Sweet and sour memories of World Cup

Jags assistant boss Billy Dolan was part of the Scotland under-16 side who reached the World Cup final in 1989.

The former Celtic youth defender featured in most of their matches, but was an unused substitute in the final, which Scotland lost to Saudi Arabia on penalties. It was later discovered the Saudi side was full of overage players.

One of Dolan’s most memorable moments of the campaign was the 1-0 win over Portugal in the semi-final, where he faced the likes of Luis Figo and Rui Costa.

Dolan said:“I came on 10 minutes into the second half. My team-mate at Celtic, Brian O’Neill, scored the winner.

“Figo is a global star now, but we were more than a match for him and Rui Costa that day. It’s always the case with Scotland youth teams, they do well and then fade away for some reason.

“Figo progressed to the full national team the following season and fair play to him for going all the way in the game.

“I put a few tackles in on him, but we weren’t overawed by them. Obviously at the time, no-one knew these guys are going to become big names.”

Asked about the disappointment in the final at Hampden, he added:“I didn’t play in the final and I was annoyed I never did myself justice in the semi-final. I can always say I was part of a team that made a World Cup final though.

“I think the Saudi keeper turned out to be 31. A couple of the guys played at the 1990 World Cup for Saudi Arabia and their ages were 27 and 28, so there’s no doubt they were overage.

“It’s unbelievable, but the checks on birth certificates weren’t as stringent at that time.”