Scotland hero Joe Jordan ended 16 years of hurt when his spectacular diving header gave the national team a 2-1 win over Czechoslavakia at Hampden in 1973, which took them to the World Cup finals for the first time since 1958.
The former Leeds United, Manchester United, AC Milan and Verona hitman went on to become the only Scot to score at three consecutive tournaments and can’t believe we’re now looking at going 28 years – and counting – since we last qualified for the biggest competition of them all.
While some have criticised manager Steve Clarke for his tactics in last week’s World Cup play-off semi-final defeat by Ukraine, Jordan looks at the bigger picture and insists the SFA and Holyrood need to do more to produce talented youngsters – starting with scrapping fees for kids to join teams in the poorest areas of the country.
“Politicians talk about kids being obese,” said Jordan. “Why can’t they look after them by finding a way to let them kick a ball about without having to pay a penny?
“Football has always drawn the vast majority of its players from working class areas.
"I came from Cleland, a mining village in Lanarkshire. Quite apart from helping improve the standard of our game by providing more good players, there would also be added health benefits if that was the case.
“Schools could also have a part to play.
"I had one teacher, a Mr Casey, who saw something in me and he was passionate about the sport and put in the effort by taking our team. We need more of that.”
There will be 32 countries taking part at the finals in Qatar. Clarke’s men are currently at 42 in the Fifa rankings
Jordan argues that the SFA must do more to improve the standards of the young players we produce.
“When I was playing for Scotland we were better than the Scandinavian countries, better than many of the Eastern European countries and certainly better than Wales - now they’re better than us,” he claimed.
“Wales are now back at a World Cup finals after a 64-year wait.
"We can’t afford to let something similar happen: it’s unbelievable that we’re now at 28 years.
“We should be visiting these nations and discovering what they’re doing that we aren’t when it comes to rearing their kids.
"You look at Denmark and Wales reaching the semi-finals of the Euros in recent years.
“Uruguay, with a population of less than £3.5million, qualify for every World Cup and regularly go further into the competition – which we’ve never done – in spite of being smaller than us. Why is that?
“Why don’t we have a game-changer like Gareth Bale?
"We used to have Jimmy Johnstone and Willie Henderson battling each other for the same position in the Scotland side but you look at Steve Clarke’s bench now and he doesn’t have the options to alter much because the depth of quality just isn’t there.
“We now have Armenia home and away and Ireland away in the space of a week.
"Since the play-offs are our best chance of qualifying for Euro 2026 then I hope our lads can cope with the pressure because each of those is a must-win match for us.”
Scotland coach Steven Naismith refutes Jordan’s assertion that we could be waiting for decades before finally getting back to the world stage.
He believes the current squad is packed with ability and just behind that there’s a new generation of talent ready to pick up the mantle.
The loss to Ukraine brought a shuddering halt to the momentum being built within the Scotland squad but Naismith is adamant there is tangible proof that boss Steve Clarke’s on course to have his team competing on the biggest stages with Wednesday’s clash against Armenia the latest starting point.
He said: “I think a fair expectation for this team is to be round about the qualifiers and right there to the end. I don’t think you can go from not making a tournament for 23 years to saying ‘we should be at every one’. It’s not like that.
“As long as they are progressing. Even within this squad, you now have a second wave - David Turnbull, Lewis Ferguson, Archie Campbell. You might not see it just now but these are the next guys who, in two campaigns, will be pushing up and pushing up.
“It’s the bigger picture for me. I don’t think you can get to the point where you are saying ‘we should be at any tournaments because we have a good group of players’.
"They’ve done it once. They’ve now had a setback.
"They then need to go again and get that consistency to be in the latter stages and say ‘we’ve got a chance’.
"More times than not, if you keep progressing, you’ll get there.
“Even the World Cup campaign, the group stages, the amount of points we collected, nine games unbeaten then there’s the eight-game run. When you look at the bigger picture, we are heading in the right direction.
"For us to be disappointed we are not going to a World Cup right at the last stage is a bit of a change from when I was a player and you are going into the last two games.
“It’s definitely a period when the expectation within and without is that we can get to more tournaments. That starts on Wednesday night.”
