We have a dram
Scots squad got sloshed on Top of the Pops and collapsed v USSR
SCOTLAND are used to having the odd wobble on the biggest stage but this wasn’t quite what we had in mind.
The World Cup in Spain would give us the most high-profile platform in sport but tradition dictated our hopefuls would first have to negotiate the pitfalls of the Top of the Pops studio.
Perhaps it was a sign of things to come. A sway on the stage then a stagger on the pitch.
Scotland went home after the group stage following a draw with the Soviet Union on the back of a win over New Zealand and a battering by Brazil.
There was the slow motion car crash between Alan Hansen and Willie Miller – but the campaign got off to a shaky start a few weeks earlier in London.
Jock Stein’s men were summoned to the capital to go on the BBC’s flagship music show – with John Gordon Sinclair leading the chorus with BA Robertson for We Have a Dream.
It all got a bit hazy mind you, as John Wark explained.
The Ipswich and Liverpool legend said: “We went down to London the night before for the rehearsals and let’s just say we had a few refreshments. What a night!
“The next day there were rehearsals at 3pm and 5pm and then the live show at 7pm. In between times we were in the BBC bar. There were a few boys a bit worse for wear!
“I remember the studio director told us to sway in the background. We were all swaying anyway – we were lucky to still be standing!
“It was great fun and that’s what the World Cup was all about. You’d do the song, the fans would travel in their thousands. It was great.”
Wark would play all three games in Spain in another case of so near, yet so far. New Zealand were swotted, Brazil ran riot and it came down to a shootout between us and the USSR for the knockout stages. Scotland needed to win. Almost 40 years on, Wark still can’t believe we didn’t. Joe Jordan slotted an opener in what turned out of to be his final cap. Aleksandre Chivadze’s duffed effort bounced over
Alan Rough to level but worse was to come. The Scots were chasing a winner late on but Hansen wiped out Miller to allow Ramaz Shengelia to make it 2-1 and Graeme Souness’ leveller wasn’t enough.
Wark said: “I watched the Russia game again recently and it was even harder to see this time. We absolutely battered them but gave away a couple of Mickey Mouse goals.
“It was incredible with the guys bumping in to each other. Even the first goal, the Russian mis-hit it and it bounced in. It was really poor.
“Russia were a good side at the time, I think they were ranked fifth or sixth in the world.
“But we felt we could beat them – and we should have beaten them. We gifted them a couple of goals and it ended up really frustrating. I still can’t believe to this day how we didn’t win.”
Wark doesn’t blame Hansen and Miller for the mix-up though, even if it was more Sunday League than Champions League stuff.
It was a strict collective responsibility job in that Scotland camp and he actually reckons he was just as culpable.
Wark said: “The defending was poor but it wasn’t a case of blaming individuals. I know a lot of people say Willie and Alan maybe shouldn’t have played together but that incident was nothing to do with playing styles.
“It was just a mistake and not the kind you’d expect on a Sunday morning never mind from top-class footballers.
“It was just one of those moments
you don’t get away with at that level. I go back to the New Zealand game. I scored a couple and I’ll always be proud of the fact I finished top scorer for Scotland at a World Cup.
“But it always nags at me I should have had a hat-trick. I had a header early in the second half I should have put away. I could have been living off a World Cup hat-trick to this day but I put it over the bar.
“I’m still bitter about that moment. You think it could have been 4-0, maybe we would have scored a few more. I know its ifs, buts and maybes, but those two silly goals we lost in the first game ended up costing us.
“You just never know what could have happened.”
From tearing up Top of the Pops to sweating in Seville, Wark soaked up every moment of his World Cup experience.
But there remains to this day a tinge of regret. He said: “That might have been the strongest squad Scotland ever had. We went to Spain thinking we fancied our chances of getting out the group. There was huge disappointment when we went out.
“We lost to the best side in the world and drew with a team in the top six, but it didn’t hurt any less.”
Scotland: Rough; Narey; Hansen; Miller; Gray; Strachan (McGrain 71); Souness; Wark; Robertson; Archibald; Jordan (Brazil 71).
Soviet Union: Dasayev; Chivadze; Damayanenko; Baltacha; Sulakvelidze; Bezsonov; Borovsky; Bal; Shengelia (Andreyev 88); Gavrilov; Blokhin.