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.
17. No 9 - Kieran Tierney v Denmark 18/11/25
How late it was, how late. One of Scotland’s most important and dramatic goals in modern times has the extra cachet of being one of the best. Kieran Tierney on the edge of the box – what’s he doing there?! – with the second ticking away. A Danish defender fortuitously – for Scotland – miskicks and Tierney pounces to curl a left-footed shot that curls in from about five yards outside the far post, with at least two Danish players feeling its vapour trail on their face. | SNS Group
18. No 8 - Kenny Daglish v Spain 14/11/84
His final Scotland goal, and what a goal. A throw-in on the right, a Cooper flick and Dalglish does the rest, feinting past a Spanish defender before turning and hitting the most Dalglish-like goal ever with his left foot into the top corner of Luis Arconada’s goal. It later emerged that his beaming smile was extra beatific because he spotted his father in the front row of the main stand. | SNS Group 0141 221 3602
19. No 7 - James McFadden v France 12/09/2007
Goalkeeper Craig Gordon gets an assist as McFadden brings down his long kick out in the middle of the park and – surely not – decides to let fly from 35 yards in a 1-0 win at the Parc des Princes. Moments later goalkeeper Mickael Landreau is lying in an undignified heap and Scotland fans are rubbing their eyes in disbelief. Some killjoys prefer to focus on poor goalkeeping. Not us. | SNS Group 0141 221 3602
20. No 6 - David Narey v Brazil 18/6/82
“And Narey’s coming through from right back….” is the immortal line of commentary as the Dundee United player, more often seen at centre half, materialises on the edge of the box to take Wark’s lay-off in his stride before trashing a shot into the top right-hand corner. We all remember Jimmy Hill’s toe-poke assertion with the BBC pundit later issuing a qualification: “it’s one of the best toe pokes ever”. Fair enough. | SNS Group 0141 221 3602