Scotland’s World Cup legends hope team can write their names in the history books

Scottish World Cup legends are backing our boys to win a point that will enshrine their names in history.

Former goalie Alan Rough has told Stevie Clarke’s boys that a draw or better against Morocco will be something they will literally be dining out on for the rest of their lives.

The star of three World Cups – in Argentina 78, Spain 82 and Mexico 86 – failed to get out of the group on any of those occasions.

But hiss exploits have meant, to this day, being asked to endless sportsmen’s dinners in footie-mad Scotland to talk about his achievements and memories.

Popular Alan, 74, said: “I think we can get a point out of this game and it will be the biggest point in the history of Scottish football.

“In terms of my own life. I’ve had decades of invites from all manner of people to be a guest at dinners and the interest never goes away.

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So if Stevie Clarke’s boys can get focused and do the business against Morocco, they will be putting themselves in great demand for the rest of their lives. It will be neither here nor there for them right now but getting to the World Cup – and getting out of the group – will be life changing. ”

Roughie said the team has ridden it’s luck on a few occasions in the qualifying campaign , notably with the red card suffered by Denmark in our glorious final qualifying match in November, which is one of Scotland’s greatest ever nights.#

He said: “Steve Clarke has had the rub of the green a few times and I’ll be asking for a little more of that because I frankly don’t care how we qualify, just as long as we get the job done.

“If we can grab the first goal it could be crucial because we know that Scotland can be hard to peg back after they get a lead. “

Fellow legend Paul Lambert told the Scotland boys waiting to line up in the match of destiny that they are already heroes, with nothing to prove.

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The ace midfielder played in all three of Scotland’s matches at the 1998 FIFA World Cup, a 2–1 defeat against Brazil in the tournament’s opening match, a 1–1 draw against Norway and a 3–0 defeat against Morocco.

And despite knowing our boys are underdogs against Morocco, he reckons we can snatch at least a draw in the match and be written into the sporting history books forever.

Paul said: “If I have a single message to the team it would be to get out there and do all the stuff you’ve been doing. Have no regrets.

“I’d also remind them that all the pressure is on Morocco because they drew their first game and we won ours. They will also be strongly fancied to win the match and a defeat would be a poor result for them, so we can maybe capitalise on that.”

Paul said the lift the nation received by the very nature of the qualifying campaign had been a huge tonic.

He said: “Scotland needed this qualifying campaign, for national pride and for an end to all the years of failure because we’ve been way off the pace for more than 20 years.

“The road to the this World Cup has been exciting and it gave the whole country a life, so they have nothing to prove. And it doesn’t matter of Morocco are favourites, Scotland can definitely win this game if they get focused on their game plan.

“They won’t be thinking about becoming legends at this point but that’s what will happen. A few years down the line and they will be very proud to be taking our team through the group stages for the first time.

“But there will be time to think about stuff like that after the football has been played and not before.”

Paul said he can hardly wait for kick-off .

He said: “I’ll be looking forward to it like everyone else and I hope we can just nick a point before we face Brazil. Anything we get against them would then be a bonus.”

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Lou Macari, 77, was one of the nearly men of Scotland’s “mad” World Cup adventure in Argentina in 1978.

He started the game against Peru, which ended in a disastrous 3-1 defeat, in which the opposition had been under-rated. Scotland then just failed to progress despite a mighty 3-2 win against eventual runners up Holland.

Former Celtic and Man United star Lou said: “I have a very strong feeling that Scotland will go through and there’s good reason to think that they’ve already done the hard work by winning three points against Haiti.

“They won’t need any advice from me because they have a massive team out in the USA and they will have left no stone unturned and watched all the videos of the opposition until they are sick of the sight of them.

”I can’t exaggerate how different that was to my time in Argentina, where the accommodation was miles off the luxury they get now and the logistics were all far more of a challenge.

“But these guys really can make their mark on Scottish football history and I’ll be right behind them in Friday night.”

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“Braveheart” Scotland captain Colin Hendry has urged the Scotland team to turn the Morocco match into a battle.

The blood and guts former Rangers and Blackburn Rovers central defender , who starred in Scotland’s last World Cup in France in 1998, said we can’t simply sit back and hope three points will be enough.

He said: “I’ll go a fiercely fought 1-1. A battle to the wall. If the lads put their feet in and let them know they’re in a game. I’d take that right now to be fair.”

“We’ve done 70 to 80 per cent of the work, possibly 100 per cent, bearing in mind how other teams go on.

“Whether three points is enough, I’m not too sure at this minute in time, should be, but you don’t know.

“But if we can get a point, pick up another point somewhere along the line within the two games, then brilliant.”

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