Back on Wednesday, Sports Mole reflected on England's 2-0 victory away at Scotland in 1999, which left Kevin Keegan's side on the cusp of qualification for the following year's European Championships in the Netherlands and Belgium.

The two rivals then met in the return leg 14 years ago today, with hosting England expected to book their place in the tournament with relative ease.

As so often with the Three Lions, though, very little is simple. Craig Brown's Scotland started much the better of the two teams in London and created a handful of dangerous openings.

Their pressure was eventually rewarded in the 39th minute. Neil McCann, who did not feature during the first leg, got himself to the left byline, before standing up a cross towards the back post. It was met by a leaping Don Hutchinson as the midfielder rose above Tony Adams to nod the ball beyond the reach of David Seaman.

A reaction from the hosts was expected, but it never came. They struggled to string many passing moves together and actually ended the contest having failed to record a single shot on target.

Meanwhile, the Tartan Army poured forward in search of the goal that would force extra time, but Seaman would go on to be England's hero. First he saved Hutchinson's strike from distance and then in the closing stages he thwarted Christian Dailly's header from close range.

It meant that England and not the Scots would head to the European Championships, although the visitors had secured a moral victory at least.

"We would be the first to admit we did not play well. We could not get going. There are lots of excuses to make, maybe it was a bit too much for the players psychologically, having a 2-0 lead," Keegan said during his post-match interview.

"It was a poor performance and you have to give credit to Scotland and Craig Brown. They took a chance, they had to, and we could not get the ball off them."

His opposite number, Brown, added: "We deserved more than one goal and we played better than England did on Saturday. I've never lost two in a row and I wasn't going to against England."

ENGLAND: Seaman; P Neville, Campbell, Adams, Southgate; Ince, Redknapp, Beckham, Scholes; Shearer, Owen

SCOTLAND: Sullivan; Weir, Davidson, Dailly, Hendry; Ferguson, Burley, McCann, Hutchison, Collins; Dodds