How Scotland vs England's anniversary match and Mary Queen of Scots connect

The two teams meet at Hampden today to mark the 150th anniversary of the first international - a goalless draw at the West of Scotland Cricket Club in Partick.

Steve Clarke's side go into the game on a high having won 11 qualifying matches in a row. Friday's 3-0 victory in Cyprus made it five wins from five in the Euro 2024 qualifiers and kept open the possibility of Scotland qualifying on Tuesday.

England on the other hand will be looking to bounce back from a draw against Ukraine on Saturday, in which Kyle Walker bagged his first England goal.

But was the first game between the two nations really just 150 years ago?

Officially, yes.

However evidence suggest that a group of Scotsmen and Englishmen actually met near Carlisle Castle to play a game very similar to modern day football, which was also watched on by Mary Queen of Scots during her incarceration.

Juliet Fellows-Smith from English Heritage spoke to us about Mary's time there, and her love of sport.

She said: "Mary Queen of Scots might've actually been a bit of a football fan. We have a record from, Sir Francis Knollys, the man who was responsible for keeping her safe and from escaping from Carlisle Castle.

"He recorded her watching two games of football somewhere between Carlisle Castle and Scotland. He described her retinue of about 20 men playing for two hours without any foul play. It's possible she was actually a really big fan of the game.

"There's a quote from Sir Francis, he said 'The retinue played the game for two hours very strongly, nimbly and skillfully without any foul play offered' which is quite a fun quote.

"We're comparing what we can find in records to what we know about the modern game of football, and I'm sure there were some differences. It's a game played with a leather ball, with a similar number of players, for a similar length of time, with similar rules where the ball is touching the foot rather than touching the hand."