SUMMER After 50 years of agony.. this can be our OF GLORY

Clarke’s heroes are standing on the shoulders of history as a nation dreams of a Euro 2024 campaign to remember in Germany

Yes, the recent spate of injuries hasn’t helped. And, true, the national boss might feel a bit better about his chances in Germany this summer if only he had a right-back performing on the pitch rather than lying on a treatment table.

But now doesn’t feel like an appropriate time to start doubting what Clarke and his players may be capable of delivering when they finally get the ball rolling at this summer’s big event.

On the contrary, having qualified for a second successive European Championships with such style and flair, there is reason to believe this Scotland side has the quality and the depth of talent to do what no other has done before. It should have happened in 1974 when Scotland arrived in the same country with one of the most gifted group of players ever to pull on a dark blue shirt.

Somehow Wi l lie Ormond’s Scotland managed to be sent home early from that World Cup despite remaining unbeaten, drawing with Brazil and conceding just one goal.

That set in motion a chain of events that have hamstrung our national side on the biggest of stages for 50 years. Until now.

That same crushing sense of disappointment returned four years later in Argentina when Ally Macleod promised us the world, only to be left holding his head in his hands as it all went wrong against Peru.

Spain in 1982? Enter Alan Hansen and Willie Miller and the collision which sent Scotland crashing out of a third successive World Cup without making it out of the group stage.

And it was beginning to feel like a nasty, fatalistic habit by the time a team with players such as Gordon Strachan, Charlie Nicholas and Graeme Souness – managed by Alex Ferguson – was booted out of Mexico in 1986 by a bunch of thugs from Uruguay.

So it was no surprise in the slightest when Andy Roxburgh’s Scotland boarded one of the first flights home from Italia 90. And even when Roxburgh managed to buck a trend by qualifying for the Euros two years later, Scotland made an early exit from that tournament too.

The image of Paul Gascoigne befuddling Colin Hendry before lashing a shot past Andy Goram still sends a shiver down the spine of this country.

Had Gary Mcallister not missed from the spot moments earlier, perhaps Euro 96 might have been our moment. But it wasn’t.

Instead, the agony merely rolled over to France in 1998 when Scotland arrived at yet another World Cup, took Brazil to the brink on the opening day, then exited stage left after a humping from Morocco.

As painful as that felt in the moment, the distress felt across the country would have been tenfold if only we knew what was coming next.

As if failing to get anywhere once our team had clambered on to the big stage was not quite bad enough, Scotland then had to endure more than two decades scrubbing around in the international wilderness.

For generations, watching other countries compete in tournament football became the norm.

These nice things simply were not for the likes of us.

Then along came Clarke.

And suddenly everything changed. By leading Scotland to the last Euros – albeit through the back door – he shattered this sequence of