THE Tartan Army partied in the Champs-Elysees as Scotland kicked off the World Cup in 1998.
While the destination was a dream, though, the rocky road to Paris was littered with obstacles for Craig Brown’s heroes.
Scotland got the happy ending to qualifying they craved after missing out on the USA in 1994, but had to cope with postponements because of Princess Diana’s death and the famous, ‘Game that never was’.
Alex Miller was the late, great Brown’s No 2 as goals from Kevin Gallacher and Gordon Durie against Latvia sealed a spot in France.
With Hampden out of commission due to its rebuild, the early qualifiers were played at Ibrox, Rugby Park and Pittodrie.
Scotland went into the final round of games knowing victory against Latvia at Celtic Park would clinch qualification ahead of Sweden who were facing Estonia in Stockholm.
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Miller, now 76, recalled: “The players were a bit uptight.
“So much depended on a win. The lads were desperate to go after missing out in 1994.
“We could have played a lot better but there was a lot at stake. And although Latvia weren’t going to qualify, they had players like Marian Pahars, who was very decent.
“Kevin put us 1-0 up, but anything could happen with that scoreline, so there was a lot of relief when Gordon headed in the clincher.
“Craig and I were very demanding of the players and they responded really well. They deserved the rewards they got. They were the ultimate pros.
“At the start of every campaign they got given sheets about what the bonuses would be for games and qualifying. But most of them chucked them in the bin a few seconds after they got them.
“They were always motivated by being successful, not money. That qualifying campaign had its moments, though.
“We went to Estonia and when we saw the standard of the floodlights in the stadium we sent for the Uefa observer.
“He asked me to take a corner, and I must have hit it brilliantly because it smacked him right in the face!
“He said the lights, which were on the backs of lorries, had been in his eyes.
“The next day we had to get the players ready as if the Estonians were going to turn up at the last minute, and again, they were really professional.
“We told them no one had been in that kind of situation before, but we had to prepare properly and they did that.
“The game against Belarus at Pittodrie had to be postponed because the original date clashed with Princess Di’s funeral. It was quite a campaign.
“It would be great if the current squad made it this time.
“It won’t be easy. Before Euro 96 we lost 1-0 in Greece.
“My memory of that game was Duncan Ferguson being brought into the squad, and he bought a puggy machine over there.
“The night before the game we went up to his room and he had this big bag of drachma coins to play the machine!
“I’ll be watching the games and I want to see Steve Clarke do well because I had him as a young pro at St Mirren.
“He was part-time, and was an apprentice instrument engineer. I gave him a full-time contract when he was finished, then did the deal for him to go to Chelsea.
“I left in the December, but I had done all the negotiations and he moved in the January.
“I always used to have a chat with Steve when he was at Chelsea and I was at Liverpool.
“He’s a decent guy, very approachable. I’ll be hoping he gets us to the finals.
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“My son Graeme is a Tartan Army footsoldier and he’s already making plans for the USA next summer. He goes everywhere for games, he even went to Japan for end-of-season matches a few years back.”
SCOTLAND: Leighton, Calderwood, Dailly, Hendry, Burley (B McKinlay 89), Lambert, McAllister, Collins, Boyd (T McKinlay 81), Durie (Donnelly 84), Gallacher.
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