I was so gutted when we failed to qualify
Sports reporter Eilidh is flying the flag for Scotland as the only Scot covering the Euros for television this summer.
A Tartan Army of pundits including Alan Hansen and Gordon Strachan have dominated the airwaves in recent tournaments.
But this year Eilidh, 33, from Dunkeld, Perthshire, is the only person from north of the Border among BBC and ITV’s line-ups.
Eilidh said: “I’d been told about a year ago that I was definitely going if Scotland made it.
“So then, when we didn’t make it, I was doubly gutted because I thought probably that was it.
“But then about three or four months ago, I found out that I was still getting to go out.” She added: “I’m doing the nonhome nations for the group stages and then the first round of knockouts. So far, the only game I’ve got heavily pencilled in is Republic of Ireland against Sweden.
“That just really hurts. It’s like they’re trying to rub the salt into the wounds because Ireland are there at Scotland’s expense and I don’t believe they are any better than us.
“But at least because I’m not concentrating on a home nation, it’s not going to be as painful being out there when Scotland aren’t there. I think if I’d been out there following Northern Ireland or Wales, it would have just really rubbed it in.”
It’s Eilidh’s first international football finals and she reckons she owes her whole career to fellow Scot and presenter Hazel Irvine.
She explained: “I’ve always loved sport. If I could have been an athlete or a footballer or whatever, then I would have but unfortunately I don’t quite have those skills.
“I remember watching Grandstand when it was massive and it must have been one of the first times Hazel Irvine ever presented it and I suddenly thought, ‘Oh, girls can do that job’.
“And from then on, that was all I ever wanted to do. I wrote Hazel a letter when I was 14 asking her for advice on how to do it and she wrote back with lots of advice.
“I’ve covered quite a few snooker tournaments since and I told her, probably after a couple of glasses of wine, ‘I wrote you a letter once’. She couldn’t remember but she was glad she’d written back to me. She’s so lovely.”
Football-daft Eilidh is looking forward to covering Euro 2016 despite security fears.
She added: “My parents went over to the France-Scotland Six Nations game just after the terrorist attacks and they saw how good the security was first-hand so I’m not worried.
“If you lived your life like that, you’d never leave the house.
“I just can’t wait for everyone to be talking about the football. I quite fancy France to win. They’ve done it before on home soil and I just think they look very, very strong.
“England have as good a chance as anyone. They can certainly score goals.”