England v Scotland: Six odd stories from football's oldest rivalry

England and Scotland share the oldest rivalry in football and, on Saturday evening, the two will meet for the 114th time, for a World Cup qualifier, at Glasgow's Hampden Park.

Scotland will be looking to avenge the 3-0 defeat they suffered at Wembley back in November and keep their hopes of a trip to Russia next summer alive.

It's hard to imagine now given how far the two teams' reputations have fallen, but these games used to be a big deal - and there's a lot of previous between the two 'auld enemies'.

Despite the football fatigue you may well be feeling, here are six stories from the fixture that are worth remembering.

The world champions

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When England won the World Cup in 1966 - funny, that never gets a mention - for a short time at least, they were the best team on Earth.

But just nine months later, Scotland beat them - rocking up at Wembley and grabbing a famous 3-2 win.

Scotland’s Jimmy Baxter humiliated the English players by doing a keep-uppy on the pitch as the clock ran down, and the full-time whistle brought a pitch invasion by the jubilant Scottish fans, who declared their team: "The new world champions”.

The spot-kick and the spoon-bender

The 1996 European Championships in England.

Thirty years on from their World Cup triumph and there was another big chance for the Three Lions to win a major tournament as hosts.

But Scotland – drawn in England’s group – saw a great opportunity to ruin the party.

England were leading 1-0 but Scotland were awarded a penalty, and the chance to ruin their rival's dreams.

Up stepped Scotland’s Mr Dependable, Gary McAllister – and two nations held their breath.

McAllister smashed the ball right at England keeper David Seaman’s giant multi-coloured elbow, and the ball shot off into space.

What could have made Gary miss? Pressure? Nerves? Fate? Or the fact the ball rolled off the penalty spot before he even got to kick it.

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Oddly – 90s TV personality, spoon-bender, and friend of Michael Jackson, Uri Geller later claimed that he used the power of his mind to move the ball as he hovered over the stadium in a helicopter.

The game with 12 goals

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The 2016 edition of this game at Wembley could be exciting, but it’s unlikely to live up to this 12-goal thriller from 1961:

England 9-3 Scotland.

Well, not so thrilling if you’re Scottish.

It was a bad day for the Scots and a humiliation for their keeper Frank Haffey. “What’s the time? Nine past Haffey”, the English fans would crow for years to come.

Haffey later moved to Australia.

The dentist's chair

Jumping back to 1996, and just seconds after McAllister’s penalty miss, came one of the most iconic England-Scotland moments.

England’s players had come under pressure before the game after pictures emerged of their hard-drinking, shirtless antics on a pre-tournament tour of the Far East.

After the spot kick was missed, Paul “Gazza” Gascoigne - the tortured genius of English football and team joker – saw his chance to answer the critics.

He lobbed the ball over Scottish captain Colin Hendry, before firing home a low shot that was a dagger to Scottish hearts.

A great goal, but it’s the celebration – a recreation of the England players’ ‘dentist’s chair’ drinking game – that will be burned onto the eyeballs of every Scottish fan who witnessed it.

The broken goalposts

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Scotland went to the 1978 World Cup in Argentina with high hopes of maybe actually winning the thing, largely built on their British Home Championship victory the year before.

It was a title secured with a famous victory over England for the Scottish team – their first at Wembley for 10 years - but it is a game remembered more for the rowdy celebrations of the Scottish fans.

The Tartan Army invaded the famous turf at Wembley at the final whistle, digging up sections of the grass to take home, before climbing on - and tearing down - the goalposts.

The beetroot factory man

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Before Jamie Vardy was a name written on Hollywood movie scripts, there was another rags-to-riches tale that captured English footballing hearts – the ballad of Rickie Lambert.

Released by Liverpool as a kid, Rickie worked his way up through the lower leagues - from working in a beetroot factory to the top-flight with Southampton.

Lambert’s goal-scoring antics for the Saints earned him an England call-up, and he grabbed his chance, coming off the bench to score the winner with his first touch in a 3-2 friendly win over Scotland at Wembley.

His super-sub impact earned him a place at the World Cup in Brazil, and a dream move back to his boyhood Liverpool FC.

Things couldn’t get much better for Rickie, and they didn’t. He’s now at Cardiff City.