Scotland, alongside the auld enemy England, are the oldest international football team in the world, the two countries having contested the first ever international football match in 1872. It is just one of the country's proud claims in a long and illustrious history that has seen them qualify for eight World Cup finals and become the unofficial World champions in 1967.
The inaugural match between the Scots and English led to the creation of the British Home Championship in 1883, which was to last 100 seasons until its abolishment in 1983-84. The four-nation tournament, which also included Wales and Northern Ireland, was won outright 24 times by Scotland, and they shared the title on 17 occasions.
A 5-1 thrashing of England in 1928 led to them being known as the Wembley Wizards, and the following year they played their first game outside the British Isles, thrashing Norway 7-3 in Bergen.
In 1954 and 1958 the Scots travelled to the World Cup with limited success, but it was in 1967 under manager Bobby Brown that one of their most famous victories occurred. Brown's first match in charge was at Wembley to take on Sir Alf Ramsey's England, who had gone 19 games unbeaten and only 12 months earlier had won the World Cup on the very same pitch.
His unfancied team thumped the World Champions 3-2 with goals from Denis Law, Bobby Lennox and Jim McCalliog, while the legendary Jim Baxter famously performed keepie-uppies as the Scots toyed with their opponents. At the final whistle, the Tartan Army duly pronounced their team unofficial World champions.
In 1974 Scotland again qualified for the World Cup, beginning a run of five consecutive tournaments. While never progressing far, Archie Gemmill's second goal in a 3-2 victory over Holland in Argentina in 1978 remains one of the greatest World Cup goals ever. Gemmill beat three defenders before beautifully curling the ball over the Dutch keeper's head and into the net.
Qualification in 1986 came in traumatic circumstances. The Scots needed a point from their final game against Wales and with nine minutes remaining Davie Cooper coolly slotted a penalty home to make the scores 1-1. Amid the celebrations manager Jock Stein suffered a heart attack and later died. Alex Ferguson took over the reins for the finals in Mexico, but they never really recovered from Stein's demise and returned home with one point from three matches.
After a poor period under Bertie Vogts, the Scots improved under Walter Smith and Alex McCleish, and now managed by George Burley, the future looks rosy once again.