Former Scotland manager Craig Brown is hoping that namesake Scott can make it a hat-trick of wins over England for the Brown clan when he takes to the field at Wembley on Friday night.

After Bobby Brown and he himself led Scotland to famous victories over the auld enemy in the past, he thinks the time is right for returning midfielder Scott to make his own piece of history in the fixture.

And if he does help Scotland to pull off a famous victory, Brown believes that it will equal any of the previous feats that the national side has achieved.

“When we beat the world champions in 1967 – giving them their first defeat since they won the trophy a year before – it was, for me, the best result in the history of the Scottish national team,” Brown said.

“I was there as a punter with my pals and it was also Bobby Brown’s first match as manager. I then managed to beat them 1-0 in 1999 and now I’m hoping Scott Brown can go to Wembley and make it third time lucky for the clan.

“Assuming he’s fit, I think he’ll be a big influence on our side. I watched him play against Aberdeen at Pittodrie two weeks ago and he was outstanding.

“If he could lead us to victory on Friday then, given the context – where we are in the group and how long we’ve waited to get to a finals – that could have as big an impact as that result in 1967.”

While Scotland aren’t exactly going into Friday’s game brimming with confidence given their recent form, Brown says that their opponents aren’t in the best place right now either.

And he hopes that the Scots can take advantage of the uncertainty in England’s ranks over who their next permanent manager is going to be.

“I don’t think they’ve fully recovered from losing to Iceland at the Euros,” he said. “The morale in their camp must have been shattered and the man who paid the price for that, Roy Hodgson, is the unluckiest man in the world.

“He won every qualifying game and he was sacked for one defeat. Roy is a very good manager and it would have been more difficult for us to beat England down there if he was still the manager.

“Big Sam Allardyce would have made it tougher as well because he has a very good record as a manager.

“I don’t understand why the FA refused to appoint Gareth Southgate as his successor. They’ve given him this temporary role, which just keeps him in limbo.

“That can’t be good for the stability of their team. The players will say to themselves: ‘It doesn’t matter if I don’t play well for this guy because he’s not going to be around too long and the next manager will pick me.’

“There must be indecision, even if it’s a subconscious thing. England have everything in their favour but I’m hoping that their players will be as indecisive as the FA’s international committee. They’ve been hesitant about their whole operation.”