Scotland 1970s Word Cup rollercoaster: unbeaten heroes to hubristic horror show

In 1974, thousands turned up at Abbotsinch Airport to welcome home the unbeaten heroes from West Germany. Four years later, after two games in Argentina, the Scottish players and manager Ally MacLeod were being vilified by travelling supporters like never before or since. The campaign was unravelling like a sporting Darien scheme and only Archie Gemmill’s last-game heroics saved face.

But, in many ways, these were golden years for the national team. Qualifying for the ’74 World Cup ended a 16-year absence from football’s top table. And although England’s World Cup victory was a relatively recent memory, coming just eight years prior, Scotland were now the kingpins of British football, beating their oldest rivals three times in four years. England failed to qualify in 1974 and 1978, a point not lost on comedian Andy Cameron whose World Cup single was a top-ten hit in the summer of ’78.

We were all on the march with Ally’s army by then but four years earlier it was the more taciturn Willie Ormond in charge. As a player, Ormond had enjoyed an outstanding 15-year career with Hibs as part of their celebrated Famous Five forward line, helping the club win the Scottish title three times. In management, he carved out his reputation with St Johnstone, guiding them to a third place finish and a League Cup final.

When Tommy Docherty stepped down as Scotland manager to take over at Manchester United, it was to Ormond that the SFA turned.

Denis Law’s last hurrah

He oversaw qualification for West Germany where Scotland were drawn in Group 2 with holders Brazil, Yugoslavia and Zaire.

The format was the same in ’74 and ’78 and worth reiterating for context. While 48 teams will compete in this summer’s biggest ever World Cup, there were only 16 qualifiers in the 1970s, making Scotland’s back-to-back success all the more impressive.

The teams were divided into four groups of four, with the top two going through to a second group phase. Those eight teams were split into two more pools of four, with the winners of each progressing to the final. Knockout football was out of fashion and there were no quarter- or semi-finals.

Zaire, the African champions, were first up in Dortmund and the big team news coming out of the Scotland camp on eve of match was that Denis Law would be starting. At 34, Law was in the twilight of his career. Released by Manchester United the previous year, he had signed for Manchester City and had a decent last season in club football, scoring 12 goals in 29 games, one of which helped relegate United.

The prescient Ormond had already come to the conclusion that goal difference would be decisive and paired Law up front alongside the young Joe Jordan, with Kenny Dalglish and Peter Lorimer providing additional attacking thrust. “It looks now as if goals might decide our section,” said the manager.

Law had shown “exciting nippiness” in training, according to The Scotsman’s John Rafferty, who quashed the theory that Scotland’s greatest ever goalscorer was there on the strength of his reputation and that his role in the squad was akin to a “court jester”.

As it turned out, Law, playing his final match for his country, never got on the scoresheet against Zaire but Lorimer and Jordan did, their first-half goals securing a 2-0 win, Scotland’s first ever at the World Cup finals. But the team’s failure to build on their lead in the second half was almost immediately a source of regret. Brazil and Yugoslavia had played out a goalless draw the night before and the worry was that they would be more prolific against the African side. The fears proved founded.

How Brazil went from brilliant to brutal

“Zaire were much more difficult than we expected,” noted Ormond afterwards. It wouldn’t be the last time Scotland underestimated so-called minnows.

The focus now switched to Brazil, Scotland’s next opponents and the defending champions. Brazil’s success in Mexico in 1970 had been a watershed moment for football. In the first World Cup broadcast in colour, Pelé, Gérson, Carlos Alberto, Tostão and Jairzinho had illuminated the game, playing with an artistry never seen before.

Brazil of 1974 were a very different prospect. With Pelé, Gérson and Tostão retired and Carlos Alberto injured, the emphasis was now on physicality. They came to Europe expecting a rough ride and decided to get their retaliation in first.

Having watched their opening game against Yugoslavia, Jock Stein provided a detailed dossier on Brazil for Ormond which listed the strengths and weaknesses of every player. The Celtic manager had taken three days to compile the document which was invaluable to Ormond in the pre-internet, pre-video, pre-Wyscout days.

The game, which took place in Frankfurt, was billed by The Scotsman as “the most important match that a Scotland international team has played”. A win would secure passage into the second phase.

Ormond was again prescient in his pre-match utterances. “I cannot see Brazil beating us,” said the manager, “but it will be a difficult game for us to win.”

It turned into a full-blooded affair with plenty of hefty tackles but no goals. Billy Bremner, the peerless Scotland captain, was outstanding while Brazil’s reputation as football’s golden boys was well and truly trashed. They were physical to the point of brutality and even the watching Harold Wilson was shocked. “It seemed every time a Scotsman got the ball, he found himself on the ground,” the prime minister told The Scotsman.

