Never mind, there’s always the 2026 World Cup - Steve Cardownie

Scotland's Jack Hendry reacts after exiting the tournament following the UEFA Euro 2024 Group A match at the Stuttgart Arena in Germany. Picture on Sunday

​The mood of tentative optimism turned out to be misplaced. Despite all evidence to the contrary we still felt that anything was possible.

History told us that we should not expect too much. We had been here before. We should have known better.

How many times does it have to happen before we accept the inevitable? How many times do we have to see our hopes and dreams crushed in the cruellest fashion before we abandon this collective delusion?

As the tension built up as the day grew longer, nerves janglin’ as we sought the opinions of our peers about what was lying in wait for us later that night. Desperately searching for a morsel of defiance, a steely statement of intent. We could’nae, could we?

8pm, here we go!

10pm there we went!

Nae mair Euros for Scotland!

In the words of Rabbie Burns, “O wad some Power the giftie gie us, To see ourselves as others see us, It wad frae monie a blunder free us, An’ foolish notion.”

Nope, it’s on to the USA, Canada and Mexico for the World Cup in a couple of years.

C’mon Scotland!