A decade has elapsed since Andrew Bagshaw's moment of glory but still the memory remains vivid.

The teenager from Aberdeen Grammar, sporting a mighty monobrow, was captain, centre forward and goalscoring hero in late November 2003 as Scotland's schoolboys drew 1-1 with an England team containing such luminaries as Micah Richards and Theo Walcott at Hampden Park to claim a share of the SkySports Victory Shield competition annually contested by the home nations.

Although the Scottish FA took over the running of the team shortly afterwards, 10 fallow years have now gone by without any further Scottish success. Ten years, at least, until this evening, when the current crop go into a decisive home meeting with the not so Auld Enemy at Kirkcaldy knowing a point would be sufficient not only for a share of the shield, but to keep it on this side of the border outright for the first time since 1998.

While Richards, Walcott and co went on to make fame and not inconsiderable fortunes, Bagshaw's story only epitomises the fates dealt to this generation of Scotland kids. The team assembled by 'Mr' Stewart Neilson - this was an old-school era where Celtic's youngsters were forbidden to play, depriving the likes of Simon Ferry a game - have been sprinkled to the footballing winds.

Bagshaw - who rejected trials with Celtic, Rangers and Manchester United - joined his beloved Aberdeen but suffered from being considered a winger rather than a striker by Jimmy Calderwood, and has since endured three surgeries on his groin in a career which has taken him from Peterhead via Formartine United to Inverurie Locos, where he now plays part-time in tandem with a job in the oil and gas sector.

Of the rest, Paul Emslie, then of Rangers, can also be found in the Highland League with Cove Rangers, while his one-time Ibrox contemporary Steven Lennon is even further north, at Icelandic side Fram. Lewis Stevenson has arguably been the most successful of the bunch, featuring in three major cup finals with Hibernian, and gracing the Scotland Under-21s, as did Chris Mitchell, now at Queen of the South. A couple have had passable careers south of the border, albeit not quite at the level of Richards and Walcott; David Gray, at that time on the books at Manchester United, has wound up at Stevenage, while Scott Laird, then of Plymouth Argyle, is a regular with Sky Bet League One Preston North End.

"I think Walcott was maybe on the bench because Richards is the main one I remember playing against that night," Bagshaw told Herald Sport. "He was huge then, I just remember spending all night trying to get away from him. I have still got the footage, although it is that long ago it is on video. Something like that is great to look back on now. My school was so supportive - they sent down buses for the game, for all my friends at school and family were there as well.

"I had been in the team the previous year so I knew what the Victory Shield was all about," the 25-year-old added. "It was great to get the opportunity to be on Sky Sports and know that everybody was watching. You just knew a lot of teams were going to be looking at you. A lot of big guns were already on to me, but I always knew I wanted to stay with my hometown team."

If history appears to be repeating itself in the form of Bagshaw's younger brother Callum - having come through at Lennoxtown, he recently left Celtic for Formartine United - the player himself cannot quite pinpoint why things haven't quite worked out as planned for that 2003 vintage, whose last day heroics came after 2-1 and 3-1 wins against Wales and Northern Ireland respectively. "I honestly don't know if it is to do with late developers, the scouting system, or whatever," he said. "I just had my third operation on my groin a couple of weeks ago, so I haven't been able to play at all this year, but I just want to get back playing and take it from there."

While England can boast phenomenal strength and depth at this level, it took a late, late goal for them to win a decider against Scotland 12 months back, and there were unusual signs of frailty from Kenny Swain's kids as they lost 1-0 to Northern Ireland in this year's competition.

Scott Booth's side - who beat Northern Ireland 3-0 and got a late equaliser of their own to draw 2-2 with Wales - can boast highly-rated Rangers goalkeeper Robbie McCrorie, a couple of lively wingers in Dundee United's Ali Coote and Celtic's Calvin Miller and Charlie Gilmour and Mackenzie Heaney, on the books at Arsenal and Newcastle United respectively. "Obviously it would be absolutely brilliant if they managed to get a point or even a win," said Bagshaw.

Ending a decade of hurt would be a good place for Scotland to start, but Bagshaw's tale cautions that even an eagerly awaited triumph against the Auld Enemy must be a beginning rather than an end.