Steve Clarke’s Scotland are flying after adding stardust to grit as they prepare for eagerly-anticipated clash against England

• Steve Clarke’s side are in excellent shape ahead of their clash against England 
• Scotland have added stardust to grit and are performing to a very high standard 
• Listen to the latest episode of Mail Sport’s podcast It’s All Kicking Off! 

Supremacy. A word often hissed through Scottish tongues when regurgitating the poison that pervades the history of this fixture.

The English, they say, thought they were above the Scots. As England should discover on Tuesday night, such sentiment belongs in the past. This is Nations League A versus Nations League B, and it is the hosts who reside in the top tier.

At kick-off, Scotland will – ’as it stands’ – become the first nation qualified for next summer’s European Championship. That has nothing to do with events here in Glasgow, but a draw in Oslo between Norway and Georgia would guarantee their passage to the finals in Germany.

Only Portugal have a better record in qualifying, but they are in a bloated group with the likes of Liechtenstein and Luxembourg. Scotland have beaten Spain and Norway and, in five victorious matches, have conceded only once to Erling Haaland. That is forgivable.

Their last 11 group-stage qualifiers have been Ws, and that should be a Worry for any Englishman who believes they are striding north of the border as Goliath. Forget throwing stones, David is ready to bloody your nose with a football. 

Steve Clarke’s Scotland side are thriving after adding stardust to the grit that they possessed

Clarke’s side are in excellent shape ahead of the eagerly-anticipated clash with England

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Scotland are the national side with a club-team identity. While England’s talent pool runs as deep as Loch Ness, Steve Clarke’s mentality monsters will be lying in wait for them at Hampden Park. His players will run through brick walls and are steadily building one of their own at the back. It is nearly two years since they last conceded more than one goal in a competitive game, and they were the only team to keep out England at Euro 2020.

That is not to say their success is reliant solely on what feels like the stereotypes of hard work, spirit and determination. Yes, those are the foundations Clarke has instilled over his four years, but with the likes of John McGinn, Billy Gilmour and, more recently, Scott McTominay, they have stardust amid the grit.

McTominay leaves behind a cloak of increasing anonymity in Manchester and swaps it for a superhero’s cape when returning to his homeland. He has six goals in his last five for Scotland and, under Clarke, the midfielder-cum-poacher is reborn as a hybrid of Graeme Souness and Ally McCoist, two former stars who lauded the re-emergence of their country on these pages at the weekend.

Scotland would probably have been at last year’s World Cup, too, had Russia not invaded Ukraine and delayed their play-off match against the latter. By the time it was played, they were missing key players, had lost all momentum and even Souness said he would not begrudge the Ukrainians victory given the trauma of war. Ukraine duly won before losing to Wales in the play-off final. Scotland, for the record, are also now better than Wales, as FIFA’s rankings testify.

Manchester United’s Scott McTominay often steps up when he wears the Scotland shirt

The Scotland players will relish the opportunity to take on England on Tuesday night

But how much closer are they to England? Clarke was hesitant when asked if their opponents had improved since the last meeting, that goalless draw at Wembley during Euro 2020.

‘It’s difficult to say, but I don’t think they have gone backwards,’ was Clarke’s tentative assessment, and those who doubt Gareth Southgate would perhaps agree.

The Scotland boss was more decisive when pushed for an appraisal of his own team. ‘I think we have improved,’ he declared. ‘That’s about getting more international experience and giving consistently a message to the team as they turn up. You often have one day tactically to prepare, same as we had against Spain (2-0 win in March), but this group of players know, without me speaking too much, that this is what we need to do to play against a team of this calibre. You need to do this job, this job and this job.’

Those messages will be delivered in Clarke’s customary monotone but, with his players hitting every note on the pitch, ‘dour Scot’ he will remain. He did deviate and add a splash of colour on Monday as he regaled a tale of ‘going mental’ behind the goal at Wembley when Scotland won 1-0 in 1981, before losing his younger brother in London after the game and getting a telling-off from his older sister.

That victory was Scotland’s fourth in seven years against the Auld Enemy, at a time when they went to World Cups and the English stayed at home. There was certainly no feeling of superiority during that period.

And nor should there be now. As midfielder Callum McGregor said, he would far rather beat England than be told the result in Oslo had gone their way. This is a chance they have been waiting for – a chance to impose some supremacy of their own.

This is an excellent chance for Scotland to demonstrate how far they’ve come

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