Get Promoted And Miss England - Or, Stay Down And Maybe Be In The Same Group As Them - Decisions, Decisions

THIS UEFA Nations League remains a work in progress. It was introduced to do away with meaningless “friendlies” or “challenge matches” and as a means of giving the governing body's match co-efficient greater teeth. Even after a couple of runs-through, the kinks are still being ironed-out, but, I like the idea.

I don't think there is the same liking for the Nations League south of the Solway, where a truth of football which has been obvious to all but our Sassenach neighbours since 1950 – England are by and large shite when it comes to competitive internationals – has been given greater exposure.

You can never say never, but, should Wales beat Poland by two clear goals and thus retain their place in League A, and Scotland do the business to be promoted into that League, then both Celtic nations would be ranked above the self-styled 'Football Master Race.' Now that would be an unpleasant reality for the Nigels to try to not talk about.

Any way, wouldn't it be ironic if we did get ourselves into the top league, only to find England – the team we most-wanted to face, had been relegated? Such a scenario would also be typically Scottish.

WE DIDN'T have the Nations League when I was a boy. But, we did have the Home Internationals, the annual meeting of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. From 1884 until 1968 the Home Internationals were played during the season. For Scotland this meant we faced Northern Ireland and Wales in October and November – the away game on a Saturday afternoon, the home one on a Wednesday night. The annual meeting with England was always on a Saturday afternoon in April.

The Saturday away games in Belfast, Cardiff/Wrexham/Swansea or London meant that a nearly full programme of league games would be played up here, to suit the non-travelling members of the Tartan Army.

Towards the end of this schedule, however, a rule was introduced which meant, if a Scottish club side was shorn of (I believe) three players due to international duty, then they were allowed to call-off their Saturday fixture.

Then, in 1969 the Home Internationals were moved to the end of the season and had the football scene all to themselves. This, however, only hastened the tournament's demise as England (and to a lesser degree Scotland) thought they were better than Northern Ireland and Wales and wanted to go off and play more-glamorous friendlies against continental opponents.

I always, in view of this “we're better than you” view from Us and the English, felt there was delicious irony in Northern Ireland winning the final running of the Home Internationals in 1984, with Wales in second spot, England third and Scotland fourth. This meant, the magnificent Jubilee Trophy, (pictured below), awarded to the winners every tournament since 1935, has, for the past 38 years been in the possession of the Northern Ireland Football Association.

This really is a wonderful example of the silversmith's art and I would love to see it brought back into regular competitive use.

However, that's a side issue to the main thrust of this post. We played the Republic of Ireland on Saturday night, kick-off 7.45pm. However, the Scottish fixture list was all but cleared for this game – the only senior domestic game to go on was the League Two clash of Forfar Athletic v Stirling Albion.

Now, even under the old 'three players called-up and you can postpone a domestic game' rules, only Celtic, who have Callum McGregor, Greg Taylor and Anthony Ralston in the Scotland squad would have been affected. So, what was to stop the SPFL from promoting a full programme of league matches on Saturday?

Only a little over 52,000 fans can get into a full-house Hampden, but, the rest of us had to have a Saturday off, and be inconvenienced by midweek re-scheduling of games, with the knock-on effect of smaller attendances.

I recall, when researching an article on the 1928 Wembley Wizards, reading that the biggest cheer of the day at Ibrox, where Rangers (minus Alan Morton) were beating Clyde 3-1, came when the half-time score from Wembley (Scotland leading 2-0) was announced over the tannoy.

While the second Wembley Wizards were putting England to the sword, on 15 April, 1967, back up the road, two First Division games were played – Aberdeen beating Stirling Albion 1-0 and Hibs crushing Ayr United 4-1. There were also five Second Division games played, while both halves of the Old Firm – who between them provided six of the victorious XI in London, had their reserve sides in Saturday action. In England, while the big game went ahead at Wembley, five First Division games were played, while there was a full programme in the three lower English Leagues.

That, however, was before football sold-out totally to the great God, Television. Why cannot we go back to fitba at 3pm on a Saturday? Mind you, that said, maybe with the ridiculous surge in energy prices, this season we will be going back to 1.30pm and 2pm starts, to avoid the use of expensive floodlighting systems.

As for Saturday night's Hampden match; this was yet another example of how, when two sides, even international ones, from the British Isles lock horns – the players revert to type.

With the introduction of continental coaches and players, in club games, the home-grown players have to adapt to the more-technical European style of play: building slowly from the back, passing across the field and often backwards, seeking to create space.

Remove the European influence, bring British Isles bragging rights into the equation and it's a case of: “right, let's get tore-intae this lot.” There were one or two outbreaks of “handbags at ten paces” on Saturday night; more snarling and posturing than usual and a good old-fashioned British cup tie ensued.

I thought the Republic boys did a good job in unsettling our guys, who took a time to get into the game, but, in the end, quality told and I thought we deserved our win.

In these types of games, we need a Scott Brown type in midfield to get us going and I thought, on Saturday, Scott McTominay stepped-up to the plate in this role. He has, I think, cemented his place as a Tartan Army favourite over the last two games.

Now we move on to Poland and a winner takes all clash with Ukraine. They will be out for revenge after the last meeting and gthe problem for Stevie Clarke will be – does he stick or twist – try to take the sting out of the game and take the draw which will win us promotion, or, go for another win to go up to the A League in style. I hope he goes with option two.