It was an obvious one, really. After celebrating Scotland making it to Euro 2024 by counting down the top 50 players to have played for the international side in the previous 50 years, how should The Scotsman mark their return to a World Cup after so long?
Well, goals win matches – and they certainly did on the night Scotland qualified against Denmark. Needing a win to ensure their automatic qualification, Scotland came up with three of the best goals they have ever scored in the 4-2 win.
At the time of writing, Scotland have scored 1443 goals in 848 games. The original plan was to come up with a top 25 – just under three per cent of the total scored. The crème de la crème. It was the best homework assignment ever.
To keep things slightly more modern and increase the chance of finding footage on YouTube, we set a slightly arbitrary time limit of 1973 - the year before Scotland returned to a World Cup for the first time since 1958.
It also happens to be this writer’s lifetime. This meant Joe Jordan’s glorious header v Czechoslovakia to seal qualification could be considered. Did it make it? Mibbes eyes, mibbes naw.
To aid credibility, former Scotland international Pat Nevin was recruited to sift through goal after goal. It also helps when discussing moments of genius such as Mo Johnston’s acrobatic overhead kick against Cyprus in 1989 if someone contributing to the conversation can say, ‘Oh yes, I crossed the ball in for that one’.
It’s also advantageous if this self-same expert is one of the candidates in the mix for scoring one of Scotland’s greatest goals.
Indeed, a couple of Pat’s five goals for Scotland made the long list, including the well-struck – he calls it a top-poke, yes another one of those – effort from the edge of the box into the top corner in a pre-Euro ’92 friendly against the USA. It was further distinguished by later featuring in the Mike Myers film So I Married An Axe Murderer.
Not even this was enough to ensure that it made the cut though I suspect it was self-deprecation on Pat’s part as much as anything that saw the goal discarded when it came to the final 25. And that’s what we are left with: a final 25 since 1973.
It isn’t the definitive list and it’s not even the list we might come up with today were we to sit down together again.
As per his musical tastes, Pat is apt to come up with left-field choices. Definitely one of them comes under that description. See if you can work it out. And even one of the top 5 is not necessarily what you would expect it to be. At least it’s not the one you would necessarily pick as being the goalscorer-in-question’s best.
But isn’t that all part of the fun.
13. No 13 - Ally McCoist v Switzerland 19/6/96
A must-win game for Scotland and McCoist does what he does, but from slightly further out than known for. He’d already passed up a couple of presentable opportunities from his more accustomed distance around the six-yard box before sending this howitzer just inside the left hand post at the Holte End of Villa Park after running onto a pass from Gary McAllister. It didn’t prove quite enough to progress at Euro 96 due to events elsewhere. | SNS Group 0141 221 3602
14. No 12 - Joe Jordan v Czechoslovakia 26/9/73
With the Scots striving, and struggling, to reach a first World Cup since 1958, Jordan launches himself into the action to head Willie Morgan’s artful cross into the bottom right-hand corner of the net to trigger what some contend was the loudest ever Hampden roar. | SNS Group 0141 221 3602
15. No 11 - Kenny Dalglish v Wales 12/10/77
Still in the early days of establishing himself as the King of Anfield following his move to Liverpool from Celtic, Dalglish graced an iconic night for Scotland at the stadium with a neatly cushioned header into the far corner from Martin Buchan’s cross from the right. Not necessarily renowned for his heading ability, Dalglish seemed to hang in the air while letting the ball glance off his head to seal Scotland’s passage to the 1978 World Cup. | SNS Group 0141 221 3602
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16. No 10 - Leigh Griffiths (second goal) v England 10/6/18
Gary Cahill boots Ryan Fraser, free kick one. Griffiths bends one in to Joe Hart’s left. Moments later Chris Martin is tripped – free kick two. Griffiths does the unimaginable and bends a shot into the other corner this time, sparking some of the most joyous scenes ever seen at Hampden. Why are we going with the second one? Well, how much harder is it to repeat genius? | SNS Group