Scotland 2 England 2

The original international fixture has diminished in stature over the years and this time – just two days after a general election and amid heightened security – there is little bile between rivals at Hampden as the hosts try to salvage their hopes of, finally, reaching another World Cup.

- Alex Anderson

The sun, like most other things, isn’t kind to the Gorbals. More demolished than gentrified, the area always paid highly for Glasgow’s “Engine room of the Empire” status but isn’t the only reduced icon south of the Clyde, surviving on myths and raised prices. I’m driving towards the ground and fixture responsible for Europe’s biggest-ever football crowd. Wembley may have the profile and Cardiff had last weekend’s Champions League final but Hampden, with almost every UEFA attendance record – including nearly 150,000 for that 1937 Scotland v England game – has people power like nowhere else in Britain. Or it had.

Gordon Strachan’s on my car radio with an anecdote about how his young grandson thinks that Leigh Griffiths, rather than Kenny Dalglish, is the greatest Scottish player. Strachan protects arguably our poorest ever squad with scalding defensiveness. He barely smiled after last year’s refreshingly comfortable Group F opener in Malta, then described the risible home draw with Lithuania as a great performance. For many it’s getting old. The only home nation not at Euro 2016; losing 3-0 in our two last away games this campaign: Scotland lie fourth, six points off leaders England.

Next summer marks an unprecedented 20 years since Scotland reached a tournament. One more loss means elimination and Strachan’s willing resignation. The most depressing aspect of November’s Wembley trouncing was that we actually played well. Only Strachan, pupil of Jock Stein and Alex Ferguson, commands enough respect to inspire a pool of English Premier League make weights, English Football League squad players and champions from the one-team Scottish Premiership. He just needs one major win to produce real momentum. (Meanwhile, England, as usual, are wasted on the English. Thirty-four games unbeaten in qualifying and no goals conceded in Group F.)