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JIM SPENCE: Scotland, sun stroke and tennis with a Dundee United legend

A new generation of Scotland fans are making memories following the national team abroad at Euro 2024.

Jim Spence (right) on duty with former BBC colleague Chris McLaughlin at Scotland's Euro 2012 qualifier against Spain in Alicante. Image: Jim Spence
Jim Spence (right) on duty with former BBC colleague Chris McLaughlin at Scotland's Euro 2012 qualifier against Spain in Alicante. Image: Jim Spence

Whatever happens on the pitch with Scotland at Euro 2024, Scottish fans and journalists at the tournament are likely to experience everything from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Like most of us I have family and friends who’ve made the pilgrimage to cheer on the national team in Germany.

This time around, long-standing arrangements meant I couldn’t be there, but following Scotland always provides enough memories to hand down to the grandkids.

As a fan, I have hazy memories of 1977, when we beat Wales at Anfield in the World Cup Qualifier, of sleeping on a discarded bread board in Lime Street Station, after discovering the “all night” car park in which we’d parked our car closed at 10pm, scuppering our plans to drive home straight after the match.

I was gently prodded awake at 5am by the size ten boot of a very large Scouse cop as Liverpool’s finest tried to rouse the throng of Scots fans who, without digs for the night, had commandeered the station for a kip.

Scotland’s Don Masson (centre) and Kenny Dalglish (right) celebrate after opening the scoring against Wales at Anfield in 1977. Image: SNS

As a reporter in 2011 at the Euro qualifiers, I went from being the trackside television and radio reporter in Lichtenstein – who was seriously under prepared for the night chill and shivered uncontrollably through the game, catching a lousy cold – to getting mild sun stroke in Alicante two days later before a 3-1 loss to Spain.

That came courtesy of playing former Dundee Uniited star Kevin Gallacher, with whom I was sharing digs, at tennis, in the kind of roasting conditions gingers like me should always avoid.

This time around, I’ll be keenly watching how well we perform compared to similar sized countries.

There’s little doubt that the very size of England, Germany, France, and Spain always gives them a huge numerical advantage in producing more top players.

But Croatia, for example, with one-and-a-half million folk less to choose from – and Denmark, with only a few hundred thousand more than us – always seem to turn out real class acts.

I don’t think it’s unfair to say that we’ve not had a player of the quality of Luka Modric, or a Brian or Michael Laudrup, in a Scotland shirt for a very long time.

Scott McTominay (pictured after putting Scotland 1-0 up on Spain in the qualifiers) will need to stand tall at the tournament. Image: Darrell Benns/DC Thomson

We need to go back in time for a Kenny Dalglish or Graeme Souness to match those heady standards.

I suspect that however far we progress this time around, we’re still unlikely to see anyone of that quality emerge; this squad’s strengths are in their teamwork and fighting spirit.

If we don’t currently have genuine superstars, all we can ask for is effort and pride, and that’s something that shouldn’t be in short supply.

At this level though, that’s unlikely to carry us very far.

So we must hope that our various top club academies and coaches are making progress in developing players who have those extra qualities, above mere hard work, to produce the sort of artistry other small countries seem to manage effortlessly.

That would give future generations of Scots fans great memories of their own.

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