Scots-written Till the Bells Ring premiered a year before the Hollywood film, which featured spoken words by Al Jolson

For almost a century, The Jazz Singer has been celebrated as the world’s first feature-length film to include synchronised dialogue (known as a “talkie”), and English as the first language of cinema. But a chance discovery threatens to upend film history with the news that it may have been beaten to the title by a full year – and by a film made in Glasgow and written in Scots.

The breakthrough was made by the historian and self-confessed “film nerd” Marc David Jacobs, who was conducting research for a book on the first wave of British sound films when he came across the story of Till the Bells Ring.

The nature of this Scotland defeat felt far more significant than the fact it arrived at all. Sébastien Pocognoli is already in tricky territory, just four games into his tenure as Scotland head coach. Slovenia comprehensively outplayed the fragile hosts at Hampden Park, which leaves Pocognoli staring at a third-placed finish in a soft Nations League section. Brave new dawn or beginning of an error?

Scotland were defensively disorganised. Their attacking play was timid. Long before full time, the 39-year-old Belgian had the look of a coach throwing darts blindly at a board. And missing. Wastefulness from Slovenia prevented Scottish embarrassment.