Overview 1975 – 1980

Scotland battled on in failing to qualify for the 1976 European Championships, they drew away to Spain and they followed that up by an impressive 3-1 win over Denmark at home, however their slim hopes of qualifying rested with Romania. Scotland’s final group match, ended in being a meaningless affair as Scotland were held to a 1-1 draw against Romania and they failed to qualify. In 1978, Scotland was once again the only British team to qualify for the world cup finals. The previous year, Scotland beat England 2-1; in what was their fifth victory every on English soil, which followed a pitch invasion after the match. Scotland booked their tickets to the world cup finals at the expense of Wales. Scotland was in the driving seat of a qualifying group featuring Wales and Czechoslovakia after beating the Czechs 3-1. The crucial match was between Wales and Scotland in which Scotland won the game 2-0, which ensured them qualification for World Cup 1978. There was high expectation of the Scots going into the 1978 finals; it was hailed as the greatest team ever to enter the world cup. With players of the calibre of Archie Gemmill, Kenny Dalglish, Joe Jordan and Don Masson, much was expected. They were in a relatively easy group featuring Peru, Iran and Holland. In their match against Peru, Jordan gave them the lead after 14 minutes of play, however Scotland then fell into pieces and they conceded three goals to lose the match 3-1 and they were now under high amounts of pressure. If the 3-1 defeat to Peru was not bad enough, Scotland had to experience the shame of Willie Johnstone being sent and banned for a year after failing a drugs test after the match. Scotland were expected to demolish Iran, however it was anything but that. In fact they were lucky even to get the 1-1 draw as Iran gifted Scotland a 1-0 half time lead when one of their players collided with the goal keeper and the ball went into the net. Scotland knew a big victory over the Dutch was essential to secure qualification. Despite famously winning 3-2, they were out once again on goal difference.
Scotland’s European championship qualifying campaign for the 1980 finals got off to a stuttering start as they lost 3-2 away to Austria. Scotland looked good in their home match against Norway despite falling behind after three minutes, Dalglish equalized for the Scots on the half hour mark. Twenty minutes into the second period, Norway moved ahead again and nine minutes later Dalglish leveled the scores with his second goal of the match. Three minutes from the end, just when Norway looked as if they were going to hold out, Scotland were awarded a penalty which Gemmill converted to give Scotland a fine 3-2 victory. After losing 3-1 to Belgium, Scotland thrashed Norway 4-0 away from home, however a defeat away to Belgium meant Scotland were out of the running of qualification for Euro 80, despite a 4-1 fine victory over Portugal in their final match.