LIKE every Scotland fan, I’ve travelled down to England with a sense of optimism ahead of tonight’s game. But, with that, there has to be an element of realism that acknowledges the situation we find ourselves in. And it’s not great.

Realistically we have to win this game if we are to have any chance of making it to the World Cup. If Slovenia win away to Malta tonight and go on to eight points and we lose to England, then we will have taken four points out of a possible 12 to sit four behind the team in second. There’s no way that will be good enough to have a chance of qualification.

That’s why this is such a big game for Gordon Strachan. The performance levels haven’t been good enough over the past two years. Since beating Ireland at Celtic Park, Scotland have played nine qualifiers and only beaten Gibraltar twice and Malta. That’s the level we’ve been performing at. But the manager needs a victory desperately now, both to keep the campaign alive and probably to safeguard his own position as well.

Having been at the game against Slovakia last month, it’s very difficult for me to be overly positive about our chances tonight. It was very disappointing to say the least. We defended really poorly and didn’t look a threat going forward. So we go into this game in poor form.

For me our defence is a problem. Callum Paterson is very inexperienced at international level. As much as I like him going forward, he’s yet to convince me defensively. It frightens me he could be up against someone like Raheem Sterling or Adam Lallana. On the other wing you could have Theo Walcott up against Lee Wallace. Walcott has scored seven goals in eight games for Arsenal and is the form player in England. So that would be a real handful for our defence and I worry that we’ll struggle to contain that. We talk about fast players and Sterling and Walcott are at a level of pace that we don’t have in our team. At centre-half I would play Christophe Berra ahead of Grant Hanley. Berra has Premier League experience and is playing every week with Ipswich, so I’d partner him with Russell Martin.

I’ve heard people talking about England not being a force and I agree to a certain extent. Yes, they had a poor Euros and recently drew with Slovenia, but you have to look at the facts. They have not lost a qualifying game since 2009 and that game with Slovenia was their first draw in qualifying for three years. When it comes to qualifying games – especially at Wembley – England are a machine. They maybe don’t have the superstars they had previously but when you look at their team it’s made up of players from the top four or five clubs in the Premier League. The quality of player they have individually is absolutely frightening compared to what we have. It’s a different level. So I’m not buying into the idea that this is a weak England team.

But there might be a way to nullify them. If you saw them at the Euros or against Slovenia and even Malta, if you sit deep, get men behind the ball, and try make them have to break you down, they often struggle. In the Euros, especially, they seemed to run out of ideas. If you keep making them pass it sideways, don’t let them through the gaps and, when the ball goes out wide, close them down quickly, then I think you can frustrate them.

The problem for Scotland, though, is if we sit in like that, how do we counter? How can we be creative and cause England problems? Because we have to win this game. I think we need to have pace in our team so we can counter attack, players like James Forrest or Oliver Burke.

The midfield will be key. Bringing Scott Brown back in is interesting as in the last couple of games I’ve felt we’ve been passive in the middle of the park. We’ve lacked someone who can take the game by the scruff of the neck, be a leader, win tackles and drive the team forward. Scott is that player. I think James McArthur has to play alongside him as he’s at a good level and up against many of the England players every week. And then you have Darren Fletcher, our most experienced player. So it’s about how you get all three into the team without negating your attacking strengths.

Then you have my old position, and that No.9 role has been a big problem. Steven Fletcher hasn't scored in six games so you can’t say he’s in form. Leigh Griffiths started for Celtic last week and I thought his performance was decent, if not amazing. He got his goal and got away his usual six or seven shots. When he came on against Slovakia, he looked more potent than anyone else. But is Strachan going to chuck him in now having been stubborn and not played him from the start before? I can’t see it. So I think he’ll go with Chris Martin who has four goals from his last five games, although his lack of mobility denies you the chance to stretch England in behind. Griffiths would give you both movement and mobility so I would start with him. We need to get a goal out of somewhere and he is the one most likely to deliver that. I just hope we can get inspiration from somewhere as we desperately need a big result.

THE Joey Barton episode is not one Rangers will come to look back on with any great fondness. He undermined the manager’s authority and questioned his methods and a manager can’t let that happen. But it became a saga that dragged on for weeks when it should have been dealt with a lot quicker. Both parties have to hold their hands up and say the move just didn’t work out. This was Mark Warburton’s big signing of the summer and it’s cost Rangers a lot of money. Giving him a two-year deal at 34 was probably a mistake. So you have to say the whole thing has been a failure.