As a child, she was inspired by Scots TV presenter Jackie Bird and even pretended to be her.

And it seems Amy Irons is still taking inspiration from her career hero; after revealing she’s been watching archive footage of Ms Bird’s World Cup reporting ahead of her own stint covering the event.

Ms Irons, 35, is currently in Boston as she prepares to cover the national team’s return to the finals for BBC Scotland.

As well as being on TV, she will present special editions of The Saturday Show with co-presenter Steven Mill on BBC Radio Scotland.

Discussing how she has prepared for the prestigious job in the US and her excitement about it, Ms Irons said: ‘It will be incredibly special, a real honour.

‘I’ve spent so much time recently looking back, seeing archive material of news reports where Jackie Bird reported on the Tartan Army coming back after failing to get out of the group.

‘I think to be able to report at a tournament that has so much anticipation with the whole nation really looking forward to it – it’s going to be real pleasure.’

She added: ‘I’ll be trying to bring as much of the atmosphere from Boston and Miami back to the audience.’

Ms Irons, who presents BBC Scotland’s Hogmanay show as well as Reporting Scotland and News at Seven, will appear on three hour-long Reporting Scotland specials on BBC One Scotland and BBC Scotland channels.

Meanwhile, the first of her special radio shows will air this Saturday from Boston ahead of Scotland’s first group match against Haiti.

The programme will also be broadcast from the US ahead of Scotland’s clash against Morocco on June 19 and the highly anticipated final group game against Brazil on June 24 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.

Ms Irons, from Dumfries, has previously spoken about her life-long ambition to work in broadcasting and how Ms Bird was an inspiration for her future career.

She had said: ‘I used to make news programmes on my family’s video camera, pretending I was Jackie Bird, and I’d record my own chart show on a Sunday on my cassette player.’

Ms Irons, whose father is ex-footballer and coach Davie Irons, has followed in the footsteps of Ms Bird since going to work for the BBC.

In 2024 she was picked to present the Hogmanay celebrations on BBC One Scotland for the first time, and has hosted the show each year since.

The show was famously presented by Ms Bird for 20 years, with her last stint being in 2019.

Following her tenure, comedian Susan Calman had a two-year stint as host, with DJ Edith Bowman then taking over until Ms Irons landed the role.