Iceland 0 Scotland 2
An early goal by Christian Dailly and a quality strike by Gary Naysmith earned Scotland their first win for more than a year, much to the relief of Berti Vogts.
The defeat of Iceland, whom Scotland manager Vogts had insisted were pre-match favourites, was also the German's first taste of victory in his new job following six straight friendly defeats and the embarrassment of only drawing in the Faroe Islands last month.
The Euro 2004 qualification campaign was off and running at last and the Tartan Army were in joyous song once more.
Vogts had preached the need to start the game positively following the disaster in Toftir, in which a primary school teacher had netted twice in the first 12 minutes.
And his instructions were carried out to the letter as the Scots had much the better of the first half and survived some second period pressure to ride out the home side's threat.
Dailly's early breakthrough was an important settling factor of course and came after careless defending by Atli Edvaldsson's men. Centre-back Steven Pressley, who was making his first start, had almost got there before Dailly when he connected with a Naysmith corner.
But somehow the ball ended up back at the Everton man's feet rather than the back of the net. Dailly made no mistake when he rose to nod the resulting cross over a stranded back line. It was his fourth goal in a Scotland shirt and extended his lead as the squad's top scorer.
Captain Paul Lambert went on to lead by example and was even chasing down opponents to the corner flag.
Celtic club-mate Jackie McNamara, who had been included as the third central midfielder in a rejigged system to allow three at the back, was also active and supplied a fine cross from the left for Dailly to head goalwards again.
This time goalkeeper Arni Gautur Arason was able to deny him, launching himself to tip over spectacularly.
Iceland sent on Watford's Heidar Helguson at the restart but within two minutes a chance had appeared at the other end when a Thompson head-on sent Crawford away. The Dunfermline striker has been in excellent scoring form this season but his effort lacked conviction and was screwed harmlessly wide.
But then, just after the hour mark Naysmith provided the second with an unstoppable finish. Ross played the ball in from the right and the Everton man, with his back to goal, took it down with his right boot before using that "other" leg again to fire past Arason on the turn.
It was a first ever Scotland goal for the injury-plagued wing-back, who had had to pull out of almost twice as many games as the eight he has managed to take part in.
That goal killed off the home side, who passed up the opportunity of a consolation with four minutes remaining. West Bromwich Albion defender Larus Sigurdsson was the culprit, poking wide with the goal at his mercy following a defence-opening flick on by substitute Marel Baldvinsson, who had come on for Arnar Vidarsson.