WE’LL BE READY

McCall fires an early warning shot to England

SCOTLAND coach Stuart McCall has promised the Tartan Army that England will face a totally rejuvenated team when the old rivals clash on World Cup qualifying duty.

Gordon Strachan’s team were routed by their English opponents the last time the teams met in Glasgow, the visitors running out easy 3-1 winners at Celtic Park in November.

That encounter came just days after Scotland had trumped the Republic of Ireland in a crucial and hugely-draining Euro 2016 qualifying win.

Having been drawn together in Group F, yesterday came a fixture list showing that the oldest rivals in international football will meet at Wembley on Armistice Day — a night game on Friday, November 11 next year — followed by a Saturday evening kick- off at Hampden on June 10, 2017. McCall, dr a wi ng so me comfort from Scot la n d having run England very close in a 3-2 loss at Wembley in the summer of 2013, admitted: ‘We were disappointed with the game at Celtic Park because that was as poor as we’ve been at home.

‘I know in the great scheme of things it was only a friendly but we underperformed. England will expect to beat us if we perform like that again.

‘But we have improved and we are improving. We would hope that the next time we play England we play more like we did at Wembley than we did at Celtic Park.

‘We’re not making an excuse because England on the day were much better than us.

‘If you look at their team, in certain areas, they have players who are playing in the Champions

From Back Page League. But after the Wembley game I think they thought, “wow, Scotland showed up”, because we played well. We did ourselves proud to a certain degree.

‘We scored two good goals and it was only after a raft of substitutions in the last 20 minutes that nobody picked up Rickie Lambert for the winner with his first touch in international football.

‘But down there we gave them a right good game — and I’d probably say we’re a stronger squad now. Up here they were stronger than us and we weren’t at our best — which we’ll need to be to get past them.

‘We’ll look to do better than that l ast game, where I think the mental side of it was an issue. There was this intense build-up to the Republic of Ireland game beforehand and euphoria after the win — and we were never going to match that, even though it was England.

‘That’s not an excuse. England were better than us in certain parts of the game but for long periods it was even and scrappy.’

Promising that the current Euro 2016 qualifying campaign remains t he f ocal point f or Gordon Strachan’s team, McCall added: ‘If we can qualify for France, too, it’ll build people’s experience — and, by the time we play England, we’ll have better players.’

Scotland will also face Slovenia, Slovakia, Lithuania and Malta — the latter our first opponents, away from home next September — in a group from which only the winners are guaranteed a place in Russia in the summer of 2018.

‘It’s good that there’s a freshness about the group and we avoided teams we’ve played recently,’ said the former Rangers manager.

‘But the England one, for the imagination of everyone, gives it that spark the group needed.’