Inside Leftthe independent Scottish football blog

We left off in Part I with Scotland in the middle of their Euro ‘80 qualification campaign in June 1979, with only a series of games to play against Austria, Belgium and Portugal – would Scotland go some way towards healing the disappointment of Argentina and qualify?

By the time Scotland played their next international game, the domestic competition was nearing its completion. Celtic led the table by one point from Rangers, Partick Thistle had slumped from second top to third bottom while United and Aberdeen where third and fourth respectively. There was only one more game for Celtic in that season and it would be against Rangers at Ibrox. Simply put, Celtic had to win as Rangers still had two games in hand – a home game against struggling Partick Thistle and, one week later, an away game against Hibernian in Edinburgh.

Before the title was decided however, Scotland would take part in the British Championship.

Between the 19th and the 26th May, Scotland played three games against the home nations, England, Northern Ireland and Wales, the opponents on the first day of the competition. Manager Jock Stein had begun to make some changes in the Scotland line-up since the defeat to Portugal in November of the previous year. Alan Rough and Paul Hegarty where still the only members of the squad who played their football in Scotland while John Wark (Ipswich) and Alan Hansen (Liverpool) where given their first caps.

Also making his debut in the dark blue of Scotland was one George Elder Burley, an Ipswich player like John Wark. Balancing this relatively new squad with experience, Stein called up veterans of the campaign in Argentina, Kenny Dalglish and Asa Hartford. No Archie Gemmill; instead Liverpool’s Graeme Souness and Leeds’ Arthur Graham where preferred up front. Unusually in today’s terms, the team featured no players from either Celtic or Rangers.

Scotland did not play well. A hat-trick by future Wales manager John Toshack sank the Scots in front of 20,000 at Ninian Park in Cardiff. On the same day England beat Northern Ireland 2-0 in Belfast. The result left Scotland firmly at the bottom of the group after the first round of matches having conceded one more goal than Northern Ireland.

Back in Scotland, Celtic won the league when on 21 May when they beat Rangers 4-2 in an exciting game at Parkhead. Rangers still had two games in hand, but even if they won both, they’d still finish one point behind The Bhoys.

The following day the Home Championships continued when Northern Ireland came to Hampden. Everton’s George Wood took over in goal from Alan Rough, who had been recalled to the Partick squad in preparation for their clash with Rangers the following day. Ian Wallace and Allan Hansen had been dropped, in favour of McQueen and Joe Jordan. Arthur Graham got the goal for Scotland in the seventy-sixth minute to seal the win, but what was probably more noticeable was the crowd: only 28,000 turned up for the game, low by any standard for Scotland home games.

The win over the Northern Irish meant that going into the final day of the competition, Scotland had an outside change of winning, as long as Wales lost to Northern Ireland and Scotland could overcome England at Wembley.

A seemingly tall order, but football is a funny game, and if the luck of the Irish could rub off on the Scottish players, then a victory over the English to be crowned British Home Champions would go some way to easing the hurt still felt by many.

The 100,000 fans packed into Wembley on the final day of the competition, 26th May, knew that it was possible for three teams to win the title. Should Scotland beat England, and Wales beat Northern Ireland, Wales would win. If Wales drew, and Scotland won, then Scotland would win. Simply stated, England had to win. Stein made no changes from the team that had beaten Northern Ireland three days previously: Wood, Burley, Gray, Wark, McQueen, Souness, Dalglish, Hartford, Jordan, Hegarty and Graham, with Narey and McGarvey as subs.

Scotland got off to a good start on twenty-one minutes when John Wark scored for Scotland. The Scots dominated the first half and should have got a second goal, but they where unable to extend their lead. Just on half-time, psychologically the worst time for a team to concede a goal, Peter Barnes equalised for the English and Steve Coppell and Kevin Keegan completed the scoring as England ran out 3-1 winners – and Champions.  Northern Ireland and Wales only managed to draw, meaning that England had won the competition.

It made the defeat even harder to take.

Being beaten by England was bad enough, but to be beaten on English soil as the English players and fans celebrated was a lot to ask of the supporters. Scotland finished the competition third, with just two points.

With the season over, and the Home Championships done and dusted, Scotlands just had two more games before the long summer break: the second game against Norway in the European Championship Qualifying group, where Scotland would be looking to do the double over the Norwegians in the competition, having beaten them 3-2 back in November of 1978; and the small matter of a friendly against World Champions Argentina.

Diego Maradona was 19 when he took the field against Scotland on the 2nd June. The Argentinos Juniors player was already becoming an established international for Argentina.  The 61,000 people who filled Hampden that Saturday saw a World Cup winning team filled with stars and stars to be. Stein again stuck with a similar line-up to the one which faced England. Rough replaced Wood in goal for the start, Sounness made way for Alan Hansen and Frank McGarvey came in for McQueen; both players where given their second starts.

Argentina scored first on thirty minutes when Luque put the ball past Rough. On sixty minutes Luque again scored, this time past Wood who had replaced Rough at half time. Diego Maradona added a third on seventy minutes. Arthur Graham got the consolation goal five minutes before the end. No one, not even Ally McLeod and his eternal optimism expected a Scotland win here, but although the score line suggests an easy game for the Argentinians, Scotland acquitted themselves quite well.

Taking heart from the performance against Argentina, Scotland continued their Euro ‘80 campaign when they travelled to Oslo at the start of June for their next game with Norway. Goals from Jordan, Dalglish, McQueen and Nottingham Forests John Robertson sealed a comfortable win for Jock Stein’s and allowed the team to go into the summer break with a good morale-boosting victory under their belt.

