There was a goal scored against Scotland by a police officer, set-up by a lawyer, which is a source of minor embarrassment.
But yesterday was never going to be anything other than a Euro 2016 side-show for Gordon Strachan’s men.
The real qualification business gets going again in Dublin in June.
It is often said that there are no easy games in international football. Well, as long as Gibraltar are around, you can dismiss that notion.
Three points are a given against a team whose Group D record before this match was four games played, four games lost, 21 goals conceded and no goals scored.
There are minnows who, if you don’t afford them proper respect and have an off-day there’s the potential for a slip-up. And then there’s old school minnows. Gibraltar are old school minnows.
The group whipping boys had a John Sergeant on the bench. Scotland could have afforded to field his better-known namesake in his finest Strictly Come Dancing sequins and asked him to go in goals for 90 minutes and still have won this one.
A six-goal victory should probably be regarded as par. That was the average scoreline in Gibraltar’s three defeats to Scotland’s rivals Poland, Germany and the Republic of Ireland.
A five-goal one is fine.
The fact that Steven Fletcher was able to score his second, third and fourth goals ever for Scotland and end a six-year drought was a nice bonus.
Shaun Maloney was one strike short of a hat-trick himself, and Steven Naismith was the other Scottish scorer.
It was a measure of the match that Strachan started with just one centre-back, Russell Martin, in a 3-2-4-1 formation that will probably never be seen again.
Scotland poured men forward from the first whistle and could have taken the lead after just 90 seconds. Fletcher’s header from an Andy Robertson cross was straight at keeper Jamie Robba, however.
You would have expected the pattern of the match to be set, but even in this company it wouldn’t have been a Scotland v Players-we’ve-never-heard-of match without a scare or two.
Scare number one came on nine minutes when David Marshall made heavy weather of Joseph Chipolina’s cross from the left and it almost found its way under the cross bar.
When Scotland won a penalty on 17 minutes after the keeper foolishly dived in at Maloney’s feet on the bye-line, and the same player tucked it away for the opening goal, that was the no-hopers put back in their place. Or so we all thought.
But Scotland hadn’t counted on scare number two being a full-blown one. Gibraltar had the temerity to score.
And it was a fine finish.
Granted, the new-fangled Strachan formation left a gaping hole in the left-back area but Lee Casciaro still had plenty to do when he collected a long cross-field pass from Aaron Payas.
The 33-year-old let the ball come across his body and then drilled a finish low past Marshall.
The noisy band of Gibraltar fans had been singing a few minutes earlier that they were going to score, probably more in hope than expectation, but they had clearly done a bit of homework on Scottish football history.
Naismith did nothing to quell the creeping sense of unease at Hampden that a catastrophe was about to unfold when he failed to convert in a one-on-one with Robba.
Thankfully though, the Tartan Army’s torture didn’t last too much longer, as a three-goal blitz in 10 minutes got Scotland back on script.
Fletcher restored the lead with an instinctive back-header from an Ikechi Anya cross after a Gibraltar centre-back had made a mess of an attempted clearance.
Then Maloney sent another penalty kick into the same bottom corner as he’d put his first, after Naismith was bundled over by goalscorer Casciaro.
And the 4-1 half-time scoring was completed when Naismith dispatched home an Anya cut-back.
Strachan sent on another centre-back (Gordon Greer) for a midfielder (Matt Ritchie) after the re-start as good as an admission that the first half formation hadn’t worked.
It was now back to a 4-4-2.
There was still a lack of fluidity about the Scotland play, though.
For all their possession, the expected second half bombardment wasn’t materialising.
Jordan Rhodes was given his second substitute appearance of the week but neither he nor strike-partner Fletcher were getting the service they would have hoped for, either through the middle or from the flanks.
A dreadful through-ball from Scott Brown to Fletcher when the forward had pulled off his marker’s shoulder summed up where the home team were falling short.
Scotland’s third second half substitute, Barry Bannan, sparked a change for the better.
He drilled a long left-foot ball into the path of Fletcher similar to the one that produced Gibraltar’s goal but the former Hibs man wasn’t as clinical with his finish as the policeman had been and could only find the side-netting.
Scotland’s fifth and Fletcher’s second – did arrive two minutes later though.
Rhodes crossed from the right and it was a simple six-yard header for Fletcher.
The Fletcher-Rhodes combination could be one worth persevering with for Strachan.
The two linked well in their short time together and nearly produced another goal, but Robba foiled the Blackburn man low to his left.
Scotland were finishing with a flourish and it was 6-1 in the 90th minute.
It might not have been the most auspicious of opposition but Scottish hat-tricks don’t come along very often every 46 years to be precise.
That’s how long it’s been since Colin Stein got one against Cyprus.
Fletcher’s third was his best a lovely side-foot finish from the edge of the box.
In the fifth minute of stoppage time Rhodes should have got his reward for an excellent cameo, but he couldn’t beat Robba from eight yards.
Scotland Marshall, Hutton, Robertson, Ritchie (Greer 45), Martin, Maloney, Morrison, Brown, Steven Fletcher, Naismith (Rhodes 66), Anya (Bannan 74). Subs not used – Gordon, Russell, McArthur, May, Darren Fletcher, Forsyth, McGregor, Berra, Forrest.
Gibraltar Robba, Wiseman, Joseph Chipolina, Arteli (Garcia 55), Roy Chipolina (Gosling 74), Casciaro, Payas, Walker, Priestley, Bardon (Duarte 82). Subs not used Perez, Coleing, Kyle Casciaro, Sergeant, Perez, Daniel Duarte, Bosio, Jolley.
Referee Mattia Gestranius (Finland).