BERTI Vogts last night praised his team for their easy win over a Hong Kong League XI but severely reprimanded young striker Kevin Kyle for his behaviour.
The Sunderland front man scored the first of Scotland's four goals but could count himself fortunate not to have been sent off for a push on the referee, Ramachandran Krishnan, on the hour mark. Kyle also raised his hands to Hong Kong central defender Carlo Hartwig in the same, unnecessary off-the-ball incident.
At the time, Vogts rushed to the touchline to calm the big striker down, which he succeeded in doing, but he still replaced him 20 minutes later with Garry O'Connor. ''You don't do that during a game; European referees don't like it,'' said Vogts. ''Kevin is a young guy and I had to speak to him in the dressing room after the game. He has to learn.
''I do not like to see such aggression against the referee and I told Kevin to close his mouth. The referee was a nice guy, and the linesman as well, which was good for us.''
The fact that three players scored their first goals for Scotland in the 4-0 win also pleased Vogts, with Steven Thompson and Scott Gemmill, after 22 caps, finally joining Kyle and captain Christian Dailly on the scoresheet.
Kyle admitted he was worried he was going to spoil his goalscoring exploits by being send-off. ''I just got frustrated,'' said the striker. ''Their No.5 was pulling my shirt and their No.3 was giving me verbals. I just got frustrated, as I just want to get stuck into everything.
''When the incident happened, Berti came running to the touchline and told me to calm down and both he and Tommy Burns had a word with me about it at the final whistle.
''They told me I had had a great game but if I had been sent off everybody would be talking about that rather than my goal.''
Kyle is clearly passionate about playing for Scotland and yesterday said he had called his brother, Paul, in Stranraer and told him to put a bet on him scoring the first goal. ''When you are a kid playing football in the streets all you think about is scoring for your country,'' said Kyle.
''I used to go through the streets thinking I was Frank McAvennie scoring for Scotland and now I am doing it. It was one of the greatest things I have done in my life and it takes a lot of pressure off as the longer you go as a striker without scoring the more pressure builds on you.''
