Scotland midfielder Robert Snodgrass regards facing England at Wembley in a friendly three years ago as one of the proudest moments of his career.
It is no surprise the Hull City midfielder is pinching himself at the prospect of being involved in Friday’s World Cup qualifier in London.
Snodgrass has returned to fitness sooner than expected after an ankle ligament injury suffered while playing for his club last month, which had ruled him out of this week’s crucial match, with the 29-year-old coming off the bench to score one and set up the second goal in the Tigers’ 2-1 Premier League victory against Southampton on Sunday.
He played in the 3-2 defeat against England in August 2013, in which Gordon Strachan’s side seemed destined for a draw at worst until Rickie Lambert’s headed winner 20 minutes from time.
After watching several inspirational films in the build-up to the game, including Braveheart, Snodgrass found no shortage of motivation in his efforts to do his nation proud.
With crucial World Cup qualification points at stake this time around, Snodgrass is relishing the task ahead, and he said: “It speaks for itself.
“England have always been the arch-enemies and the rivals, they’ve always probably been that step ahead, especially in the last 10 or 20 years, when we’ve just been trying to get to major tournaments and they have been saying they should be winning them. I’ve played down there for the last 10 years so it’s always been that heated, Scotland versus England rivalry.
“I’ve been brought up in a family that is patriotic and loved the Scotland and England games.
“To be involved first hand, when we played down there at Wembley and lost 3-2, with goals from set pieces, it was hard to take.
“We watched about three motivational videos on the bus on the way to that game. Braveheart was one of them, so we went in there meaning business even though it was only a friendly. We were desperate to be a part of it.
“At international level the players are experienced. Some might think we have all been here before, but little things like that maybe get us up for the game. The older players move into a routine. The Wembley match was a friendly, but we didn’t treat it as one. It was big for us. We wanted the bragging rights from beating England and it will be no different on Friday.
“To be going there to play in a World Cup qualifier is massive. Every one of the players is looking forward to it. We can’t wait but we know we’ll have to be at our very best to get a result.
“We need big game players and there is no bigger game than this. So we have to puff our chest out and be ready for it, knowing the nation is behind us.”
Snodgrass has been inundated with requests for tickets for the match as Scotland chase a first victory at Wembley since the 1-0 win in 1999, and he added: “I’ve been badgered for tickets from everyone in my street and my old school. But it’s great to see everyone tra-velling down there, still supporting us after a few bad results. We know if we beat England we’re right back in it.
“We’ll have around 13,000 supporters going down there and they’ll be rooting for us so it doesn’t get any bigger.”
