A SPECIAL SPIRIT
Eoin Garvey is 24 and from Lochgelly, Fife. He has followed Scotland since primary school, going to games with his grandfather to begin with and then with friends.
“I think we’ve got a really good chance of getting out of the group this time,” he says. “We have some great players – my favourite at the moment is Kieran Tierney – and there’s a real team spirit.
“Being in the Tartan Army isn’t just about the football, though – the match only lasts 90 minutes. It’s about seeing new places and meeting new people. I’ve travelled to about 22 different countries following Scotland, and have loved every minute.”
Cailin Roy is 26 and has also followed the team since she was very young.
“My older brother hated football so when I was born, my dad was determined that I’d be a fan,” says Cailin.
“We went to all the games together. For my 10th birthday, he got me a ticket for a Norway away match – and I do love football." Sadly, Cailin’s dad died in 2017, which is when she began attending matches with friends. Here, she met her partner, Struan Dow.
Struan, 30, has been following Scotland, home and away, since 2015. He will be in Germany this month and hasn’t booked a return plane ticket in the hope that the team get through to the next stage.
“There’s a great camaraderie among the fans and you see places that you might never normally go to,” he says.
“The team often plays double-headers – two matches in quick succession – so that takes a bit more planning.
“For the Ireland and Armenia matches, we flew to Dublin first, watched that match, flew to Athens, on to Amsterdam, then to Armenia, where we won. I think that was an outward journey of about 2,500 miles.”
Jack Morrison is 30 and is from Edinburgh.
“My dad signed me up as a member of the Supporters Club when I was six and I started properly going to away matches in 2016. I don’t think I’ve missed many matches since then.
“I’ve been all over with Scotland,” he continues. “The farthest match was probably in Armenia, or Georgia,
“Germany is the one we all wanted to qualify for”
which was also pretty far. There’s a great atmosphere at all these matches, though it takes a lot of planning.
“One time, we were flying to Slovenia and needed to take a couple of flights. We missed our first flight – we were in the pub at the airport – and the next few were cancelled, so we ended up going by bus, which took 11 hours, and then caught another flight after that.
“We were only in Slovenia for 15 hours in total and it had taken two full days to get there!”
The fans we spoke to are members of the Scotland Supporters Club, which uses a points-based system to allocate international tickets – one point for attending a home match, two for away – and this group will attend all three of the group stage matches together. But it’s not just about the football. Following the Tartan Army is about friendship, and there’s a real bond between these fans who only meet up on match days.
“We’re part of such a nice, big group,” adds Cailin. “There are usually about 20 of us travelling and it’s always great to see them again. It’s not like a normal friendship, where you might see your pals every weekend, and that makes it more special.”
Cailin will be in Germany for the three group matches, and will fly back to Scotland for her university graduation – but is flying straight back out to Cologne afterwards.
“We took a bit of a punt and booked flights to Berlin before the match fixtures were announced. We fly out on June 13 and, just by chance, Scotland got drawn to play Germany in the opening match on the 14th!”
Rebecca Morrison is a relative newcomer to the Tartan Army. Although she went to a couple of matches as a child, it was only when she met Jack that things took off – literally.
“Jack took me away for my birthday, which I thought was very romantic. It turned out it was Russia, for a Scotland away match…” she says.
The couple married in September last year and took their honeymoon in Cyprus, to tie in with another Scotland away match.
Jack and Struan, who have been pals since school, take care of the logistics, booking flights, sorting tickets and planning routes. They reckon the trip to Germany will cost each of them at least £3,000. “It’ll be worth it, though,” says Jack. “Germany is the one we all wanted to qualify for. We’re confident we’ll make history and get past the group stage this time.”