NO extra motivation is ever required when Scotland play England, even in a friendly like the 150th Anniversary Match which will be staged at a sold-out Hampden this evening, at football.
Yet, manager Steve Clarke has, as someone who resides on the other side of Hadrian’s Wall, an added incentive to mastermind a win over Gareth Southgate’s men in Mount Florida this evening.
“I live down south,” he said. “I don’t want the neighbours chapping at my door laughing at me! You have that kind of mentality. It is a competitive friendly.”
The outcome of the Group A meeting between Norway and Georgia in Oslo this evening will have far greater long-term implications for Scotland than slapping down their noisy neighbours – a draw would secure their place at the Euro 2024 finals in Germany next summer.
However, recording a first triumph over England at Hampden in 38 long years would do much more than give the Tartan Army reason to rejoice and gloat.
It would fuel the feel-good factor which has steadily grown in the squad and in the stands during their remarkable qualifying campaign – they have won their first five fixtures - and increase the self-belief of players who have defeated Denmark and Spain at home in the past two years even further.
Clarke, whose charges restored their 12 point lead at the top of the section with a 3-0 win over Cyprus over in Larnaca on Friday night, will certainly have half an eye on the qualifier against Spain in Seville next month when the two teams take the field before kick-off.
“As a group, the staff and players all feel pretty good about where we are just now,” he said. “My job is to try and keep and lid on it a little bit and make them realise that, although we have 15 points, there is still a couple of avenues within the group that could make it a tricky November for us.
“We have to be not complacent, we have to understand what we are trying to do within the framework of that section. The next competitive game is Spain away, which is a tough one.
“I just feel that this fixture tomorrow is a great fixture to help us to prepare for that Spain game and get a positive result which would certainly help in our quest to qualify. If we can go there and get a positive result it can help us in our quest to try and finish first in the group.
“All that is beyond the next game. The next game is for me to have a look at certain things within the game and see if we can improve. Recent results have been good. Let’s try and get another one tomorrow against a country where the Tartan Army would enjoy it if we got a positive result against England.”
Clarke oversaw a 0-0 draw with England at Wembley that was celebrated like a triumph by Scotland fans in the Euro 2020 finals back in 2021. He is convinced that his team have improved since that encounter and is hopeful that will be evident once again this evening.
“That’s a consequence of a lot of things that I have spoken about a lot of times,” he said. “It’s about getting more international experience, getting boys to play regularly in the team and giving consistently a message to the team as they turn up.
“We have a situation where we have played in Cyprus and then recovered and not really done match. You have one day tactically to prepare. But this group of players know without me speaking too much and doing too much what we need to do to play against a team of this calibre.
“You need to do this job, this job and this job. If I can get that continuity of message and they can play and keep up picking up wins as they are, then they have to go into these games with a bit more confidence than maybe they went into the game at Wembley.
“Can we go in with a little bit more confidence? Can we have more ball possession? Can we play better and create more chances? Let’s see.”
Clarke, the former Newcastle United, Chelsea and Liverpool assistant and Kilmarnock manager, believes that he himself has improved since the last England match. He suspects that he will be better placed to negotiate the Euro 2024 finals group stages if, as looks inevitable, Scotland do make it.
“That night we played well,” he said. “I thought we deserved the point. I don’t think anyone could begrudge us the draw that night. But I also learned a few lessons from it.
“I felt we emptied ourselves in the middle game of a three-game qualifying run. I have learnt some lessons from it. I think that affected our performance out here against Croatia here in the last game.
“It is a big physical ask and it is a big tactical ask and obviously you have to have the individual skills within it. To get a result against a top nation as did against Spain in March you have to get almost everything 100 per cent correct.
“It was more going onto the third game (Scotland lost 3-1 to Croatia and failed to progress to the knockout rounds once again). I would probably have shuffled one or two more than I actually did.”
But beating England is all that Clarke is concerned with at the moment. He was surprised to learn that the 1985 Rous Cup was the last time that Scotland had prevailed against England. Having ended an interminable wait to reach a tournament finals, he now wants to end the winless run in Glasgow.
“Is it?” he said. “I know it was 23 years between France ’98 and Euro 2020. Let’s try and change the numbers.
“It’ll be nice to be head coach in charge of a Scotland and England game at Hampden. It is extra nice to be the guy in charge for a 150th anniversary game. Maybe in 150 years’ time when we are doing the 300th anniversary game someone might remember me.”
