KENNY DALGLISH established a substantial part of his legend in matches against the Auld Enemy but he would gladly sacrifice November's friendly against the English for a priceless Euro 2016 qualifying win against Georgia next month.

Scotland's joint top marksman is fondly remembered by supporters of a certain vintage for two memorable goals in victories against our southern rivals, a shot which trundled through Ray Clemence's legs at Hampden in 1976, and the clincher in the epoch-defining 2-1 victory 12 months later.

The two teams meet at Hampden next month, for the first time on Scottish soil in fully 15 years, in a so-called friendly which is only likely to gain ferocity due to its proximity to the independence referendum on September 18.

But Dalglish feels that even that potentially historic showdown should be considered of secondary importance compared to next month's Euro 2016 double header with Georgia and Poland.

The Georgians, defeated in Tbilisi by the Republic of Ireland, proved to be difficult opponents for Alex McLeish's Scotland side when we landed in their qualifying group for Euro 2008 and will arrive in Ibrox under the control of Temuri Ketsbaia, the one-time Dundee player, who also worked under Dalglish at Newcastle.

"The Georgia game is more important," said Dalglish. "What game would you prefer to win - Georgia or England? I'll take Georgia. That will be a good game to win. I saw Ketsbaia quoted as saying they are out if they don't beat Scotland, so they are under more pressure than us. Are we getting closer to England? As long as we keep improving it doesn't matter where anyone else is."

Ketsbaia was a maverick figure who famously celebrated a winning goal against Bolton Wanderers by removing his jersey and resisting his team-mates' congratulations just long enough to whack lumps out of the advertising hoardings.

The usual interpretation of his motive for that incident is a sense of frustration at his lack of first-team chances at St James' Park, but funnily enough, Dalglish has an alternative suggestion.

"He [Ketsbaia] is a good guy," said Dalglish. "He was very passionate and a bit excitable but a good person. I have never really seen him manage, but I know he was really successful in Cyprus where he qualified for the Champions League with Anorthosis. Then he got a move to Olympiakos, which didn't go so well for him.

"I was the manager when he kicked the hoardings," Dalglish added. "Did you notice it was an adidas board he kicked? The club were sponsored by adidas.

"It was a winning goal, too. I was going to kick it after him!"

As promising as stretches of Scotland's second-half play were at the home of the world champions, Dalglish remains circumspect about our chances of reaching our first major finals since France 98. In general he feels the standard of player Scotland has to work with is greater than it was "four or five" years ago, while Gordon Strachan has the kind of infectious personality which transmits to the players.

"It's encouraging because of the performances but that's got to be repeated," said Dalglish. "I don't think anyone is kidding themselves. It's not going to be easy. I don't think anyone will win in Germany - let's be honest. So we've got off to the same start we would expect anyone else to get if their first game had been away to Germany. But the Republic of Ireland had a good result in Georgia, so they have got off to a better start than us, however good our performance was."

As for his former club, Dalglish was at Parkhead for the occasion of Celtic's catastrophic single-goal Champions League qualifying defeat to Maribor. But Dalglish thinks the Norwegian will have benefited from his eight-week baptism of fire.

"Anyone starting a new job needs time to settle in," said Dalglish. "Give the boy some time and see what happens. Not qualifying was a disappointment, but nobody will have been more upset than him. There's no point in having a knee-jerk reaction."

n Kenny Dalglish was speaking at the launch of McDonald's' new four-year partnership with the SFA. McDonald's is giving over 350 Quality Mark junior football clubs one free kit every season for four years with the potential for more than 4500 kits to be distributed in the first year. For more information visit www.mcdonalds.co.uk/betterplay