As referee Nielsen blew the final whistle in the Ullevaal Stadion in Oslo, Scotland where in third place in the qualifying group behind Austria and Portugal and level on points with Belgium, who had so far managed to draw all their games in the group. As we’ll see later, when the competition resumed after the summer recess, our results against the Belgians would prove to be crucial to both teams qualifying chances. But those games where a long way off yet. The international side took a long break from the rigours of qualifying for Euro ‘80; the next game would not be until September.

              P  W  D  L  F  A  PTS
Austria       5  2  2  1  7  5   6
Portugal      4  3  1  0  5  2   7
Scotland      4  2  0  2  9  6   4
Belgium       4  0  4  0  3  3   4
Norway        5  0  1  4  3  11  1

Back home in Scotland, the 1978/79 season in Scotland had come to a finish with Celtic as champions. Rangers finished second, with Dundee United and Aberdeen in third and fourth spot. Hearts and Motherwell had been relegated. Rangers completed a cup double when they won the League Cup and the Scottish Cup.

In the UK, as 1979 rumbled on, Margaret Thatchers Conservative government had fought its way into power as voters, angry at Labour’s mismanagement of the economy. The winter of discontent, which saw rubbish pile up on the streets and bodies go unburied as the country was struck by a series of national strikes, together with an inflation rate of 13% proved to be the undoing of Jim Callaghan’s government.

In May of 1979, Scotland had another chance to vote for devolution. The vote, effectively to sanction the 1978 Scotland Act would have seen Scotland get its own deliberative assembly. Despite a high turn-out of more than 63% and a vote in 51% vote in favour of our own assembly, the referendum proved unsuccessful due to  a condition which was added to the Bill by George Cunningham, a Scot who represented an English seat which stated that at least 40% of the registered Scottish electorate had to vote in favour. In the end, only 32% of the registered electorate voted, and the bill was repealed the following year.

The preparations for the next round of qualifying games consisted of one friendly against Peru. When these two teams met in Cordoba in 1978’s World Cup tournament, the score had been 3-1 to the South Americans, with Joe Jordan getting Scotland’s only goal. The game was mired in controversy as Willie Johnston tested positive following a random post-match doping control. Despite protestations that the cause of the positive result was hay fever medication, Johnston was ordered home in disgrace – he would never play for Scotland again.

Fortunately for Scotland, there was to be no repeat of the chaos that surrounded the game a year previously. Likewise, the result was a bit more respectable. The game ended in a 1-1 draw, with Peruvian players scoring both goals. Olaechea put through his own net shortly after the kick-off. The score remained in Scotland’s favour until five minutes before time when German Leguia equalized for the South Americans. It was not a bad result in what was not a great game, but nevertheless, it would have to do as Scotland’s only warm-up game before the European qualifiers got under way again in October against table-topping Austria.

The 67,000 people packed into Hampden Park saw Johann Krankl put Austria into the lead just before the break, but a spirited fight back from Scotland saw captain Archie Gemmill, in his 34th appearance equalize with just twenty minutes to go. Just a month later, Scotland travelled to Belgium in the first of their back-to-back fixtures against Guy Thys’ side.

The Belgians, who had drawn all their group games so far had turned things around against around with convincing wins against Norway and Portugal. Scotland needed wins against Belgium to keep their challenge alive. In the first game on the 21st November at the Heysel Stadium, goals by François Van Der Elst and Eddy Voordeckers sank a Scotland side that had little to offer in terms of attacking options.

By the time the return fixture against Belgium came around in December, results had conspired elsewhere to make qualification for the Euro’s impossible. This fact was reflected in the low crowd that turned out to see Belgium complete back-to-back wins over Scotland when two goals by François Van Der Elst and one by Erwin Vandenbergh, all in the first half, proved enough to guarantee Belgium qualification.

The last game in the qualifiers, again at Hampden against Portugal in March 1980, was an opportunity for Jock Stein to try out some new players. George Burley was brought back into the team for his sixth cap, as where David Narey. The game would also be the first games in a Scotland jersey for Aberdeen’s Alex McLeish and Steven Archibald. The game, between two sides that had nothing but pride to play for was played out in front of one of the lowest gates for a friendly at Hampden. The game though was exciting stuff and ended in a 4-1 win for Scotland. Kenny Dalglish, Frank Gray and Archie Gemmill got on the score sheet, as did Steve Archibald who was brought on for Dalglish in the second half. Fernando Gomes scored Portugal’s consolation goal.

Scotland had failed to qualify for Euro’s. The final table put Scotland second from bottom, six points ahead of Norway, but four points from the qualifying games. The team, however, was showing promise as we headed towards the British Championships in May of 1980.

Packed with players from teams that either had, or would go on to win European silverware (John Wark would help Ipswich win the Uefa Cup, Alan Hansen, Kenny Dalglish and Graeme Souness would go on to win the European Cup with Liverpool in 1981, while John Robertson had won the European Cup with Nottingham Forest in 1979 and 1980) as well as a crop of promising new players about to come through from the leagues in Scotland, players such Jim Leighton, Willie Miller, Paul Sturrock, David Narey, Steve Archibald, Gordon Strachan and Alex McLeish, the future looked bright as Scotland looked forward to the start of the World Cup qualifiers in 1982.

We’ll conclude the story of Scotland’s Spain ’82 campaign next week.