THE IDENTITY of Scotland's next manager may still be unknown but he appears increasingly certain to be pitched into a friendly meeting with England at Wembley in May.

The Sunday Herald understands SFA chief executive Gordon Smith has had fruitful discussions with his FA counterpart Brian Barwick and commercial staff south of the border about resurrecting the oldest fixture in international football and is hopeful that a meeting between the two sides, which has been pencilled in for London on Wednesday May 28, will be rubber-stamped in the next few weeks.

Smith retains good relations south of the border after spending a sizeable portion of his playing career at Brighton and Hove Albion and is thought to have made headway in persuading the FA of the merits of arranging the first friendly between the two old rivals since a 2-0 win for England back in 1989.

Both sides require an alternative focus after failure to qualify for Euro 2008, and with only two places separating them in the Fifa rankings, public appetite for this fixture is perceived to have returned.

Although the SFA may look to follow the fixture up with a return friendly at Hampden, the initiative does not preclude involvement in the proposed Celtic Cup competition, which remains likely to proceed from early 2009 - even if the competition is still without a broadcasting or sponsorship deal.

With the new Scotland manager also likely to have a friendly in March, and the international date in February most likely to be used as a squad get together, Smith is clearly keen to give the new man a chance of hitting the ground running.

"There is no point waiting for the manager to come in because we could be doing it at the beginning of the year and by then to try to get a good friendly match arranged for say March or May would be practically impossible," Smith said.

"I am taking responsibility to try to get a schedule, to try to get a couple of games for us to play. The one thing I would think any new boss would want is some matches arranged."

Meanwhile, Smith will take the advice of three of the last four managers into consideration before flying to the Hilton Hotel on December 14 to negotiate the fixture timetable for World Cup Qualifying Group Nine.

Who plays which team when can have significant ramifications, and Smith - who is likely to travel to the draw with president George Peat and administration chief David Findlay - clearly intends to do his homework.