TWENTY years have now passed since that Hampden day in June 1989 when the Scotland Under-16 side came agonisingly close to lifting the World Cup, the youngsters losing out in the final on penalties to a Saudi Arabian team, several of whose players boasted physical attributes which cast justifiable doubts on their eligibility.
Over 50,000 fans turned up at the National Stadium that day, in marked contrast to the opening game two weeks earlier when a mere 8,000 were scattered around Mount Florida's vast concrete slopes to watch the Scots struggle to a goal-less draw against
Ghana. But, for many of those involved, including the two Lothians players in the squad, the highlight of the tournament took place four days before the final when Craig Brown's young battlers disposed of Portugal in a memorable semi-final at Tynecastle.
Edinburgh-born central defender Scott Marshall and striker Paul Dickov, pictured, from Livingston, recall in particular the amazing atmosphere which was generated by the appreciative Capital crowd on a balmy summer's evening in Gorgie.
"The kick-off had to be delayed to let the crowd in," said Marshall who, like Dickov, was a trainee with Arsenal at the time. "We were all a bit nervous as none of us had played in front of a crowd like that before but as soon as we were on the pitch we knew the fans would lift us and, in the end, they proved to be our 12th man on the night." The eventual crowd was estimated to be in the region of 30,000 but there were reckoned to be the best part of 10,000 locked out of the ground, such was the interest in the progress of the young Scots, who had sailed through their qualifying group before disposing of the then East Germany side – a nation which would shortly disappear after the fall of the Berlin Wall later that year – in the quarter-finals.
"I remember speaking to the police commander just before the scheduled kick off," reflected Brown's assistant Ross Mathie. "He took me and the team captain Kevin Bain to a place in the stand where we could look out to McLeod Street and there was just a sea of people there. He told us there would be a significant delay to the kick-off but it wasn't a total surprise as earlier in the day we had been warned to get the team bus into Tynecastle early due to the anticipated level of interest in the game.
"It's just as well we took that advice as most of Edinburgh was gridlocked by late afternoon."
Scotland, having had a slice of luck when a controversial decision was made not to award the Portuguese a penalty, won the game thanks to a headed goal by Celtic midfielder Brian O'Neil, who would later suffer the ignominy of missing a penalty in normal time against the Saudis in the final before failing again from the spot during the shoot-out.
"The atmosphere was pretty unbelievable," remembers Dickov, who went on to win ten full caps for his country, "and when Brian headed the ball home, the place just seemed to erupt."
Brown, later to become national coach for the full Scotland side, is certain that the Tynecastle crowd played a huge part in Scotland's victory that night.
"It's fair to say that Portugal were favourites going into the game," he recalled. "Remember that they had a young Luis Figo playing for them and a number of other excellent players including Nelson Lemos. They were also coached by Carlos Queiroz who would later manage the Portuguese national team.
"When the game began, however, it became clear that the Portugal players were jittery and I've no doubt that it was the passion of the crowd which un-nerved them. I told the boys to go at them from the start and they gave a real high tempo performance."
Marshall, whose father Gordon played in goal for both Hibs and Hearts and whose elder brother, also Gordon, is currently goalkeeping coach at Easter Road, made his debut for Arsenal at 19 but failed to establish himself in the Gunners first team.
He moved on to Southampton and latterly Brentford, having also had a spell on loan at Celtic.
Marshall has recently taken up a coaching position at Chelsea.
Dickov also found it difficult to become a first team regular in an Arsenal side which included such quality strikers as Ian Wright and Paul Merson but he subsequently established a reputation as a proven goalscorer in England during spells with Manchester City, Blackburn Rovers and current club Leicester City.
Other than Dickov, just two players from the team which came so close to achieving World Cup glory, O'Neil and Andy McLaren, aspired to full international status.
Of the remainder, only Gary Bollan (Dundee United, St Johnstone, Rangers and Livingston) and Neil Murray (Rangers and Dundee United) played at premier league level in Scotland.
"It would have been nice to have seen more of the players from that squad progress in the game," reflected Mathie, who coaches Scotland's Under-17 team, "but I've been involved in youth football for 26 years and to see three players out of the 13 who took part in the final go on to full international honours is a pretty fair strike rate."
