Match Day: Scotland vs Northern Ireland

Tonight at Hampden, Scotland take on Northern Ireland in the last friendly game for both sides as they prepare for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers (against Macedonia and Slovakia respectively) in September.  For manager George Burley, it's his third game in charge of the national side and the fixture will give him a chance to assess the squad he intends to take  for the trip to Skopje.

Despite this game coming so early in the season, there have been many call-offs, and Burley might use the opportunity - one born out of necessity - to give out some more first caps, as he did in the 3:1 defeat to the Czech Republic last May. Ross McCormack and Motherwell's David Clarkson, amongst others, made their debuts in that game. This time, Falkirk's Darren Barr might move up from the Scotland B squad to win his first cap, and Kris Commons, the Mansfield-born Derby County player is also expected to feature in the game tonight.

Being a friendly, it's more about the performance than the result and though we're expecting George Burley to get his first win as Scotland manager, it'll be an interesting game, particularly when many of the Northern Ireland squad are already pretty familiar to their Scottish opponents. Dean Sheals, Stephen Craigan and Warren Feaney all ply their trade in the SPL (as does the injured Kyle Lafferty) while it will be a good chance for Scotland fans to see Fulham's Steve Davis in action before he makes his £4m move north to Rangers.

Scotland last faced Northern Ireland back in February of 1992.  Going into the game under the stewardship of Andy Roxburgh, Scotland had qualified for Euro '92, finishing top in a group that included Bulgaria and Romania (against whom Scotland lost their only game in that qualifying campaign). On February 19th, Scotland faced Northern Ireland at Hampden.  At the time, Scotland was ranked number 23 in the FIFA World Rankings, while Northern Ireland where ranked 43nd.  The Scotland side that took the field that night was:

Smith (Heart of Midlothian)
McKimmie(Aberdeen)
Robertson (Rangers)
McPherson (Heart of Midlothian)
Gough (Rangers)
Malpas (Dundee United)
Strachan (Leeds United)
McClair (Manchester United)
McCoist (Rangers)
McAllister (Leeds United)
Wright (Hibernian)

In a pretty tepid affair, Ally McCoist scored to give Scotland a 1:0 win. Following on from the game, Scotland played a series of somewhat lackluster series of friendlies against Finland (1:1), The USA (1:0), Canada (3:1) and Norway (0:0) before they started the Euro '92 Championships on June 12th against a team that they'll also be facing in the upcoming World Cup qualifiers, The Netherlands.

A great deal has happened since 1992. For one, Scotland have made tremendous improvement, recovering expertly from the Berti Vogts era, first under the management of Walter Smith and then under his successor, Alex McLeish.  Now ranked 16th in the World (Northern Ireland are 32nd), Scotland narrowly missed out qualification to Euro 2008 in a campaign that saw the national side record back-to-back wins against France as well as put in an impressive performance against Italy, despite the 2:1 defeat. As always, Scotland came agonizingly close to qualifying before falling at the final hurdle.

But as we prepare for our next World Cup, in players such as Kevin Thomson, Barry Robson, David Clarkson, Christophe Berra and James Morrison, Scotland has a great deal of exciting young talent coming through the ranks.  And while no one doubts that qualification for World Cup 2010 will be tough, there are teams in the group there that are for the taking, teams against which we should reckon on getting a result: Iceland, Norway and Macedonia.

In fact, teams not too dissimilar to tonights opponents.

SCOTLAND v NORTHERN IRELAND
Venue: Hampden Park Date: Wednesday, 20 August Kick-off: 2000 BST Coverage: Live on BBC Radio Scotland, coverage on the BBC Sport website and highlights on BBC One Scotland at 2315 BST

Goalkeepers: Craig Gordon (Sunderland), David Marshall (Norwich City), Allan McGregor (Rangers).
Defenders: Graham Alexander (Burnley), Darren Barr (Falkirk), Christophe Berra (Hearts), Stephen McManus (Celtic), Gary Naysmith (Sheffield United), David Weir (Rangers), Steven Whittaker (Rangers).
Midfielders: Scott Brown (Celtic), Kris Commons (Derby County), Darren Fletcher (Manchester United), James Morrison (West Bromwich Albion), Barry Robson (Celtic), Michael Stewart (Heart of Midlothian), Kevin Thomson (Rangers).
Forwards: Kris Boyd (Rangers), David Clarkson (Motherwell), Steven Fletcher (Hibernian), James McFadden (Birmingham City)