IT was a simpler time. Back when footballers wore black boots, supporters wore flared trousers and Showaddywaddy wore out everyone’s sanity with each passing chart hit.

Yes, 1977 is a distant memory as 39 years on we now live in a world of centre-halves wearing yellow gutties, Scotland playing in pink and Justin Bieber cutting about Glasgow eating haggis suppers.

The time that has past only emphasises the difference in the footballing landscape, particularly at international level. Arguably one of the most iconic moments in Scottish football history came back in ’77 that only underlines this thought.

Goals from Gordon McQueen and Kenny Dalglish earned those in dark blue a famous win over the Auld Enemy in front of a packed Wembley. The old stadium’s stands would look less full by the time the clock ticked round to full-time of course, a Tartan Army invasion flooding the pitch as the raucous visitors celebrated a 2-1 victory.

It is a moment that despite coming almost four decades ago, is still fresh in the mind’s eye of Andy Watson, a man who will return to the same location on Friday night as part of the Scotland coaching staff.

The former Rangers No.2 was just a fresh-faced teenager when he jumped on the bus from Aberdeen to head down the road. While a drive along the Gaza Strip in a pink Cadillac is probably not as arduous as the 550 miles gobbled up on the way down from the Granite City.

Still, sitting in the grand setting of Mar Hall with the rest of the Scotland camp, Watson recalls his first experience of the fixture with a smile on his face before turning his attention to the next one.

“I have been as a fan in ‘77 when the whole of Scotland was supposedly there and the goal-posts disappeared,” said the 57-year-old, protesting his innocence when asked if he joined the throng on the park. “No, I never. Honestly I would have had my a**e skelped! I was a good boy.

“It was a long way down from the special in Aberdeen! They were wheeling trollies of drink on and then using the same trolley to wheel people off.

“The game was surreal as I was just a young man, a boy really. To watch that victory it was fantastic, that whole ambience and feeling of being there.

“Looking back you realise it was special and want to be part of that again. Should we win it will be a great three points for us as a nation, to be back in the mix most importantly.”

Watson added: “I was at that one and was also at the ‘96 game when we missed a penalty and Gascoigne scored. I was down there with Mark [McGhee] and Gordon [Strachan] and our families.

“You talk about underdogs but I went to Wembley with Birmingham City when we won the League Cup against Arsenal. We came away with a result from that final.

“You have got to believe in yourself and your group has got to believe that the underdog can win.”

The setting of that rickety old Wembley is far removed from the arena Strachan and his side will walk into on Friday evening in their World Cup Group F qualifier. But they do so with the same mentality that served Ally McLeod’s team well 39 years ago.

For so long now Scotland have been the underdogs when faced with a group of players boasting three lions on their chest. Given the tens, if not hundreds, of millions spent on the players that make up Gareth Southgate’s lot this time, it’s hard to see that power shift changing any time soon.

Nevertheless, it is an attitude free of added pressure that Watson wants Scotland to make the most of against England’s superstars.

“It is about can we pull our sleeves up an extra inch, can we go that extra bit,” he said. “England have fantastic individual players but the game is not won and lost on paper.

“There is a pressure on them to try and perform and win. England are the home side so there is an onus on them.

“We have got a game plan that we will try to adhere to and hopefully on the day we will have enough performances to get us the result.

“As underdogs – Here’s tae us; wha’s like us? Damn few and they’re a’ deid. We need that bit of steel and belief.

“Talking is one point of it, but let’s go out and walk the walk.”

It is a fixture that naturally excites the Tartan Army, even with the backdrop of a stuttering start to a World Cup qualifying campaign that is already hanging by a threat.

But the five points dropped in the first three games has also not deterred the Scotland camp from recognising the significance both on paper and in the heart going into their fourth fixture in Group F.

“We are all looking forward to it since the last game and want to get back on the horse, so to speak,” said Watson, eluding to the 3-0 defeat to Slovakia last time out. “When the draw was made and England was in there you could not hide from the fact it is an attractive fixture.

“But it had to be placed in the right order of things but it has finally come round. The supporter are looking forward to it as are we and it is time to try and produce a big result.”

“The fact that a lot of their players are in the top sides at the minute and have been playing European football. However many players have come up to Scotland and thought it would be a walk in the park and it hadn’t been proven that way for them.

“It is important that on any given day we can compete against anybody, and we have to prove we can.

“Now let’s go out there and show what we are made of.”