Would SFA have sent me home if we’d beaten Peru? When they call me now I just say I’m on holiday...

WILLIE JOHNSTON ON THE DISGRACE OF FAILING A DRUG TEST AT THE 1978 WORLD CUP FINALS IN ARGENTINA

It was terrible down in England. The fans called me a junkie

IN hiNdsight, Willie Johnston should have taken the advice of Leopoldo Luque. the year was 1977, the scene a smoke-filled hotel bar in downtown Buenos Aires.

the second of scotland’s threematch tour of south America had ended in a 1-1 draw with Argentina. And Luque, a World Cup winner 12 months later, appeared to be enjoying the company until the moment he leaned in to whisper a chilling warning.

‘John...ston. You are very good player. But be warned... do not return to Argentina for the World Cup.’

Forty years since he was sent home from a World Cup in disgrace for failing a drug test, Johnston ponders those words often. Asking himself why he didn’t just sit out scotland’s opening game in the 1978 World Cup with hay fever instead of gulping down two Reactivan Antihistamines before kick-off.

‘it still affects me now,’ says Johnston of his expulsion. ‘When scotland are playing, it gets brought up constantly. i’ll be remembered forever as the guy who got sent home from Argentina. Not as the only scot to score two goals (for Rangers) in a European final. that doesn’t count.’

Johnston is 71 now, but scotland’s current trip to Peru brings back memories. the south American tour of 1977 saw him set up goals for Kenny dalglish, Lou Macari and Asa hartford in a 4-2 win over Chile before moving on to Argentina, where general Videla’s murderous military junta were keen to prove they were up to the task of hosting European nations before the World Cup finals a year later.

Johnston’s running battle with Vicente Pernia ended with the full-back spitting in his face. Both players were sent off, setting in motion the chain of events which saw Luque enter the scotland dressing room after the game.

‘he said to me: “John...ston, my friend (Pernia), my friend wants your jersey”.

‘i told him he wasn’t getting it. then later that night he said to me: “do not come back to Argentina”. But i did. Of course i did.’

scotland’s return for the World Cup finals of 1978 remains an open scar on the nation’s psyche.

the 40th anniversary of an opening 3-1 defeat to a teofilo Cubillas-inspired Peru arrives three days after the teams play in a friendly in Lima in the early hours of Wednesday. Johnston is unlikely to mark the milestone with a cake.

‘When i hear the name Peru, my thought is: “i shouldn’t have taken two tablets,” he admits in tobacco-scarred tones.

‘i took two tablets, Reactivan, but they didn’t do me any good in the game. if i’d known what was in them, i’d never have taken them.’

Every Reactivan pill contains 10mg of the banned stimulant fencamfamine. Johnston’s room-mate don Masson later admitted to taking the same pills, but only one of the two was hauled in for a drug test.

had Archie gemmill been able to ‘perform’, it wouldn’t have been Johnston, either.

Reclining in the bath after the loss to Peru, gemmill tapped him on the shoulder to announce he was too dehydrated to give a urine sample.

Called off the substitutes’ bench, Johnston handed over his sample and thought little more of it until an official function attended by sports Minister denis howell later that night was doorstepped by itN broadcast journalist trevor Mcdonald

‘After the Peru game, i was having a couple of beers with tom Forsyth,’ recalls Johnston. ‘then the newscaster trevor Mcdonald bursts into the room and says: “You’ve failed the drugs test” and in that moment everything changed.

‘i was shattered. i had no inkling at all. i went in, did the test — me and Kenny dalglish — and didn’t think any more about it. We were with Cubillas and the Peru full-back diaz i was playing against. i went back to the hotel and was told to pack my bags.’ in his lively autobiography, Sent

Off At Gunpoint, Johnston offers an account of an sFA judicial process which was far removed from the era of the Compliance Officer. Forty years later, it wouldn’t pass muster in even Kim Jong-un’s court.

the former Rangers, West Brom and hearts winger recounts a terse exchange with secretary Ernie Walker which ran as follows:

WALKER: ‘You’re being sent home. You’ll never play for scotland again.’ JOHNSTON: ‘i want to appeal.’ WALKER: ‘the sFA will not appeal. We have made our decision, you will be sent home.’

JOHNSTON: ‘i need to phone my wife Margaret.’

WALKER: ‘there will be no phone calls. You will remain in your room until told otherwise.’

Johnston was smuggled from the team hotel with a blanket over his head like a criminal the next morning. Bundled into a fast car, he was driven 700kilometres to Buenos Aires airport and flown home.

‘i couldn’t get out the hotel for Press in the complex. i asked to appeal but no one was interested in letting me,’ he says. ‘i was viewed at that time as the bad boy of scottish football. i just got bundled into the car and sent home.

‘if we’d beaten them (Peru), do you think i’d have been sent home?’

then, as now, Johnston felt like a sacrificial lamb. A scapegoat for the shambolic failings of sFA management and scotland’s awful World Cup under Ally MacLeod.

‘Maybe i was sacrificed,’ he says. ‘i should never have played. i had hay fever and i had a cold. if i hadn’t played, you’d never have heard anything about it.

‘But i wanted to play, so i took the Antihistamine tablets and i played. i’d still like to see my name cleared, even 40 years on.

‘they (the sFA) have asked me to go to certain things — but i tell them i’m on holiday. i’ve always said i wasn’t available.’

in an era when drug cheats in athletics serve a two-year ban then return to win Olympic medals, Johnston’s treatment still feels disproportionate.

he adds: ‘i would like the sFA to come and say: “We’re sorry about how we handled it.” i’d maybe be able to go to a game.

‘For me, it’s past now. i had all the s***, it was terrible. it was worse for my family and worse when i was in England at West Brom.

‘the English Press loved it, they slaughtered me. When i played away from home, it was terrible. they were calling me a junkie and everything.’

he returned to Rangers for a second spell, eventually moving to hearts with his former ibrox team-mates Alex Macdonald and sandy Jardine. in scotland, a slew of infamous red cards did nothing to clean up his image.

‘i didn’t mind getting it at Celtic Park,’ he laughs. ‘i would conduct them there. But getting it from the English was worse.’

Even now, four decades later, one moment of levity from a grim episode shines through.

it came from West Brom manager Ron Atkinson as he hauled Johnston through a media scrum into a waiting car at heathrow.

‘i’ll get you through this mess,’ he told his mesmeric winger. ‘i’ve already got a new contract for you.’

‘New contract?’ asked a startled Johnston. ‘What new contract?’

With impeccable timing, Atkinson replied: ‘Boots the Chemist...’