The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Time for Scotland’s new Wembley heroes
Scotland desperately needs new Wembley heroes in the mould of the 1967 team which humbled the World Cup winners on their own patch with Law and Baxter giving a master class, or the 1928 Wembley Wizards who hammered the Auld Enemy 5-1 on their hallowed turf.
Gordon Strachan and his men are drinking in the last chance saloon in Friday’s World Cup qualifier.
Defeat will leave us with a task equivalent to pushing a piano up Ben Nevis in slippers, as we attempt to qualify for Russia in 2018.
A 1-1 draw with Lithuania and a 3-0 thumping from Slovakia hasn’t been the ideal preparation for a joust with a nation which has beaten us 47 times in 112 clashes, but a Wembley draw would keep us just in the race, and a win, our 42nd against them, would give us a huge boost for the return fixture at Hampden next June.
We Scots are not a side blessed with huge natural talent.
We lack creative midfielders who can turn a game with a precision pass, there are no speed merchants to zip past defenders to carve a defence open, and at the back we are as fragile as a china cup.
The manager will more than earn his money if he can figure a way to take a point or more against an England side, which, while nowhere near world class, still has significantly greater energy, pace and goal threat than we can muster.
However, they are also a side which regularly fails to live up to the hype of their media, which squanders possession carelessly, panics under pressure, and often looks like their defenders have just met each other.
Ours is not quite mission impossible, but missionary zeal will be required to give ourselves a fighting chance.
Historically our competitive record against the Three Lions is actually excellent given the respective sizes of the nations.
However, the game is played in the here and now and the size of the task seems likely to prove exceptionally tough for the men in pink (yes pink).
Pride and passion can take a team far though, and we might just put the old adage to the test, ‘hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard’.
England are in the throes of a managerial revolution with Gareth Southgate temporarily in charge and trying to convince the FA that he is the man for the permanent position.
He is a calm individual but his brutal decision to ditch skipper Wayne Rooney for the game v Slovenia indicates a toughness of mind.
A win against Scotland would greatly assist his cause and the motivation factor will be even higher than normal for the men in white.
Scottish football is in need of heroes.
Our national sport has long been tarnished with under achievement and many fans now routinely opt for club over country.
There is still though a deep and latent passion to see the national team prosper, and success on the Wembley stage would give an incalculable boost to our football. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Over to you Gordon.
Scottish football is in need of heroes... Cometh the hour, cometh the man