WHEN it came to Auld Enemy bingo no-one was quite able to complete their line and shout "house" at Gordon Strachan's media conference ahead of tonight's Scotland-England kickabout.

There was no mention of Braveheart, nor of on-field events in either 1966 or 1967. Still, plenty of old favourites did get a mention. Strachan was invited to retell the story of having some Wembley turf from that, erm, redistribution of ownership rights in 1977.

One visiting journalist demonstrated the admirable thoroughness of his research by hitting Strachan with a line he had said when England last came to Glasgow 15 years ago. Reading from his smartphone, he said: "The English stole our land. The English robbed us of our oil. The English perpetrated the Highland Clearances. And now the English have even pinched Billy Connolly".

Had all of that been said in jest? Strachan tends to reach for his most withering putdowns when there is any possibility of being blindsided by a reporter's question like that, but he seemed amused by the diversion. "It's like a senate inquiry here. Is my lawyer here? Did I say that? That was probably tongue in cheek."

And then there was the line of questioning about whether he was bothered by the perception of his players as a pretty crude group of hard cases, the implication being that they could dish out some rough treatment to England's gossamer popinjays. Roy Hogdson's reserve goalkeeper, Ben Foster, said Scotland and the Irish had kicked lumps out of each other on Friday night. He said he expected more of the same tonight. "Ben doesn't need to worry, because he's in goals," said Strachan.

The notion of Scotland being vaguely thuggish draws on a number of factors, all of them either outdated, ignorant, or both. The win on Friday was certainly an unforgiving clash - a heavyweight title fight, as Strachan said on the night - and casual observers would have picked up on the passion and racket of some pulsating theatre at Celtic Park.

There is a temptation for outsiders to assume that any Scottish success or progress must be attributable to furious passion, aggression and physicality. It is a train of thought which crumbles in the face of the players who are actually helping to deliver such encouraging results: Shaun Maloney, Steven Naismith, Ikechi Anya, Andy Robertson and Charlie Mulgrew et al. All of them are footballers first and foremost, and not reliant on their physical strength. Maloney, Naismith and Anya aren't big enough to throw their weight about.

"On Friday, people went toe to toe," said Strachan. "There was an intensity there but there wasn't a piece of nastiness in it at all. There is a big difference. Nobody was backing down and that's what happens when two teams lock horns and don't want to get beat. It wasn't a nasty game at all. It was just people who were scared of getting beat and wouldn't give an inch.

"You do get bumps and bruises. The smaller players in my team have to take a kick. I tell them 'your bravery is going in and knowing fine well that you might take a kick'. You get up and get on with it. Some are quicker than others, some are stronger than others.

"The game has changed completely in the last 30 years. There are rules in place which don't allow you to kick lumps out of people. The games and the football surfaces have changed so much that a team like Barcelona has emerged. That team couldn't have done that 30 years ago because of the rules and pitches. The game highlights the nasty tackles now and you've got 22 cameras at every game. You can get done retrospectively. If someone elbows somebody 30 years ago you just had to wipe the blood away from your face and get on with it. That kind of intimidation in football is completely gone."

Foster or anyone else in England deriding his team's physicality was news to Strachan. "This is new to me, this. We are only five feet six, most of us! Our smaller players have to take the knocks and bruises and get on with it. But they have another side to their games, they can close down quickly and that's another side to it as well."

It is 14 months since Scotland conceded a home goal, although the two strongest sides they have faced this year, Germany and Poland, each scored two against them on the road.

England played Raheem Sterling in the hole behind Wayne Rooney and Danny Welbeck in their 3-1 defeat of Slovenia on Saturday night. The pace and movement of their forwards will ask big questions of the Scottish defence. England are on a run of five straight wins, their best sequence for six years, albeit their Euro 2016 group is drab and unchallenging. If Roy Hodgson persists with Jack Wilshere at the base of a midfield diamond the Arsenal man will be given a stiffer test against Maloney or Naismith than he has had in their qualifying games so far. That said, it is easier to see England scoring than Scotland.

After a 14-year absence the return of the Auld Enemy game was enjoyed by most who were around the five-goal spectacle at Wembley in August last year, although Scotland's enthusiasm for renewing the annual fixture will soon peter out if they play well but go down to another defeat like last year's 3-2 reverse.

"I couldn't take it in last year because we had been beaten," said Strachan. "Everybody was telling me it was a great game and I was looking at them like they were daft. I cannot disguise it well, my face, when I'm upset. I tried my best to be nice to people, but we got beat."