Much has been made of the echoes of 2007 in the wake of Scotland’s eerily familiar failure in Georgia.
And now, with hopes of automatic qualification for Euro 2016 hanging by a thread, Scott Brown is hoping that a different spirit of 2007 is conjured up. The spirit of James McFadden and Paris.
France aren’t in our group this time around, of course, so beating the World champions Germany at Hampden will have to do.
“It would be nice, eh,” the captain, who played at the Parc des Princes that famous night, admitted.
“Sometimes the underdogs produce a result here and there. Hopefully we can do that.
“We didn’t play that well on the night, but we knew we had to defend as a team. We knew we weren’t going to get a lot of the ball, we understood that.
“We defended 4-5-1 and everyone stayed in their shape, and we doubled-up when we could. We closed people down, and when we did get the ball, we were brave with it.
“And everyone knows what Faddy did he put one in the top corner from 35 yards. Sometimes you need that little bit of luck or brilliance from an individual, and hopefully against Germany we get that.
“Nobody believed in us at all and sometimes that’s what you need – you go out and you prove everyone wrong.
“You need a lot of luck, to be perfectly honest. You are playing against great players but they are also playing against good players as well.”
And is there a modern day McFadden who could become a national hero with one swish of a boot?
“We have a lot of players there who can do that,” Brown pointed out. “We’ve got Ikechi Anya, we’ve got Jamesy Forrest. They’ve got a bit of pace and bring a lot to us. We’ve got Steven Fletcher up front, who can do that.
“We have players who played back then (in France) and are still playing now so hopefully that little bit of encouragement will help us.”
Recreating the performance against the Germans in Dortmund a year ago wouldn’t do Scotland’s chances against the top of the group side any harm.
Brown said: “Every time you go on the park you have to be brave on the ball. When we were over in Germany, we were extremely brave on the ball, created chances and we scored.
“We looked like we could have scored another couple as well but it wasn’t to be. Hopefully this time it will be.”
Brown, who insisted that the delayed flight from Tbilisi and the short gap between matches isn’t an issue, believes the Tartan Army should keep the faith.
He said: “The punters know we’ve still got a chance and still believe in us. We have to keep going. There’s still nine points to play for and we need to get as many on the board as possible.
“It’s not that we owe anyone a better performance (after Georgia). We turned up there and we played as well as we could on that day.
“We worked as hard as we possibly could but we didn’t get that bit of luck on the day. It’s not about owing anyone anything. But we want to get to the Euros for everybody.”