Tomorrow night at Celtic Park will be a first.
The first time in memory, if ever, that a Scotland v England football match will be an anti-climax.
How can a friendly, albeit the most unfriendly of friendlies, follow Friday night’s utterly absorbing Euro 2016 qualifier against the Republic of Ireland.
The SFA moneymen will be grinning from ear to ear at the prospect of a second 60,000 Parkhead sell-out in five days, of course.
But I wouldn’t be surprised Gordon Strachan would rather have ended this mini-season of internationals on the highest of highs and pick up where we left off when Gibraltar come to Glasgow in the spring.
Even if Scotland complete a domestic double by defeating Roy Hodgson’s men, it couldn’t give the squad any more confidence than they already have.
It might go against the natural instinct of a man who spent the first part of his honeymoon on the Wembley pitch as it was being dug up by the Tartan Army to have a bit of experimentation about his side for the oldest fixture in world football. But there would be some merit in it.
The Ireland match was played at such a physical and mental intensity that there will be an inevitable drop-off from the starters on Friday.
But, it says everything about the job that Strachan has done with the national team that you can have confidence that two, three or even four changes to his side from one game to the next will not diminish the level of performance.
Gordon Greer, Alan Hutton and James Morrison all dropped out after the draw in Poland, but Grant Hanley, Andy Robertson and Charlie Mulgrew were just as effective in the dark blue a few weeks later. Probably more so.
If Craig Gordon makes his international comeback. If Chris Martin replaces Steven Fletcher. If Greer comes back in for Hanley. If Morrison takes over from Shaun Maloney. If Graham Dorrans is given the nod over Mulgrew. And if Stevie May and Johnny Russell make second half debuts as substitutes. You wouldn’t worry about any of those calls by Strachan leaving Scotland open to a heavy loss to England.
It wasn’t that long ago that it would have been a necessity to put out the strongest team against the Auld Enemy to guard against the possibility of embarrassment. That was possibly even the case at Wembley last time round.
Not anymore.
Strachan trusts his team, his bench and his squad. Even with their 100% record in the qualifiers intact after Saturday evening’s win against Slovenia, I’m not sure Roy Hodgson could say that.
Scotland are in a wonderful place just now.
The way things are going, I wouldn’t put it past them to beat Rooney and his boys with their second team!