John Souttar has acknowledged that Scotland were guilty last year of giving too much respect to England as they were subjected to an Elite Group battering in Belgium.
However, the defender is adamant that the young Scots will not repeat that mistake tonight when they meet the Auld Enemy once more.
Ricky Sbragia's side will fell as though they should have opened their campaign on Saturday with a comfortable win against Ukraine but instead earned a frustrating 0-0 draw. Scotland captain Adam King missed a penalty in the second half and his side also missed a host of chances, with Souttar's Dundee United team-mate Ryan Gauld unable to convert a gilt-edged opportunity.
By contrast, England - who are hosting the competition - got off to a flying start by dismantling Montenegro 6-0 in Walsall. That means Scotland need to win tonight to have a chance of qualifying for the finals in Hungary.
Souttar was part of the Under-19 squad which reached the same stage of the competition last year and which were taken apart ruthlessly by their English contemporaries. The Scots could count themselves fortunate to lose only 3-0 in Antwerp.
The United defender was one of the very few players that night who gained pass marks for his display and the classy teenager is relishing the rematch.
"I don't think we will be intimidated by England," said the 17-year-old. "We're all confident that we can do the job against them so here's hoping we can. You can't fear them, that's massively important.
"We need to step up again. A year ago we were gutted. I was still young and maybe didn't take it all in. It was good to be there and part of it, but we gave them far too much respect last year and we won't do that again.
"We need to beat them so we can't look at them and say 'wow, they're England' and sit off them. I don't think that's how we'll play. We gave them far too much respect."
Souttar and Gauld have been touted heavily as stars of the future for their country. Much is expected of Gauld, in particular, and that sentiment seemed to be endorsed by a Ukraine side which gave the United forward special attention on Saturday. He did managed to wriggle free once and won the penalty after darting into the penalty box.
Souttar has noted that his colleague is working hard to improve in the physical aspects of the game. "He outmuscled one of the Ukraine players, which shows how far he's come," he added. "Last year he would have been brushed aside."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article