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Former Scotland internationalist Kevin Gallacher reckons Gordon Strachan should make the squad watch Braveheart to get them fired up for Friday’s eagerly-anticpated World Cup clash against England.
The former Dundee United and Blackburn striker insists manager Strachan needs to convince the players that they can defy the odds at Wembley and believes the movie portrayal of William William’s epic battle against the English is the ideal tonic.
Gallacher, who was part of the last Scotland team to reach a major finals in 1998 and also played in the 2-0 Euro 2000 play-off first leg defeat to England at Hampden said: “I think they just have to believe in themselves.
“They’re going to have to lift it up a level again, and who better than to lift it up against than England?
“Mentally he can get into the players, he has to try it
“Whether it’s watching Braveheart, whether it’s watching an old game where you beat England at Wembley, these all give players inspiration and belief that they can do it.
“England at the moment don’t have a manager, they have a caretaker in Gareth Southgate, so they’re hobbling along as well.
“Sometimes it’s better to get the wounded animal while it’s limping and this could be an opportunity for Scotland.”
Scotland narrowly lost out on qualification to Euro 2000 after winning the second leg 1-0 at Wembley but Gallacher, who was suspended for the return match, admits he loved the experience of facing the Auld Enemy.
Speaking to BBC Scotland, he added: “It’s brilliant, it’s what you want, Scotland against England.
“We were playing against team-mates and you wanted to be able to get that result, rub a little bit of banter on them and give them a bit of stick.”
A poor start to the Group F qualifying camping, including a 3-0 defeat to Slovakia in their last outing, has left Scotland with four points from three games but Gallacher admits he still has faith in Strachan.
He added: “If we keep chopping and changing managers and chopping and changing systems, I don’t think we’ll ever settle.
“As long as the boys put in the best performance that they can against England, don’t lie down, put in a performance that merits something and you can see that they’re working for the manager then I don’t see why we should take Gordon out of the equation.
“They’ve had a rude awakening and hopefully that’s the kick up the backside that wakes them up that they’re not as good as they think they are at this moment.”
