Former Steve Clarke teammate lifts lid on 'surreal' St Mirren reunion at Scotland's World Cup training base

On top of this, their time together at Love Street also overlapped to the extent that one was forced to switch flanks. Steve Clarke made room for Tommy Wilson, displaying his versatility and appetite for the challenge by lining up at left back for Ricky McFarlane’s talented side. Wilson is now returning the favour by accommodating the Scotland manager and his players at Charlotte FC, where he is their well-regarded technical director.

It’s a magnificent campus and is serving Scotland well so far. They returned to their temporary home on Sunday evening having secured the win they needed against Haiti. The city welcomed them back by ramping up the heat. The next challenge facing Scotland has also stepped up a level from Saturday night. African champions Morocco now need to be tackled next back in Boston.

Few Scotland sides have faced such a critical few days of preparation work. Wilson has already caught up with Clarke but he might have to pick his moment if he is to have some time with his old pal this week. In the meantime, Wilson wonders if anyone will have the sort of career trajectory enjoyed by Clarke ever again. From Beith (Juniors) to Brazil, and everything in between.

“To see him here now at the World Cup is amazing, and for him to win the first game is even better,” he says. “Now everyone just wants him to go one step further and take us into the knockout stages for the first time. It would be a remarkable story.

“For anyone to start out at Beith Juniors and end up facing Brazil with all he’s done in between is a story that will probably never be repeated.”

How Charlotte reunion came to pass

Wilson hasn’t done so badly himself. The Glasgwegian has been based in the States since 2013, when he started working for Philadelphia Union. After establishing the club as one of the best in the United States for youth development, he was headhunted by the then-fledgling Charlotte FC. The warmth with which he was bade farewell attested to his influence there. He is now having the same effect in North Carolina, where he is clearly a principal figure. So much so that he managed to pull some strings to help when it became clear that Charlotte was Scotland’s first choice among Fifa’s approved list of training sites.

Clarke did not stint on the preparatory work and other venues were considered. Seeing Wilson’s friendly face can only have helped make Charlotte seem even more attractive although even then the Scots had to wait their turn. Highest-ranking nations got first pick. “It was a bit surreal when I heard Scotland were actually coming here,” Wilson explained. “We’d had a good few countries come to visit us - I think England was one - so I reached out to try and help.

“I knew (SFA chief executive) Ian Maxwell from Queen’s Park and obviously played with Stevie at St Mirren and wanted them to be here from the start. But it was a tiered process, so I didn’t really think there was a chance of Scotland getting it.

“Anyway, when the time came for them to take the tour of the facilities, I made sure to be right in the middle of it and managed to spend the day with them.”

It must have been surreal for the pair of St Mirren full backs to reminisce about the old days. With Wilson also having a very firm connection with the SFA, for whom he fulfilled several roles including Head of Coach Education, it is very much a case of the ties that bind. Clarke and Wilson arrived at St Mirren in the same year and quickly established themselves in a side including Peter Weir, Frank McAvennie, Dougie Somner, Frank McDougall, Tony Fitzpatrick and Lex Richardson.

‘He was a bit of a silent assassin’

“At the time, it seemed unrealistic to think that we were both going to start, because they were a top four or five Premier League side,” he recalled.

“They were qualifying for Europe and had some really great players. Yet before long we were starting and pretty much played every game in our first season. We were both right backs, but Stevie could play on the left as well, so he was switched across. Ricky had so much trust in us.

“Because he’d come from the juniors, some of the older boys weren’t quite sure of Stevie. But he was just a natural, straight in and totally accepted. He was quiet back then, unassuming. You didn't hear a lot from him, he just got on with it, did his job. It’s interesting to see that he’s just the same now as an international manager. There’s been no dramatic change from the guy I remember way back then.

“He always had the steely determination people see in him today. Basically, he was always going to succeed. On the park, he was a bit of a silent assassin. Even though he’d jumped overnight from the juniors to the top end of the Premier, no one ever bullied him on or off the park.”

Wilson isn’t surprised to see how high Clarke has climbed since being lured to London by Chelsea at the start of 1987, the year St Mirren won the Scottish Cup against Dundee United.

“He left right before the start of our Scottish Cup-winning run and I always wondered if he missed being part of that,” he said. “We’d suffered so much disappointment in those semi-finals, when some of the refereeing decisions against us had been terrible, so it would have been great if he’d been to Hampden with us.

“But he couldn’t say no to Chelsea. I’m sure his bank account would attest to the fact that he did the right thing!”