There are many things we could discuss about the England v Scotland game although goals isn’t one of them. For a no-score draw it made a lot of headlines.

Having the football back was a sign of normality returning. Hearing the cheers emanate from beer gardens was a welcome sound, so when the England-Scotland fixture was coming up there was a sense of excitement.

I thought, naively, it would be a purely positive event. It could have shown how the UK could make its own entertainment again. Sadly, more normality returned than we had planned and there were some ugly scenes of football fans causing trouble.

Large crowds headed to London, flares were set off and fans chanted, “No Scotland, no party.”It’s a strange chant and seems derivative of, “There ain’t no party like an S Club party.”

While we could focus on the trouble caused the better news is what happened the following morning. Scotland fans were seen heading back to the places where a mess had been made to clean it up before they left.

If I had known that the Scottish football fans were going to be tidying up I’d have invited them here and taken my rubbish out because I always have too much for the bin.

Those fans are nicer than most people. Before the lockdown if you walked through parts of the town centre on a Saturday morning you could see evidence of the Friday night. You could see the points where alcohol and kebab won the battle against people’s stomachs. I have never seen a hungover local stagger back to the scene of their pavement pizza with a bucket and mop.

I have never seen a car pull a handbrake turn when some litter falls from the driver’s window.

The problem is we think of picking up litter as a punishment. We’re ordered to do it at school if the teacher catches us. We could be sentenced to do it in a high vis jacket if we get community service so we think of it in a negative way,

Litter picking should be like exercise. You might not want to spend your time off doing it but there are convincing reasons why you should. People go for a run because they want the long term benefits. Litter picking gets you out of the house, offers mild exercise and will improve the look of your local environment.

It could also improve property prices, if you need a heartless capitalist’s motivation.

While the players on the field might have given an uninspirational performance some of the supporters really put the effort in when it counted most.