read the papers.

"That's why you are a professional, you need to deal with it and I thought we dealt with it superbly."

McFadden's name was cheered louder than anyone else's as the teams were read out at Hampden, and he cemented his iconic status with his third goal in as many internationals.

But the former Motherwell star is almost embarrassed by the hero tag that followed his 35-yard strike in Paris.

"I think it's unfair on the rest of the players," he said.

"People keep saying to me was I the only one that played in France? "Somebody has got to be it, I would rather it wasn't me. Maybe it keeps the pressure off the rest of the players, I don't know if it's a good or a bad thing but we have got 13, 14 heroes on the pitch today and hopefully more on Wednesday.

"They still win games when I don't play, it's about the whole squad and the whole country. I don't care who gets the goals as long as we win."

The victory could have been wrapped up before the half-time whistle had referee Pieter Vink given a penalty when McFadden fell under the sliding challenge of Anatoliy Tymoschuk.

The Dutch referee booked Barry Ferguson and McCulloch for their protests, ruling McCulloch out of Wednesday's qualifier in Georgia.

But he later confessed his error to McFadden.

"We've had plenty of knocks this campaign and we always seem to bounce back from them," the 24-year-old said.

"At the end of the game if it had made a difference we would have felt aggrieved but thankfully we got the win.

"The second half he admitted it was a mistake which is fair enough, everybody makes mistakes. Thankfully it didn't prove costly - and I told him that!"