JOHN Greig gazed in awe at the monochrome pictures of the famous 1953 FA Cup final at Wembley and pledged that he would one day run out on on to the hallowed turf and make his own mark at arguably the greatest football theatre in the world.

The starry-eyed 10-year-old would never have believed, however, that he would be part of one of the most incredible matches the venue has ever hosted when Scotland ripped world champions England apart on April 15, 1967.

The scoreline of England 2 Scotland 3 was a joke, of course, as there was not so much a gap in class between the two sides as an almighty chasm. Alf Ramsay's World Cup winners from the year before were not only outplayed but humiliated.

Greig's Rangers team-mate Jim Baxter was the destroyer-in-chief as he toyed with England, slowing the game to a walking pace and famously juggling the ball on his sweet left foot with bemused opponents Alan Ball and Nobby Stiles simply stunned by his audacity.

The goals came from Denis Law, Bobby Lennox and Jim McCalliog - with Jackie Charlton and Geoff Hurst countering for England - and Greig had the honour of captaining the new Wembley Wizards.

When will we see their likes again? With all due respect, not on Wednesday when the oldest international fixture in the world is resurrected to help celebrate the 150th anniversary of the FA. Greig will no doubt tune in - this time on his flat screen HD TV - but he probably won't recognise half of Gordon Strachan's team.

He said: "I used to think of my brothers travelling to Wembley every two years to cheer on the national team so I knew how much it meant to the Scotland supporters to see their team win. They had seen terrible 9-3 and 7-1 defeats, so there was great onus on us to win for the fans. As a Scottish player playing in Scotland you looked forward to the game against England at Wembley more than anything.

"I first time I ever saw television was watching the 1953 FA Cup final between Blackpool and Bolton and Wembley seemed such a special place. It was a lifetime ambition of mine to play there.

"So to go there as captain in 1967 and win the game as well as we did and in the circumstances we were in was fantastic. I ended up playing there four times in my career and each was special, but 1967 was obviously the massive highlight.

"A lot of the players that played that day felt that they should have been playing at the 1966 World Cup finals and it was a massive disappointment to all of us that we didn't.

"We had a really good squad at that time and with the finals being in England it was a chance for the Scottish team to show what it could do on that stage so it was a real blow to all of us that we couldn't do that by failing to qualify. Of course, the fact that we went down to Wembley to take on the team that had won the World Cup just gave us more incentive - if there was any needed given the rivalry between the two countries. Unofficially, we became world champions and it's fair to say that's as close as Scotland will get."

The Scotland team that day was Ronnie Simpson (Celtic); Tommy Gemmell (Celtic), John Greig (Rangers), Ronnie McKinnon (Rangers), Eddie McCreadie (Chelsea); Billy Bremner (Leeds), Jim McCalliog (Sheffield Wednesday), Jim Baxter (Sunderland); Willie Wallace (Celtic), Denis Law (Manchester United), Bobby Lennox (Celtic).

As far as Greig was concerned there was little for him to do as captain given the talent he was leading on to the Wembley pitch. He said: "We had such quality throughout the team that there was very little - if anything - that I needed to do. We had about four or five 'captains' in the side that day."

Some remain divided over some of the Scotland players' desire to take the mickey rather than inflict more damage on their greatest rivals. Greig recalled: "My feeling was we had to score more goals to underline our superiority because I knew if we gave England a sniff we could let them back into the game. We were so far in front, but we should have scored more goals. The thing about Jim Baxter was that he had so much confidence in his own ability and one of his biggest ambitions was to show the best players in the world that he could compete with them.

"He simply relished the fact that he was up against the likes of Bobby Charlton and Alan Ball because he wanted to show them - and everyone else - that he was every bit as good as them."

The next day Greig got a call that he was wanted to appear on The Eamonn Andrews Show - a hugely popular chat show of the time. He recalled: "I ended up on the same show as Tom Jones and the American crime writer Mickey Spillane."

Of course, Spillane's most famous character was private eye Mike Hammer - entirely appropriate for Greig after the remarkable exploits of a day Scotland supporters still revere to this day.