Butcher says England face test of 'ability and bottle'

The former England captain has spent a large chunk of his career north of the border, including four years as a player for Rangers and spells as assistant coach for Scotland as well as managing Motherwell, Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Hibernian.

And Butcher has warned Roy Hodgson’s men that they will face a predictably raucous reception at Celtic Park when they go toe-to-toe with the ‘Auld Enemy’, but it’s an atmosphere which they should also be relishing.

"It will be hostile, noisy and everything that you want to have as a player because it will certainly test you as a character," Butcher told TheFA.com.

"It will test your ability and your bottle on the day, because Scotland will want to win that match.

"They came pretty close to doing just that during England’s 3-2 win at Wembley last year. 

"That was a competitive game, which took Rickie Lambert to come on and score the winner."

The former Ipswich Town, Coventry City and Sunderland defender won 77 caps during his playing days and was famed for his fearless approach to defending.

It was perhaps best summed up during the vital 1989 World Cup qualifier with Sweden when he played on with stitches in a wound to his forehead.

And he’s hoping that England can show similar strength of character and attitude on Tuesday to save some pride for Butcher when he’s next in Scotland.

"It’s not like an international match in terms of playing against someone you don’t know as much about," he claimed.

"You will know about Scotland and it’s about bragging rights, pride and more importantly, it’s about winning.

"And I hope England win because one day I might have to go back up there!"

England go into the game in Glasgow in good spirits, after securing their fifth successive win in their Euro Qualifiers against Slovenia at the weekend.

Butcher has spent a large chunk of his career working in Scotland

And Butcher has been an interested observer of England’s campaign so far, in which he believes Hodgson can now begin to work on things with a trip to France in 2016 in mind.

"It’s a comfortable group, but I would never say it’s an easy group because it’s never easy when you’re playing for England, no matter who you play," he explained. 

"You look at the rest of the games and think you’ve got to try and win them all with a target to try and be better than you were in the previous game.

"For the younger players, they can now develop their partnerships with other players by playing international football on a regular basis and go out there and improve and learn as a group.

"There’s no better way of developing as a team than by playing international, competitive matches.

"It’s up to the players and Roy Hodgson to set a standard for what they want to get out of the games and try to surpass that and do better.

"That’s a different kind of challenge to just winning games and winning the group, the challenge now is to be better than before and to keep improving."