Sean Hamilton's Nice Diary: Defeat for Scotland but the Tartan Army will party on regardless

Scottish fans in France have been singing: “No Scotland, no party.”

And they arrived at Nice’s stunning Allianz Riviera stadium today in the mood to stage a colossal one.

As the Tartan Army streamed from the buses that shuttled them from the fan zone in town to the match, there were plenty of hi-jinks.

Never mind that the crowd appeared vastly more female than male.

It turns out the girls of the Tartan Army could give their male counterparts a lesson in making non-Scots blush.

As one fun-loving foot soldier hoisted her mini kilt to reveal a backside clad in saltire pants, another joined in, revealing a stunning set of tartan bloomers.

The resultant, ear-splitting cackling told the story – the punters were here for a good time.

Whether they will be in France for a long time, however, remains to be seen after a campaign-opening defeat for Scotland.

After all the preparation, all the hard work and all the hype, game day arrived with climatic heat to match the metaphorical.

With the temperature topping out at 28 degrees, the conditions were far from ideal for two teams more used to dull, dreich and damp than hot, humid and hopeful.

At times during a game England mostly controlled, the pace of play was, in spite of the warmth, glacial.

But who could blame either set of players for that?

In the relentless Riviera, they huffed and puffed, and grew red in the face.

In Scotland’s case especially so after VAR reared its increasingly ugly head to turn the game in England’s favour early on.

Handball used to require pre-meditation of some sort.

Now it just requires a defender to be guilty of possessing hands.

Nicola Docherty found herself on the wrong side of what is now perhaps the stupidest rule in football after an English cross skimmed off her arm just 12 minutes into the game.

Up until that moment, Scotland had looked hungry, and capable with it.

After they fell behind from the penalty spot, they looked a bit lost.

They found themselves again, but by the time they did, England were two goals to the good.

Claire Emslie profited from the Scots’ second-half surge when she pulled a goal back – writing herself into the history books as Scotland’s first ever Women’s World Cup goalscorer in the process.

And suddenly, those fans, who had, after all, come to party, believed one might be on the cards.

In the end, it wasn’t to be.

But you can bet they’ll party anyway, long into the Nice nighttime.