Scottish football has spent the past decade and a half berating itself for its fall from grace. Once a regular, although almost always brief, presence at major championships, they have yet to reach a tournament in 21st century.
Despite the constant slagging they receive from their bigger southern neighbours, Scotland have a highly respectable historical head-to-head record against England.
From 112 meetings, England have won 47 and the Scots have won 41. After their win in Wembley in the 1981 British Home Championship, the Scots poked ahead in the historical head to head. Since then, England have dominated the fixture.
But the last competitive match between the pair ended in a win for the Scots, as Alex Ferguson noted recently, though it was longer than a "few years ago."
Their 1-0 win Wembley wasn't enough to overturn the deficit from Hampden Park. England and Scotland were drawn together in the playoff for Euro 2000.
England, under the panicky management of Kevin Keegan, almost a complete hames of their qualification campaign. They needed the already qualified Swedes to do them a favour in the final game against Poland or else they'd be condemned to third spot. Scotland finished a distant 2nd to the Czech Republic in Group 9.
In the opening leg in Hampden Park, England appeared to have put the tie to bed. Paul Scholes, or "the little man from Manchester United", as John Motson called him, scored both goals in the first half.
Four days later, while Ireland were getting involved in all sorts of scrapes in Turkey away from the glare of the RTE camera, the Scots went to Wembley and achieved a result which was simultaneously a victory and a moral victory.
England played in a lethargic and cautious fashion and Scotland created most of the chances. Don Hutchinson's header gave them a 1-0 win on the night.
Early in the second half, Christian Dailly had a header from point blank range but it was directed straight at Seaman. The Scots were unable to manufacture a second goal and England crawled into the Euros. It was perhaps the shakiest of their successful qualification campaigns. They didn't distinguish themselves while there.
Alan Shearer remembers there being relief at the final whistle but an even greater sense of disappointment that they'd lost to Scotland at Wembley.
