England 3--Scotland 2.

The second-half substitute Ricky Lambert, on for an ineffectual Wayne Rooney, scored the winner. A dream debut for the England striker. In truth he could and should have had a hat-trick. The Scotland defence buckled after being 0-1, then 1-2 ahead at the start of the second half. I expected us to get beat. In every sense we’re a team of midgets. None of the Scotland team play for a top English Premier league team. Whittiker can’t get a game for Norwich. Kenny Miller’s been round the world looking for a game and in truth I didn’t think he’d start, but he scored a great goal Alan Hutton is the player nobody wants, back training with the kids at Aston Villa. Scotland used to produce centre-halfs that never lost a ball in the air, but were mince on the deck. Think of Gordon McQueen, or Alex McLeish. Then we had Gary Caldwell. He wasn’t playing, but has over fifty caps for Scotland. That shows better than any statistic the decline in Scottish football. I expected us to get hammered. The biggest surprise was when the cameras panned round the crowd before the start of the game. It’s the usual stuff with guys with their face painted like Braveheart and guys that wouldn’t wear a kilt to their own wedding, wearing the tartan. They’re all smiling and waving. In 1976 when we won, invaded the pitch and stole the turf and the bars (which were difficult to smuggle onto the British Rail train) everybody was so pissed the only reason they could stand up was because the guy next to them kept them upright and he was standing next to a metal grill. Here the fans were shockingly sober. The biggest fixture in the football calendar is reduced to this. Midweek and you need to be sober to watch. Boring. I might add I didn’t like Scott Brown, even though he did his usual growling cameo, playing the full ninety minutes. We’ve got a very big game in the Champions League next Wednesday. That’s the one that matters to me.