Scotland v England will be no friendly as Steve Clarke warns Gareth Southgate to expect 'serious' match

Steve Clarke insists Scotland will not treat this week's 150th anniversary heritage match against England as simply a friendly.

Whatever the result against the Auld Enemy at Hampden on Tuesday, it will not be included in Scotland’s competitive record, which after Friday night’s 3-0 victory over Cyprus now stands at nine games unbeaten, including eight wins.

It is clearly absurd to describe any match against England as anything but competitive, however, and Clarke believes the clash will retain all the usual ingredients despite some of Scotland's focus being trained elsewhere.

Following Friday’s win, Clarke's side will qualify for Euro 2024 if Norway against Georgia, which kicks off at the same time as the clash with England, ends in a draw. Georgia lost their most recent outing 7-1 to Spain while Norway need to win all their remaining four games to have any hope of catching Scotland at the top. "I am sure someone will let us know," said Clarke, when asked if he will be alert to developments in Group A while trackside against England.

Scotland manager Steve Clarke looks on during the 3-0 win over Cyprus in Larnaca. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

“It’s going to be a good night no matter what happens in Oslo,” he said. “We’ll be looking to improve on what we’ve been doing and try and get another good result.

“The game for us will be serious,” he added. “In some friendlies you can relax a little bit and we can be a little bit more relaxed after the win in Cyprus. But we want to win.

“We’re playing England, they’ll want to beat us and we want to beat them. It should be a decent night.

“Listen, we have players who are playing at a good level. We should go into this game with confidence, why not? We haven’t lost a competitive group stage game for a long time now. With the current momentum we’ve got, I think we can take that into the game.”

Clarke is confident that Scotland’s recent results will have been noted by opposite number Gareth Southgate.

“I know Gareth and (assistant) Steve Holland pretty well,” said Clarke. “They’ll respect us. They’ll understand.

“I bump into them on the circuit down south and they understand we’re a team that’s improving. We’re a team that’s getting better. You only need to look at our recent results to know we can give them a decent game on Tuesday night. And that’s what we aim to do.”