The Prime Minister was not amused

Rivellino, Brazil’s midfield enforcer, was the arch villain, kicking and elbowing his way through the game. Bremner had his finest hour in a Scotland jersey but watched in agony as the ball squirmed wide of the post from close-range. Pelé was taken aback by his countrymen’s antics while one Argentinian paper called the match “the dirtiest so far”.

Ormond was proud of his players, both for the way they played and their refusal to be intimidated. However, there was also frustration and it was compounded by news of Yugoslavia’s trouncing of Zaire. The Yugoslavs won 9-0 to equal the World Cup scoring record. Barring a miracle result in the Brazil v Zaire game, it meant Scotland would need to beat Yugoslavia in their final group match.

For the Brazil game, Ormond had replaced Law and Hibs' John Blackley with Manchester United pair Willie Morgan and Martin Buchan and he kept faith with the same XI against Yugoslavia. There had been speculation that Dalglish might drop out because the Celtic attacker had not reproduced his exhilarating club form in West Germany. “He has not adjusted to the speed of this competition,” opined Rafferty in The Scotsman. “It could be that he has things too easy in the Scottish league. It is disturbing that he cannot bring his considerable skills to bear. Scotland needs them.”

As it turned out, it was Jordan who provided Scotland’s cutting edge. The 22-year-old had been part of Leeds United’s title-winning team that season and burnished his reputation in West Germany. Milovan Ćirić, the Yugoslavia coach, called him “the best centre forward in the competition”.

Ćirić was right to be wary of the dangerous Jordan: he scored against his team but the goal came in the 88th minute, seven minutes after substitute Stanislav Karasi had given Yugoslavia the lead. The game finished 1-1 while in Gelsenkirchen, Brazil’s sub Valdomiro scored in the 79th minute to help his team to a 3-0 victory over Zaire. The late Brazil strike - via a goalkeeping error - was crucial as it meant the holders squeezed through on goal difference. Yugoslavia, Brazil and Scotland all finished on four points but the Scots were edged out by a single goal, their failure to score more against Zaire coming home to roost.

Scotland, the only unbeaten team at the World Cup

The three Brazil scored against the Africans were their first of the tournament and enough for them to qualify for the second phase. They ended up in the tougher Group A and, although they beat East Germany and Argentina, they lost 2-0 to the brilliant, Johan Cruyff-inspired Netherlands in what was a de facto semi-final. Yugoslavia, meanwhile, had already peaked and lost all three of their second-phase games in Group B, to West Germany, Poland and Sweden.

More than 10,000 people were at the airport to welcome Scotland home. They ended up as the only unbeaten team at the 1974 World Cup - winners West Germany lost a first-phase game to East Germany - a remarkable achievement by Ormond and his squad.

If 1974 remains our finest hour on the world stage, the expectations around Scotland at the 1978 tournament were sky high.

Enter, the charismatic Ally MacLeod

The charismatic MacLeod had replaced Ormond halfway through the qualifying campaign and led Scotland to memorable victories over European champions Czechoslovakia and Wales.

Ormond had left to take over at Hearts who had been relegated for the first time in their history and MacLeod’s stock was high after leading Aberdeen to a League Cup final success against Celtic and third place in the Premier Division.

Like a pied piper, he led the Tartan Army on a wonderful journey only for it to end in heartbreak. He made a good first impression, steering Scotland to success in the 1977 British Championship, retaining the trophy Ormond’s side had won a year previously. The high point was the win over England at Wembley, a triumph that prompted wild scenes of celebration.

MacLeod vowed to return from the tournament in Argentina with medals and the draw seemed favourable enough, with the Scots placed in Group 4 with an ageing Peru, first-time qualifiers Iran and top seeds the Netherlands.

McQueen will be ready for the second phase

Confidence was high that Scotland could reach the second phase for the first time but the cracks were appearing long before the overblown farewell lap of honour at Hampden which was akin to a victory parade before they had played a match. The team took to an open-top bus to wave to their adoring public, circling the perimeter track as thousands cheered the players. Many were sporting bubble perms and there was plenty that went on in Argentina that would make your hair curl.

Unlike in 1974, there was no morale-boosting win over England prior to the World Cup. In fact, Scotland failed to win any of their three British Championship games in the weeks leading up to the tournament, despite them all being played at Hampden. Worse than that, they lost brilliant centre-half Gordon McQueen to a knee injury. They took him to the tournament in any case - reckoning he would be fit for the second phase!

Overdosed on hubris, Scotland decamped to Alta Gracia, 30 kilometres from Cordoba. It proved an unwise choice. Their hotel made Fawlty Towers look five-star. There was no water in the swimming pool, no carpets in the bedrooms and the food was terrible.

