With the best fans in the world, but rarely the players on the field to match, Scotland became a joke under manager Bertie Vogts. National pride is now, however, back on the agenda, starting with the work of manager Walter Smith and now being continued by Alex McCleish. With Scotland and Northern Ireland looking to be the strongest bets for British qualification for Euro 2008, the tables have turned and the tartan army can sign with pride one more.

Strong performances and a better standard of player emerging lead to a victory over France and consistency against the lower-ranked teams in the group has meant that Scotland are still very much in contention in a group that features Ukraine and both World Cup 2006 finalists, France and Italy, much to the surprise of fans and critics alike.

Wins in their remaining home matches against Italy and Ukraine will be crucial to Scotland’s chances of making the finals next summer, and any sort of result in Paris on 12 September when they face France would be of major benefit. Of course, Scotland must also avoid their bete noir: playing well against the big guns, then slipping up on the banana skins, in this case Lithuania and Georgia, who has some fairly good players in their ranks.