Vladimir McTavish: There’s lots for Scots to be proud about – at least we had a go

Andy Robertson is dejected as Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, celebrates scoring his side's second goal

I’m not quite sure what we’ve done to deserve this. They seem to like us more than we like ourselves. It is a peculiar trait of our nation to do ourselves down. We really do take self-deprecation to the point of self-harm at times. So it was good to see two events in the past week that left me feeling full of national pride.

OK, we may have been thrashed by Australia at cricket, but that was a case of Scotland punching above their weight. We don’t really do cricket in this country. It’s very much a minority pursuit.

Down Under it’s almost a religion. When I was a student in Newcastle, I had a flatmate from Yorkshire who tried to explain the rules to me during a lull in play in a test match that he insisted we watched on telly.

I’m not sure what sent me off to sleep. It may have been the match itself, it could have been his explanation of the game, or it may also have been the eight cans of beer I had drank by then.

Forget cricket. It was the Scotland football team that inspired my patriotic pride last Sunday night.

Watching the players bounce back from the disappointment of their sickening added time defeat to Poland was truly up-lifting. They played with passion, courage and self-belief. It was wondrous to watch, even if it once again ended in the heartbreak of a late defeat. At least they had a go.

What made me more proud still was the huge turnout in Glasgow a week ago today when anti-racists gathered to hold a counter-demonstration in protest against the anti-immigration rally in George Square. To see so many people turning up to say racism is not welcome in Scotland was hugely inspiring

In the end, only a handful of racists turned up, whereas there were thousands there to oppose them. Happily, it seems that racism, like cricket, is very much a minority pursuit in Scotland.

It has never really caught on. Of that we should all be very proud.