THE CHAMPS THAT TIME FORGOT
Pat Nevin fronts a documentary about his search for film of Scotland under-18 team’s victory in 1982
IN 1982, Scotland’s under-18s achieved something no other Scotland side had done before or has since – win a major international football tournament. Led by Andy Roxburgh and assistant manager Walter Smith, they beat Czechoslovakia 3-1 in the final to win the Uefa European Youth Championships in Helsinki, Finland.
The gallant youngsters, who included Celtic’s Paul McStay and Jim McInally, Spurs midfielder Ally Dick and Hearts’ Dave Bowman and Gary Mackay, took on Europe’s best and beat them.
Despite the achievement, their win garnered little attention at the time and 40 years on, their European triumph is largely forgotten, with only a few photographs surviving of their amazing success.
Determined their historic victory should be remembered and celebrated, their most famous alumnus, Pat Nevin, who scored a goal in the final, has made a BBC Scotland documentary about their yet-to-be repeated feat.
In The Lost Final, which goes out on Sunday, the former Chelsea and Everton star goes on a mission to track down footage of the forgotten win and reunites his teammates for the first time in 40 years.
Pat, 58, who won 28 senior caps for Scotland, said: “It’s the only European or world trophy Scotland has ever won but there were no ticker tape parades, no big celebrations and there was hardly any coverage in the Press.
“The victory was overshadowed by a number of things including the Falklands War, the Pope’s visit to Glasgow and Jock Stein taking the national team to the 1982 World Cup.
“Over the years the victory has become even more lost in the ether and forgotten by many except the players themselves, who count the triumph as a defining moment in their careers.
“Wanting to ensure our win is not forgotten forever, I decided to get the old team together 40 years on, to talk about their memories and what playing in the tournament meant to them.”
At the time Pat, who also played for Clyde, Tranmere Rovers, Kilmarnock and Motherwell, was studying for a degree in commerce at what is now Glasgow Caledonian University.
He added: “It turned out to be one of the most emotional journeys I have ever undertaken as it made me realise what a huge impact that tournament and the goal I scored in the final had on my life.
“At the time, although I was overjoyed we had won, my focus was getting back home to sit the finals for my degree. Football was a daft wee pastime for me.
“I was almost trying to hide my career as I wanted to be normal. The championships blew it for me slightly. When I went back everyone knew
what I was doing. That tournament in Finland was the start of my normal life getting destroyed. Until then I had tried hard not to be a professional footballer but failed. I’m not unhappy that happened.
“After I came home Chelsea tried to buy me but I turned them down. I did another year studying in Glasgow and played part-time for Clyde but everything kept going too well. I gave in and became a full-time footballer.
“The U18 championship gave me not only a medal, a trophy and publicity I didn’t want, it also gave me the belief I could go the distance. I didn’t know it but it was a life-changer.”
On the way to the final the Scotland team beat Albania 3-0, Turkey 2-0 and drew 1-1 with the Netherlands before
beating Poland 2-0 in the semis. It was not just his career which was influenced by the heroics of 1982. McStay would captain Celtic to glory, Mackay became a Hearts legend and Bowman and McInally would reach the Uefa cup final with Dundee United.
He said: “For many of us it was a launching pad. Five of them went on to be national team players.
“In a deeper sense it made us realise we were the best in our age group in Europe and there was no reason we couldn’t go as far as we liked.
“We had won a European Championship while missing six of our top players who had stayed in Scotland for the Aberdeen v Rangers cup final clash.”
The dad of two added: “I played for 20 years in 850 professional games and for the majority of them I could not tell you who the team was on a specific day but I could tell you every man on the pitch in that final. They were such an amazing bunch of lads.
“That’s why finding any footage of the game was so important to me because although, we had so many memories, we had never seen any footage of our historic win.”
While making the film, Pat leaves no stone unturned in his search for footage – going through BBC archives and even contacting TV channels in Finland.
Just as he is about to give up hope, one of the Czech team gets in touch and suggests footage might have been stored in Prague. Has Pat struck gold? Viewers will have to tune in to find out. Pat, whose book Accidental Footballer is a Sunday Times Bestseller, said the documentary also proves that Scotland was a fool to get rid of Roxburgh, who went on to manage the senior men’s side from 1986 to 1993.
Pat said: “The programme does raise the question why haven’t Scotland been able to win a major European or world championship since. In my opinion it is because they looked down on people like Roxy.
“They should have listened to every word that guy said. He got us that win, he was the team manager who took us to internationals and he was powering Scotland in his time.
“Sometimes you have someone special in your country and the only people who don’t recognise that is his own country and Roxy was a bit like that. “It’s a shame he is working for the Malaysian FA. He should be working for us and should have been for many years.”
● The Lost Final is on BBC Scotland at 7.15pm on Sunday.
There were no parades, no big celebrations and hardly any Press coverage