by the Tartan Army. In October 2004 Vogts announced his resignation, blaming the media for his departure. Vogts did introduce a number of young players to the Scotland team, including Craig Gordon, Darren Fletcher and James McFadden. He was, however, heavily criticised by the media for his "scattergun" approach to selection, naive tactics and taking Scotland to an all-time low in the FIFA rankings. Vogts' assistant Tommy Burns took charge of a 4–1 friendly defeat against Sweden at Easter Road. The Berti Vogts era in Scottish Football is looked back by many people as the worst period in Scotland's history but was not helped by a considerable lack of international-quality players available to him during his reign. Vogts handed out an astonishing 40 debutants, trying to rebuild the side. Walter Smith David Taylor appointed Walter Smith and Ally McCoist as the new management team in December 2004. Smith convinced David Weir, who had played for Smith at Everton, to come out of international retirement. Smith's first game in charge was against Italy at the San Siro in March 2005, which Scotland lost 2–0 through two free kicks by Andrea Pirlo. In June 2005, Scotland beat Moldova 2–0 and drew 0–0 in Belarus. In the following season, Scotland achieved creditable results with a 1–1 draw at home to Italy and a 2–1 win in Norway. A surprise 1–0 defeat against Belarus ended their chances of qualifying, but the team ended the campaign on a high by winning 3–0 in Slovenia. Scotland played two low-key friendlies before a squad that was well below full strength went to Japan in May 2006 to take part in the Kirin Cup. Scotland beat Bulgaria 5–1 with debutants Chris Burke and Kris Boyd scoring two goals each. Scotland then kept out the hosts Japan to secure a goalless draw that won the trophy. The results under Smith had given the country hope, but Scotland were given "one of the hardest groups" for UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying as they were entered into Group B with France, Italy and Ukraine. The extraordinary difficulty of the group was confirmed when Ukraine reached the quarter-final of the 2006 World Cup, while France and Italy contested the final itself (which Italy won on penalties). Scotland at least got off to a good start in the group by winning 6–0 at Celtic Park against the Faroe Islands. and 2–1 in Lithuania. Scotland