What took place on Tuesday night at Hampden Park is the making of legends. By chance, our Rob was there in the midst of it all.
Words (and Photo): Rob McDonald (Glory team)
At last. There’s the easy way, the hard way, and then there’s the Scotland way, which is a different thing entirely.
Only this team could have delivered a night like that, lurching from pandemonium to despair and back again, before a scarcely believable – in fact completely unbelievable – finish. Hampden lifted from its foundations.
A ‘Flower of Scotland’ for the ages. Archie Gemmill’s goal relegated over the course of 90 minutes to potentially only the second, then third, then probably fourth-best goal we’ve ever scored. A 42-year-old goalkeeper. Grant Hanley an emergency starter. Gannon-Doak crocked after 20 minutes. 2-2 at 91 minutes.
If there’s one thing this squad has shown in a surreal qualifying campaign, it’s that they’ll find a way. Call it luck, call it fate, call it whatever you want. Steve Clarke’s qualifying record now reads a Euros, a World Cup playoff, a Euros, and now finally a World Cup finals, winning this group as third seeds in a four-team race. All his, his players’, and our dreams come true.
We might never work out exactly how it happened. We might never see a Hampden night like it again. Ten thousand days (10,011 to be precise) since exiting the 1998 World Cup, Scotland made it back.
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