World Cups seemed so much more special when I was a kid. The main reason, just like us boring old farts saying “the FA Cup isn’t like it used to be”, is due to one thing.
TV coverage. When I was a boy, there were only two live football matches on the telly: The FA Cup Final and England versus Scotland in the now-defunct Home Championships.
One year Wembley, the next Hampden Park, but this is where this English lad got a soft spot for Scotland.
It wasn’t the Tartan Army taking over London when they beat the Auld Enemy at Wembley in 1977 and then flooded on to the hallowed turf and jumped on and snapped the goalposts.
It was the following year, when I was 11, and Ally’s Army had just been released north of the border.
I’d lived through two World Cups, being just three when, as holders, England were knocked out by West Germany after Gordon Banks had a case of Montezuma’s revenge.
It was at the age of seven when Franz Beckenbauer lifted the new World Cup trophy at his home stadium in Munich.
However, even then, football hadn’t grabbed me yet.
Cole Palmer's stunning goal for England against Spain sent fans wild | PAInstead, it was 1978 that got me for good and we could watch it all.
By then, I was football mad, as most boys of my age were.
I’d seen my team in the old second division and had just been promoted back to the first, and I was ready for lots of live football on the TV from a country I knew very little about apart from a hit song from a musical that I really wasn’t bothered with – apologies, Messrs Rice and Lloyd Webber; I learnt to love it later.
Scotland were the only home nation team to qualify for the World Cup Finals again, and according to most people, they were out there to win it.
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England fans celebrating during their victory over Scotland | PAThe hype was incredible, and it was around that time that I fell in love with a pair of football boots.
The Adidas World Cup 78s. Beautiful leather with a design on the sole never seen before.
They were £32.99 at Ted Ditchburn Sports on South Street, Romford, and were things of beauty along with the revolutionary Tango Adidas football.
I’d love to say at this point that I managed to save up for years or that a kindly footballing benefactor took pity and purchased them for me, but unfortunately, I never and still haven’t owned a pair of those boots and the ball.
Scotland have now qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1998 | REUTERSMaybe one day. I had the Panini sticker book with all my swaps in one of my grandad’s Old Holborn tins and even bought the World Cup BBC Theme tune, called Argentine Melody, ironically written by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
The hype around Scotland was immense, and Ally’s Army went "off to the Argentine" and, to cut a long story short, it didn’t go too well.
Scotland didn’t win the World Cup or even “shake ‘em up", to be fair. 3-1 loss to Peru, 1-1 with Iran and then an amazing win against the Dutch, where Archie Gemmill scored one of the great World Cup goals.
Unfortunately, it was too little, too late, and even before I got to put my Danny McGrain sticker in the album, Scotland were out.
Scotland fans head to their first World Cup since 1998
| REUTERSThe bizarre thing for me is that I remember every result from these Scotland games.
It's remarkably different when it comes to England.
With Italia 90 as an exception, I can hardly remember anything from England's World Cup campaigns.
Maybe I chose to forget, 60 years of hurt and all that, but 1978 is still very special to me.
And it even provided Spurs with the legendary Argentine duo Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa, so what’s not to like.