Boredom soon set in and the players' hopes of escaping into town were reduced - but not completely thwarted - by a steel gate which was locked at night and patrolled by armed guards.

The first game was against Peru and it started off so well. Jordan, by now a Manchester United player, opened the scoring in the 14th minute and David Coleman’s trademark “one-nil” on the BBC TV commentary made it sound like the most natural thing in the world. Why, of course Scotland were winning; this was going to be their year, wasn’t it?

Missed penalty, failed drugs test

As has been well documented, MacLeod had done little in the way of research on Peru. There was no Stein dossier on the South Americans who had reached the World Cup quarter-finals in Mexico in 1970 but failed to qualify for West Germany. Teófilo Cubillas and Héctor Chumpitaz remained from the 1970 team and it was Cubillas who plunged a dagger into Scottish hearts, with two second-half goals, one from a free-kick. Don Masson had missed a penalty at 1-1 but worse was to follow for Scotland after the match.

Willie Johnston, their winger, tested positive for a banned stimulant, Fencamfamin, found in Reactivan, an over-the-counter medicine taken to combat hay fever. No-one in the Scottish camp realised it contained a prohibitive ingredient. Sensing a big story, ITV news legend Trevor McDonald, then a young reporter, approached Johnston at an official function in Argentina to confront him about the failed drugs test. MacLeod berated McDonald but the cat was out the bag and the SFA needed to act. Johnston was sent home in disgrace and banned for life by Scotland, a personal tragedy for the West Brom winger.

The English newspaper reporters sent to cover Scotland were having a field day. Stories proliferated about the players going out drinking and years later MacLeod later claimed one report had them drinking whisky for breakfast. “Whisky for breakfast!” he repeated incredulously.

Whatever the veracity of such tales, Scotland’s campaign continued to plumb to the depths. The second game, against Iran, was even worse than the first. MacLeod dropped his captain, the off-form Bruce Rioch, as well as Masson, Tom Forsyth and Stuart Kennedy. But he resisted the temptation to bring in Graeme Souness, a European Cup winner with Liverpool the month before. Lou Macari and Gemmill came into the midfield, with Sandy Jardine and Willie Donnachie filling the full-back berths. John Robertson, the skilful Nottingham Forest winger, took over from Johnston on the left wing.

An excruciating watch

What unfolded was an excruciating watch. Played out in front of fewer than 8,000 supporters in Córdoba, Scotland were utterly devoid of inspiration but eventually took the lead in the 43rd minute through an Andranik Eskandarian own goal. It failed to spark any sort of uplift in performance and Iran’s Iraj Danaeifard scored a deserved equaliser in the second half, It finished 1-1, provoking an angry reaction from Scotland fans who had spent vast sums to follow the side to South America. “We want our money back,” they sang.

It was now open season on MacLeod and the players and the once happy-go-lucky manager was cutting a haunted figure. Footage of him with head in hands in the dugout became a TV staple.

One point from their opening two games had the Scots on the brink of elimination but there was still a chance, albeit a slim one. If they could defeat the Netherlands by three clear goals in their final Group 4 game they would qualify for the second phase at the expense of the Dutch.

Gemmill puts Scotland in dreamland

MacLeod threw the selection dice one last time. In case Souness, finally, to add steel and skill to the midfield. Back came Rioch, Forsyth and Kennedy. Scotland looked more balanced, more dangerous, with Dalglish in particular making a bright start. He had a goal disallowed and then disaster: Scotland conceded a penalty which the great Rob Rensenbrink dispatched.

But they didn’t lose heart. Goals from Dalglish just before half-time and Gemmill (a penalty) just after put the Scots in the driving seat and there was more to come. Gemmill, a serial winner with Derby and Forest, produced his weaving, bewildering moment of brilliance, dancing around the Dutch defenders then clipping the ball over Jan Jongbloed for the goal of the tournament.

Scotland led 3-1 and the dream was back on. Three minutes later Johnny Rep ended all hope with a thunderous shot from outside the box. The match finished 3-2 in Scotland’s favour but it was too little too late. The victory had come in the game they had been least expected to win but their failure in the first two cost them dear.

The recriminations were long and loud. Macari and Masson received SFA bans, with the association unhappy about tell-all interviews they had given to newspapers. Neither played for Scotland again, nor did Rioch who had lost the captaincy to Gemmill.

MacLeod survived an SFA inquest but resigned after one more game in charge, a Euro qualifying defeat by Austria. He returned to club management but the old ebullience had been diluted. “You could see when he came back he was a changed man,” his daughter, Gail, said in a 2018 documentary. “He had lost his sparkle.”

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