Scotland v England was once the fiercest of rivalries but the fire is starting to go out Whatever her private musings on such occasions, the monarch - a living embodiment of the infinitely complex history of these island nations - also personifies the principle of moving on. Happily, Tuesday's occasion demonstrated that she is not alone in that respect. When these sides last met on Scottish soil in 1999, there were 230 arrests in and around Hampden Park and in Glasgow city centre. This week there were 26 arrests, mainly in the vicinity of Celtic Park, and they almost entirely consisted of breaches of the peace, or what the gendarmes call "public nuisance offences" - piddling infractions, often literally. There were no arrests for violence, partly because there had been cross-border sharing of police intelligence, which identified potential troublemakers heading up from the South, but also because much of the heat has been taken out of a rivalry that was a byword for civic disorder in the 1980s and beyond. There were a few referendum result jibes from the visiting support and choruses of, "Are you Scotland in disguise?" but both lots have other concerns to occupy their thoughts these days. Against the backdrop of a dismal campaign in Brazil, Roy Hodgson's players need to regain credibility before what already looks like certain qualification for the finals of Euro 2016. The Scots, meanwhile, are a work in progress after the severe disappointments of recent years. Terry Butcher attended the match as a TV pundit and, while chatting with this correspondent outside afterwards, was approached by several groups of Scotland supporters asking for him to pose with them for snaps or selfies. Most also chatted about the contest they had just watched and, to a man and woman, were entirely pragmatic about the gap in performance between the sides. Strikingly, not one of the passing Tartan Army foot soldiers expressed the wish that the previous Friday's victory over the Republic of Ireland could be exchanged for a win against the Auld Enemy. Instead, we heard the wholly grounded opinion that three points against the Irish was a significant material gain towards ending the Scots" long exile from the final stages of major tournaments, whereas beating England - while greatly to be savoured, had it happened - would have been a matter of mere bragging rights. In any case, it seemed that few of the Scottish fans who stopped to chat to the former England captain had entertained much belief that Gordon Strachan's players had been likely to win, although - based on the English performance in the first half against Slovenia - some had supposed that a score draw was a reasonable assumption. True, there were some wistful reflections that life would have been easier for the Scots if they had been drawn against England's Euro qualifier opponents and speculation about how Hodgson and co would fare if pitched, like Scotland, against the Germans, Poles and Irish. The mood, though, was of acceptance of reality - not by any means a norm for previous generations of Scotland supporters. Inside the media tent, meanwhile, Roy was telling the world how proud he was that his players had been "in a goldfish bowl under the magnifying glass." Which, when you think about it, suggests that they looked like big fish in a very small pool - pretty much a definition of what it meant to win the latest instalment of the oldest rivalry in international football