WAY back in the days when flares were for fashion victims rather than pyromaniacs, we waved Ally’s Army off without a ball being kicked. No final warm-up game before the flight to Argentina . Just pay at the gate to watch the squad crawl round the Hampden track on an open-topped bus.
3 Scotland's 78' team cheeered off by fans inside the national stadium Credit: Getty 3 Ally's Army were given the perfect send off Credit: Getty 3 The same can't be said for Steve Clarke's men Credit: PA Can you believe they even sold programmes for it at £2 a pop ? Course you can, we’re talking the SFA here. But as bonkers as it all was, there were times tonight when it felt like Steve Clarke’s players would happily have settled for the same bizarre bye-bye nearly half a century on. And no one more so than the luckless Craig Gordon .
Roared to the rafters 21 minutes from time as he was brought on for his 75th and probably final cap. A hero within seconds as he pushed Benjamin Kallman’s shot onto his near post and behind. Read more Scotland stories TARTAN TRAVELS Scots fans going to Germany from Edinburgh have to follow little-known rule MEGA OFFERS Rangers & Celtic: Best free bets, bonuses and sign-up offers Then, though? Well, then he probably wished the gaffer had just sent him out to wave goodbye when it was all over.
Or maybe even better, that they’d stayed back at HQ for one of the backroom staff’s quiz nights. At the risk of sounding like one of the gaffer’s Negative Normans.