Scotland assistant manager Mark McGhee has urged the home fans to make it a partisan Hampden Park when England visit for Saturday’s World Cup Qualifier.
McGhee is hoping the Tartan Army can help give their side a much-needed edge in Glasgow after losing 3-0 to Gareth Southgate’s men earlier in the campaign last November.
Daniel Sturridge, Adam Lallana and Gary Cahill scored for the hosts at Wembley that night and former Scotland, Aberdeen, Celtic and Newcastle forward McGhee is desperate for his side to make home advantage pay against the Group F leaders.
“Because it’s England, the supporters come along wanting to support you, they come along with a desire to get behind you,” said McGhee, who scored in a 1-1 draw against England in 1984.
“But you have to give them something to get behind, give them reasons to believe something special could happen.
“I played in a lot of big games but I’m on record as saying that the noise when I scored against England was the loudest I have ever heard. It reverberated around Hampden, it was more than just a noise.
“It’s got that potential because of the stadium and the nature of the game.”
A home victory would give the Scots a huge lift to their hopes of qualifying for Russia 2018 from Group F, and McGhee added: “I think we have got to try and keep the ball better, particularly when we are in the opposition half.
“It’s important that we don’t think we can score every time we have the ball in their half. We have to be a bit more careful and build more possession.
“And we have to take more chances. Just after half-time at Wembley, we had a couple of great chances and we didn’t take them and they got their second moments later.
“But we take confidence from how we played for an hour, or the 50-55 minutes at least. For that part of the match, we gave them problems and I think we will take belief from that.”
Watch Scotland v England in World Cup Qualifying Group F on Saturday. Coverage begins on Sky Sports 1 HD at 4pm.
