Win and we’ll go down in history, says Snodgrass
IF Gordon Strachan’s Scotland team can play anywhere near as well as they talk then they will have a better chance at Hampden Park on Saturday than any bookmaker is prepared to give them. Former Scotland manager Craig Brown was first up this week, telling the media in Scotland that England coach Gareth Southgate is not up to the job. ‘If Roy Hodgson was England manager we would have had a far harder game,’ said Brown, who went on to claim he had identified Southgate as a weak defensive link when his Scotland side won at Wembley in 1999. ‘Southgate was a better footballer than others but he was soft.’ Then came the view from inside the Scotland dressing room as West Ham’s attacking midfielder Robert Snodgrass sat down to explain just what a 3-0 defeat against England in World Cup qualifying did to his team-mates in November. ‘It was shocking, what at happened there, to be e quite honest,’ said Snodgrass. ‘You are on the other side of it when you get beaten by them. ‘There were probably only three moments between the teams. Had we taken our chances we e could have been victorious. But England can be got at, we know that.’ Not all the accents around the Scotland camp are Scottish. That is the way of modern international football. For example, Chris Martin, whose winning goal against Slovenia breathed life into Scotland’s campaign in March, is from Suffolk and sounds exactly like it. Snodgrass is pure tartan, though. Born in Glasgow and spending his formative football years at Livingston, the 29-year-old will feel the rhythms of this week’s build-up as intensely as anybody in Strachan’s squad. Some, including his own manager, say international football is not quite what it was. Snodgrass does not agree. ‘There is a different sort of edge when you come up against England,’ he said. ‘Even when it’s a friendly you still get that fear that if you get beat it won’t be good. But if you win you know it will be the best thing going. I love the feeling of playing against them. The rivalry has always been there, with your parents bringing you up so when England were playing you would get the opposite team’s top on and all that stuff. You would be cheering on that team. It’s the way we have been brought up and it’s no different now.’ Having sat at home as England, Wales and both Irish teams played in Euro 2016, Scotland’s hopes of qualifying for the World Cup in Russia seemed to be on the floor after defeat at Wembley. Victory on Saturday would give the Scots a little hope and also go some way to adding sheen to a reputation damaged by years of failure. Snodgrass admitted it is somethsomething the players have discudiscussed. ‘We were just taltalking about that totoday,’ he revealed. ‘You can sit and say, “That’s Scottish football”. So there is that to consider but tthere are loads of ddifferent things ababout this match. You dondon’t focus on what peoppeople are saying. You are goingoing in there believing you can get a result because you are so up for the game. You don’t even think about anything other than beating England. People will remember you for years it if happens because there aren’t too many times it has happened.’ Scotland have beaten England once in 10 games since 1985. They have only beaten their rivals once at home in 41 years. Snodgrass admitted that a scoreline that flattered England in November made the defeat harder to take but a glimpse at the tape of the game also serves to encourage Strachan’s players. ‘It just gives you that drive and feeling in your stomach that you are going to make things right come Saturday,’ Snodgrass said. ‘You need to believe you can get at them. When you play for that personal pride in yourself you don’t want to let your teammates down and you want to do your best for them and yourself. If we can do that it could really drive the country forward to get the result we want.’