Shoot me down by all means, but in my experience -
England fans hope the Scots, Welsh and Oirish do well so long as we're not up against them.
The Scots just want England to lose.
Deep-fryed mars bar anyone?
x
A long long time ago when the Pox were a side that operated in the top couple of divisions of the football league, there was a little club called Wycombe Wanderers who lived just up the road. At the time they were an up and coming non-league side, and the Pox fans used to take a bit of a patronising interest in their fortunes. When the results were announced at the old Manor, the Chairboy's victories would get a big cheer.
As the seasons went on however, the fortunes of OUFC declined and, under the genius management of Martin O'Neill, WW climbed the leagues. Perhaps not suprisingly the Pox fans stopped cheering when Wycombe won and started cheering when they lost.
Now I don't know what the other side of this little relationship might have been but I think it's unlikely that Oxford wins were cheered to the rafters at Adam's Park during this period.
Even now that the postions have been almost entirely reversed I'd guess that the tradition of having been the poor relation locally would mean that Wycombe probably still have little sympathy for their neighbours. And you can't blame them.
So think about it. It's not a suprise that England fans feelings about Scotland, Wales, The Republic and NI are different to the way our fans feel about your side. It isn't a relationship of equals, and it's unlikely to ever be.
A few decades back when Scotland
were more genuinely on a par with England in the international game, England fans were only too glad to see them lose. When Ally's Army came home from Argentina before the postcards in '78 the English laughed every bit as hard as the Scotland fans had laughed at England's failure to qualify.
So just get over it you miserable bastards. You've got about 20 times as big a population to draw your team from as Wales, Scotland, or NI, you've got more money than us and are probably always going to be better than us.
If you can't take a bit of piss taking when you concede a goal to San Marino in the first 3 minutes of a game then football isn't the game for you.
Personally, as I've said before, I like watching England play because I'm genuinely ambivalent about it. By that I mean not that I don't care about the result, because I do. But, I was as happy when you were hilariously clueless under Graham Taylor as I was when you were great and put 5 past Germany.
The only thing I've got against Mclaren is that he's a bit dull. I think you're due another comedy manager who's stupidly out of his depth next. Andy King anyone?
