THE merest mention of the 1978 World Cup in Argentina still sends a shiver down the spine of Scotland supporters who are old enough to remember the humiliating debacle in South America.
Gareth Southgate, the England manager, cringes when he thinks back to those infamous finals as well.
Speaking last night as he looked ahead to the 150th Anniversary Heritage Match at Hampden this evening, Southgate confessed he had rooted for his country’s ancient adversaries in that tournament as a seven-year-old boy.
“This is horrendous what I am going to say here,” he said with a sheepish grin at his pre-match press conference. “But I was supporting Scotland in 1978 World Cup as we did not qualify.
“I followed that through the trauma of Peru and then the Netherlands. In 1982, we were back in and from then onwards it was all about England.”
Southgate, who is now in his eighth season as England manager, does not expect Scotland to implode in the same spectacular manner as they did in Argentina 45 years ago in their encounter tonight.
He is a huge admirer of both Steve Clarke and the work he has done as manager of his country and feels that Andy Robertson and his team mates are far more formidable opponents than they were when they drew 0-0 at Wembley during the Euro 2020 finals back in 2021.
“My first memory (of the oldest fixture in international football) was some of your mates nicking the goalposts at Wembley in ’77 (after Ally MacLeod’s team had beat Don Revie’s side 2-1 thanks to Gordon McQueen and Kenny Dalglish goals),” he said.
“We are playing a high level of opponent in a really intimidating atmosphere. Some guys will have experienced that and some won't. We will be able to find out more about them. We have a great spirit and we have to show that tomorrow night.
“This is a very good Scotland team now. Steve has done a brilliant job. I really like him. He’s a real competitor and an excellent coach. They have some good players and are on a really good run.
“I thought they were excellent that night (at the Euros). As you work for longer you get more experiences, more big nights, you have successes and disappointments.
“The players have more experience of big matches and confidence from big results in recent games. They are strong here at Hampden. I like the formation of the team and the tactics.”
Southgate continued: “We have got to compete. We will get rolled over if we don't compete. You have to find the right balance emotionally and physically. The tempo of the game will be high and we are prepared for that. We have to make sure we are a good version of ourselves.
“It will be a good judge of character to see how people respond in this environment. On every level, it is a great challenge for us.
“We have to find the right balance of physicality, freshness, experience, winning, playing well. The first thing is we can't fiddle around with the team as we are playing a top level side at full tilt. They will give us a high level challenge.”
Southgate has been heavily criticised in his homeland in the wake of a 1-1 draw with Ukraine in Poland on Saturday night – even though England remain on top of Group C and firmly on course to reach the Euro 2024 finals in Germany next summer.
He is, though, unconcerned about the fallout to the result and confident that his charges will be back to their best on a far superior surface at Hampden this evening.
“Our attacking play didn't quite click,” he said. “But that was down a lot to the surface. I wasn't too critical afterwards because of the way the ball was bobbling about. But we are still the top scorers and it was still a really good result.”
The build-up to the Scotland v England game this evening has been dominated by speculation about the international future of two Newcastle United players – midfielder Elliot Anderson and winger Harvey Barnes.
It has been suggested that England cap Barnes could decide to switch his allegiances to Scotland – and that Anderson might do exactly the opposite despite being called up by Clarke for the first time for this camp.
Southgate admitted that he is an admirer of both men, but stressed that, like his counterpart Clarke, he remains unsure which country they will end up representing in the future.
“Both are very good players,” he said. “In terms of Harvey, he has played for us before. We have a lot of competition in that area of the pitch. But he’s a player we are always monitoring and like a lot.
“Elliot is a player who has progressed well. We have previously spoken with him, but he was named in the squad here and we assumed that was that. He had an excellent pre-season with Newcastle and you can see the potential he has as a young player.
“I don't know the ultimate answer for either player, but there are going to be more of these situations of players with dual and triple nationality. It is very complicated for every country and sometimes you cannot offer players something as quickly as you like.”
Kieran Trippier, the England right back, plays with both Anderson and Barnes at St James’s Park and is also in the dark about which nation they will choose to play for going forward.
“As the gaffer said, he (Anderson) had an unbelievable pre-season,” he said. “I think it was good for him to stay with us last year, not to go back out on loan again, and to gain that experience. He’s a young lad with great potential.
“Obviously, we’ve had talks with him, but he went away with Scotland. Ultimately, that’s his decision. As I said, he’s a young lad with great potential but that decision is ultimately up to him.”
