AT THE time of writing, everyone was getting ready to watch what I believe is the longest international derby in history – England versus Scotland.

As I’ve said before, no matter what is said in the build-up to this game, there is always much more passion and endeavour, especially when the Scots travel all the way down to Wembley.

They give the impression they have twice as many fans as the English, this can’t happen at the moment of course because of the restrictions. But there will still have been that added pressure on England, because the one game Scotland always want to win is this one.

I remember looking back, as many people have this week, at the last meeting between these two countries in a major tournament. It came 25 years ago during Euro 96 and was made extra famous by the legend Paul Gascoigne.

He was a one-off in many ways. A natural talent with an amazing sense of humour, which brought many laughs around the training ground. But no-one expected it to carry on during the main game, which has been watched thousands of times. After flicking the ball over the opponent’s head and scoring a terrific shot into the corner, he then immediately ran behind the goal-line and lay on his back for players to gather around and squirt water in his face.

My time with England with the late Graham Taylor, as I’ve often said, was probably because he needed an interpreter for Gazza, with Paul and me coming from the same area of the country. I was pretty close to him, especially during training, when I tried to get him to concentrate a lot more.

But even I couldn’t help laughing at some stages. I remember when he asked where Gary Mabbutt was and he was told that Gary had sugar diabetes, his immediate answer was ‘I thought he was a boxer?’.

On another occasion, in the medical room when a player was told he was getting a cortisone injection, Gazza immediately said ‘are we all getting a new car?’.

And when he went to Lazio in Italy, one of his close friends was a top-class player called Beppe Signori, who asked if he could help teach him some English.

I actually had to go over to Lazio to see a game, just to have a check to see how Gazza was getting on. I went to the hotel where they were staying the night before, went into their room and they were lazing around, lying around bored stiff.

When I’ve come in, Gazza has come over and made a right fuss of me. He said ‘Beppe, come here, this is Lawrie, the great man, what have I been telling you?’. This bloke has come up, bowed his head as if I’m royalty and put his hand out and said ‘hello, how the f***ing hell are you?’.

I looked round and Gazza was in the corner wetting himself.

I suppose I could write a book about Gazza, but the main subject at present is the international games.

I have to admit I don’t watch every one for 90 minutes, but certainly England v Scotland will be one I would have. I thought Wales played very well to beat Turkey on Wednesday and I would like the three British teams to go through to the next stage.

I’m just sorry that Ireland have got no representation at all.

As I’ve said before, when I managed in the north, it was very difficult when picking teams for international games to find any Northern Irish players playing in the top flight.

However, the favourites are probably France and Italy and whether England or Scotland have to meet up with them in order to qualify for the latter stages, I’m sure both managers are just concentrating on getting out of the early stages at present.

England beat Croatia last weekend and whilst most people will think ‘so what?’, if you look, they are 14th in the FIFA ranking and their odds of winning this tournament were 33-1. Whereas countries like Scotland are apparently 250-1, so don’t underestimate what a good result Gareth Southgate got to start with.

I still think, particularly watching the bits of games I have, set pieces are becoming more and more important and it could well be that England will miss James Ward-Prowse. Corners are always interesting, particularly if it is towards the end of a game and a team needs a goal and even their goalkeeper comes up. I saw one team actually put men on the posts and fortunately for them one header, which would have normally gone in, was headed away by that defender. I still cannot understand how every team doesn’t do this.

But never mind, at least it’s getting supporters the opportunity to watch the game which has been literally taken away from everyone because of this virus. I still get puzzled when I watch cricket or tennis or horse racing and the crowds are there, so why not football?

But anyway, our fixtures are now out. I don’t think we’ve got the easiest start, mind, but we can look at that nearer the time.

Let’s hope by then we can get the grounds full again, as we all know the difference that makes to the home team.