Gerry Francis hopes Auld Enemy rivalry is resurrected on 50th anniversary of England landmark

Resurrections are popular at this time of year, and Gerry Francis would love to see England-Scotland internationals revived as an annual delicacy.

There was nothing quite like the diplomatic churn of auld enemy rivalry when England touched down at Prestwick airport as champions and Sir Alf Ramsey was greeted warmly as he stepped from the plane.

“Welcome to , Sir Alf,” chimed a local delegate in hospitable tones ahead of war being declared at Hampden Park 24 hours later. England’s 1966 World Cup-winning manager gave his Caledonian reception an icy glare and hissed, in those famously embroidered Dagenham tones, “You must be f****** joking.”

And Francis still treasures the memory of his best game for the Three Lions, 50 years ago, even if it is tinged with sadness that his international career would soon be blighted by persistent injury.

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To younger generations, The 1975 is a popular music combo who will be performing to a vast crowd in a large cowfield at Glastonbury in June, but to Francis 24 May 1975 was the time of his life.

It was the day a Scotland goalkeeper wrapped himself around the post like a Morris dancer hugging the maypole. As Kevin Beattie’s towering header dipped under the bar, Stewart Kennedy escorted it inside the top corner with the diligence of an usherette directing latecomers to their seats at the cinema.

By the time he resolved to intercept it England were 2-0 up inside seven minutes, went on to win 5-1 and the Tartan Army hordes who had colonised Wembley were in unforgiving mood.

Best wishes to Kennedy, who lost his wife earlier this year in harrowing circumstances after she collapsed on a flight home from Lanzarote.

But Francis began the sinking of the Tartanic 50 years ago with a swerving missile from 25 yards, added another from a deflected free-kick and he misses the partisan affectation of the old Home International Championship.

“In the England midfield against Scotland that day there was Alan Ball, Colin Bell and me,” he said. “Bally was a World Cup winner who was one of my idols growing up as a schoolboy, and Colin was still at the peak of his powers after being part of the great side who won the title in 1968, the year I started out at .

“We could have done some damage for England if we had played together more often, but six months later Colin suffered a bad knee injury and was never quite the same player when he came back.

“And the following year I hurt my back, which was the start of three years of injury problems, and Bally fell out with (manager) Don Revie, so that midfield permutation never played together again.”

The Queen’s Park Rangers side Francis captained 50 years ago came within a whisker of winning the title, foiled at the last gasp by winning at in their rearranged final game of the season to deliver Bob Paisley’s first trophy.

“We came so close to one of the greatest achievements in the game’s history,” said Francis, now 73. “These days you lift a cup at Wembley if you come sixth and win the play-offs, but we never even got a medal for it. After winning our last game of the season against Leeds, we were top of the league and we took a bow in the directors’ box because we didn’t know what else to do.

“Ten days later, Liverpool were losing 1-0 at Wolves with about 15 minutes to go but scored three late goals. It was agony. I only won 12 England caps, eight of them as captain, and my last one was a 4-1 win in Helsinki against Finland in June 1976, just after we had finished runners-up in the League.

“I had been my country’s second-youngest captain behind Bobby Moore, and in another world I might have had another eight or nine years left at that level, but I never played another game for England.

“Ron Greenwood selected me to play for the ‘B’ team in a friendly against New Zealand, and I was delighted to be back in favour, but I missed out because of a kidney stone. So in many ways, that 5-1 win against Scotland was as good as it got for me at international level.

“They were fantastic occasions, with Scottish fans outnumbering the English at Wembley. It was the ultimate crusade from a Scotland point of view. People blamed the keeper, but there’s no way he was at fault for my first goal - I caught it right on the button and it flew into the side netting, and my second took a big deflection.

“The commentator (David Coleman) said he lost his geography for Kevin’s header, which was maybe a bit harsh, but he probably should have saved Bell’s shot to make it 3-0.

“A lot of people miss the passion of those England-Scotland games and would like to see them come back, but where would you fit them into the schedule?”

Fourteen years before Francis’s finest hour, Jimmy Greaves had scored a hat-trick in England’s astonishing 9-3 sinking of the Tartanic at Wembley. Scotland’s goalkeeper that day, Frank Haffey, had saved a Bobby Charlton penalty in a 1-1 draw on his debut the previous year, but he was the fall-guy of a catastrophe.

That was the day Scotland's reputation for insecure goalkeeping was born and a deprecating national joke was coined for posterity.

"What's the time?” “Almost 10 past Haffey.”