WHAT THEY SAID
“It’s been so long, as a player I never got there and I don’t have one bit of bad feeling towards these players, it’s nothing but pride because they’re presenting the country I support, the country I’m from.
“I’m so proud of the players, absolutely brilliant. You talk about 22 years, it’s been a long time. A whole generation have never seen Scotland play at a major championships.
“We deserved to win that game, full credit to Steve Clarke, his staff, everyone involved and now the whole country can celebrate.
“We played through loads of heartache, false dawns and glorious failures and if we had lost that game it would have been the biggest of glorious failures because of how well they played. What a performance.”
ALLY McCOIST
“I’ll definitely never forget the day we qualified for the Euros because we were all dancing and singing after the penalties.
“When [ David] Marshall saved the last penalty, I was hugging Ian Wright, Lee Dixon and Iain Dowie!
“Everyone was absolutely genuinely thrilled that Scotland have gone through. So bring on the Euros – it is magic. It would have been a travesty - never mind a disappointment - had we not gone through, given the way Scotland played.
“It was an unbelievable performance.
Lyndon Dykes was sensational, [ John] McGinn, [ Ryan] Christie, [ Callum] McGregor, [ Declan] Gallagher, Marshall – you could honestly go through them. They were brilliant, absolutely brilliant from start to finish and thoroughly deserved to go through.”
JOHN COLLINS
“All credit to Steve Clarke, we controlled the game and it was like we were the home team.
“I was so impressed with the positivity, mindset and the tactics from the players, there was no fear at the beginning of the game.
“I thought we would be edgy but it was the exact opposite, they went on that pitch with belief and it was a huge test of their character, the coaching staff get all the credit.
“I think we’ve made tremendous strides forward.
“Since Stevie came in he’s got us organised and defensively we have been really sound. Nine games undefeated, the confidence has started to grow and the players are playing with a lot of freedom.
“In the performance against Serbia everybody was wanting the ball, we were retaining possession and the goal Ryan Christie scored was terrific.
“He has been doing that for the last two years for Celtic, I worked with him there and I’m delighted for him. No- one in the whole of Scotland would have thought that that was possible for us not to be at a tournament for such a long time but it happened.
“It’s always difficult to compare [ the two squads] but they’ve qualified and we’ll see them on the big stage.
“That’s the most important thing, they’ve got us back to where we belong and put a smile on everyones’ face.
“Football is our national sport and for us not to have been a major tournament is such a shame.”
DARREN FLETCHER
“If someone deserves David Marshall
“That is unbelievable, for the players, the country, the fans, the staff. For David Marshall to win it like that – I can’t speak highly enough of him.
“You talk about loyalty to your country – we have had three great goalkeepers in Craig Gordon, Allan McGregor and Marshall – Marsh has probably been the most underrated out of them all but he kept turning up, turning up and turning up and never let his country down.
“He now gets a moment to be a hero for the whole country, to a man they were fantastic. It was nothing against the other players but I said before the game, ‘ I hope Marsh is the hero’ because he deserves it.
“He’s been through long journey, I played my whole international career with David Marshall. The standard of our penalties as well were brilliant.
“The script was written, we were never going to do it easy.”
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