Us a glimpse of glory

Simply seeing the visitors line up to defend Griffiths’ free-kicks illustrated what physical specimens they are – “the tallest wall in Europe,” remarked Strachan, highlighting the scale of Griffiths’ achievement in getting the ball up and down twice from around 27 yards.

Tierney, mouth already bulging with a gum shield, had his discomfiture compounded by having to adapt to another new role. While he might have hesitated, crucially, at England’s opener from Alex Oxlade-chamberlain, it was another brave, composed performance from the player, who attracted plenty of admiring comments from English observers.

But then there were few failures. Robert Snodgrass, perhaps, looked slightly heavy-legged and disgruntled. The midfielder, deployed on the right ahead of Anya, was engaged in running discussions with Strachan in the first half, while Armstrong, playing less centrally, was not quite the influence he’d been against Slovenia. Gordon, meanwhile, seemed unusually shaky throughout.

But even those out of form gave eve- rything in effort. It was all Strachan had asked for pre-match.

There would, he predicted, be two or three players who wouldn’t reach the heights. In such instances, he said, their team-mates would require to dig them out of a hole. Griffiths certainly did this. But this being Scotland, there was still time to fall into another pothole.

What Harry Kane’s late, late equaliser means in terms of the road to Russia, only time – and possibly September’s away clash in Lithuania, where three points are nonnegotiable – will tell. But for two wonderful minutes the Tartan Army experienced what it must feel like to lift the World Cup before, almost inevitably, Scotland let the trophy crash to the floor.

“Nothing can extinguish the memory of a gilded two minutes in June when suddenly, and briefly, everything seemed possible. Strachan later rated Griffiths’ two free-kicks as the best ever byaplayerina Scotland jersey”