• International Friendly

England are taking Scotland seriously, says Hodgson

Roy Hodgson says England are taking the Scotland friendly seriously, despite always having planned to rest key men for the Celtic Park showdown.

England head north of the border to take on the auld enemy in Scotland for the first time since 1999 - a match they head into buoyed by maintaining their winning start to Euro 2016 qualification.

Wayne Rooney's penalty and a Danny Welbeck brace saw off Slovenia 3-1 in a match which Hodgson always highlighted as being more important than the Scotland match.

The England boss said there was "no comparison" between the two games and, at one stage, had planned to send as many as three players home ahead of the trip to Glasgow.

Hart allowed to go home

Joe Hart will not play in England's friendly against Scotland © Getty Images

• Roy Hodgson has allowed goalkeeper Joe Hart to return to Manchester City after confirming he will not feature in Tuesday's friendly against Scotland.
• It means either Ben Foster or Fraser Forster will get the chance to impress at Celtic Park when first-choice Hart, who has won 48 caps, is rested.
• "Joe will go home," Hodgson confirmed. "I have still got the other two goalkeepers and they will come with us up to Scotland and one of those will play."
• West Bromwich Albion's Foster has won eight caps while Southampton's Forster, who played his club football for Celtic before his summer switch, has only played for his country twice.
• Hart's release means he will have more time to prepare for City's next Premier League game against Swansea and their Champions League clash with Bayern Munich.

"We will take the game very seriously," Hodgson said. "Please don't get the impression that I don't take the game seriously and don't have a lot of respect for it because I do. But that's the same for every game, to be fair.

"That was the case with Norway and Denmark in recent friendlies because that's the way we operate.

"I make it clear to the players that you don't get many international possibilities, whether you are playing San Marino or whether you are playing Argentina or Germany or Brazil.

"It's the same shirt, the same cap and one game might be easier to win than others but it doesn't affect your attitude towards it. That's my message, the mantra if you like, and I hope the players pick up on it."

Tuesday's match will be the 112th meeting of international football's oldest rivals, but Hodgson admits there were not many standout moments from previous encounters he could reel off.

He does, though, remember leading Switzerland to a win in Berne and a draw in Aberdeen en route to qualifying for World Cup 1994 - results counterpart Andy Roxburgh still jokes with Hodgson were behind his reason to leave Scottish football to take up a post with UEFA.

The only other time Hodgson has taken on Scotland was last year's 3-2 friendly win at Wembley - an entertaining affair and one which underlined that this will not be blood and thunder.

"I think Scotland are a footballing team," he said. "They have a lot of ball players - James Morrison, Graham Dorrans, I've worked with these guys.

"They are good footballers and I think we've got good footballers, so I think it will be more of a fierce footballing contest rather than a fierce physical contest."

Off the field, however, there will certainly be some verbal jousting following the recent devolution debate.

It was a subject Hodgson was coy about when asked, just as he was with the myth that this encounter might mean more to Scotland - even though Gordon Strachan said he would rather miss out on victory in the vital Euro 2016 qualifier against Ireland than get a tanking off England.

"I don't think a coach should ever accept a tanking," Hodgson retorted. "With the team he has got and the way they are playing, I would have thought a tanking from us is the last thing on his mind.

"I would have thought he goes to bed dreaming and thinking of victories."

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