OK, cards on the table. It is petty and small-minded and pathetic, but I enjoyed England being turfed out of the World Cup. There. It is not coming home, and it feels good, I cannot lie.

It is out of step with the modern, outward-looking 21st century Scottish mindset, but there it is. The chip on the shoulder may not be as large as it once was, but it is still there.

This time, the schadenfreude caught me by surprise. Like many Scots, I have nothing against Gareth Southgate. He seems like the type of guy you hope your father-in-law will be, and his players were whole-hearted on the field and warm and engaging off of it. I had watched their match against Columbia abroad, and minus the jingoistic commentary and punditry, I found myself rooting them on. They deserved to win the tie, and I was happy that they did.

But therein lies the rub. When exposed to the likes of Ian Wright and his motley crew, it took nanoseconds for the old ‘Anyone But England’ sentiments to be stirring once more. The one consolation to be taken from the petty joy felt from the woes of our nearest and dearest is that I was likely not alone.

A quick glance at social media confirmed that to be the case, but in almost equal measure, there were posts from my countrymen decrying the pleasure being taken at the expense of England, and following this up with the argument that we should instead be getting our own house in order before firing cheap pot-shots over the border.

I agree, but only to an extent. A massive part of football, after all, is rivalry, and I doubt there will be too many Englishman sending close neighbours France much bonhomie over the Channel ahead of tomorrow’s World Cup final.

We can sometimes get a little bit po-faced about fellow Scots wallowing in the misery of England. It doesn’t all come from us having nothing of our own to cheer in terms of our national side, or a feeling of inferiority towards our much larger neighbours. A lot of it comes from the fact that we see them as our biggest rivals in a footballing sense, even if that feeling is perhaps not reciprocated these days due to our diminished standing.

But once that warm glow of England’s failure had subsided - about yesterday lunchtime - the realisation that they had been dumped out by a country of just a little over four million people brought our own failures into sharp focus.

There will no doubt be a plethora of articles over the coming days and weeks about what Scotland can learn from Croatia, just as there was about Iceland after they had dumped England out of Euro 2016. Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has already led the calls for us to look at the Croatian model, and try to emulate the way they consistently produce top-level technical players like the imperious Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic.

I can’t offer any great insight into the Croatian secret, but what I do know is that there are promising steps being taken here which should bear fruit in the future. I spoke to Scott Allison this week, head of the Partick Thistle ‘Thistle Weir’ academy, and he was effusive in his praise of the changes being made through the early stages of Project Brave.

In particular, he felt that the introduction of under-18 sides would act as an effective bridge between youth football and senior football, with the ages between 17 and 21 being a notorious drop-off point for young Scottish talent.

On a simpler level, another step that could be taken would be for the SFA to work with local authorities to ensure that facilities are open and available for kids to play on over the summer holidays. This is another theme that has crept up on social media, showing how widespread the problem is, with the heart-wrenching sight of padlocked gates, goals turned to face fences and grass surfaces unkempt and uncut at the very time when kids could be taking most advantage of them.

Simplistic, maybe, but if our children can’t afford to get in somewhere for a kickabout, what chance have they got?

In the meantime, solace is provided by the sure knowledge I won’t be forced to watch good lager go to waste, as England supporters celebrate another goal in wastefulness matched only by Raheem Sterling when presented with a goalscoring opportunity. Fifty-two years of hurt, and counting. Bitter, me?