Will MacSporran's Corollary Strike Again?

THE ABIDING lesson to be taken from UEFA Group F in the 2018 FIFA World Cu qualifying campaign is – settle down for a long night. Certainly last night, both at Wembley and Hampden, the fans had an awfully-long wait for the goals, which ultimately got England to Russia, and kept Scotland's qualifying hopes alive.

I have seen last night's movie, before, often, where Scotland is concerned. Take our most-glorious Hampden qualifying moments – and one or two less-glorious ones as examples:

Roy Bentley's goal at Hampden in 1950

1. 15 April, 1950: our first “must-win” World Cup qualifier, against England; 0-0 until the 64^th minute, when Roy Bentley scores for England and kill us off.
   
   
2. 4 November, 1953: Scotland v Wales; not a must-win game, but, we were 3-2 up with two minutes to go when John Charles broke away. Willie Telfer refused to bring him down, Charles equalised and suddenly we had to beat England in the final game to get a seeding. We lost, the rest is history.
   
   
3. 6 November, 1957, our final qualifier against Switzerland; one we had to win to qualify for Sweden 1958. With 20 minutes to go, we are 3-1 up and coasting then, in 80 minutes, Roger Vonlanthen scores for Switzerland, and we are holding-on grimly for the final ten minutes before we qualify.
   
   
   
   Denis Law, his goal v the Czechs, was one of Hampden's great solo efforts
   
   
4. 26 September, 1961, v Czechoslovakia. We have to win to force a play-off; the Czechs – in a team loaded with Slovaks – score first, Ian St John equalises; The visitors go 2-1 up after 51 minutes, but Denis Law levels after an hour, then, with seven minutes let – Denis takes the ball virtually the length of Hampden to score the winner. But, we still lost the play-off.
   
   
5. 13 October, 1965, v Poland. Billy McNeill puts us in front in 14 minutes; for the next hour and more, we do everything but score, then, with six minutes left, Poland level, before scoring the winner two minutes later.
   
   
6. Suddenly, when we play Italy at Hampden, on 9 November, we have to win to keep our qualifying hopes alive. It's a ding-dong battle, we are doing our damnedest to protect injured goalkeeper Bill Brown – no substitutes back then, when, with a couple of minutes left, Jim Baxter and Billy Bremner work the ball up the park for John Greig to score the winner. We have taken our chances to the final game, in Naples, where the wheels come off the wagon and we get thumped 3-0.
   
   
   
   John Greig is carried off shoulder high after his late winner against Italy in 1965
   
   
7. 16 April, 1969, over 95,000 cram into Hampden to see us face West Germany, who go in at half-time ahead via a Gerd Muller goal. We throw everything at the Germans in the second-half, but, it isn't until the 88^th minute that Bobby Murdoch salvages a draw with a long-range thunderbolt. In the return game, we are level until, with Tommy Gemmell sent off for kicking Helmut Haller in the bahookie, we lose a Reinhardt Libuda goal in the 81^st minute – 3-2 to West Germany – goodbye Mexico.
   
   
8. 26 September, 1973, we have to beat our old chums Czechoslovakia to qualify for West Germany 1974. Ally Hunter slips and we are 1-0 down, but, Jim Holton equalises before the break. Then, with just 15 minutes left, Joe Jordan earns immortality with his flying-header winner; we are back in the World Cup finals after 16-years.
   
   
   
   Joe Jordan's match-winning header against the Czechs in 1973
   
   
9. Last night, and another late, late, Scotland winner. We do make a habit of this in qualifying games.

There have been other nerve-shredding nights at Hampden, but, the truth is, as Craig Brown and before him Andy Roxburgh were repeatedly pilloried for reminding us: there are no easy games at international level these days. It might not be a truth, but, received wisdom has it, our continental neighbours are, by and large, technically better than our lads. They are more comfortable retaining possession, so, when they come into a game not needing to set the pace, but can maybe use their technical proficiency to retain possession, frustrate us and hope to hit us on the break, teams like Slovakia will always pose us problems.

They will also take a long time to break down, but, last night, as so-often in the past, we finally managed this. The Hampden crowd got slightly uneasy last night, but, to their credit, even when, for a time in the second half, we seemed to lose our way, they didn't get on the players' backs; they stayed positive and, although it was a long time coming, in the end, they got the result they wanted.

The question now is – what other mental torture can this squad put us through? We now have momentum, but, we still have to win in Slovenia, who demonstrated at Wembley, they will be hard to break down.

However, where Sunday's game will differ from their match with England is, Slovenia cannot simply sit back and try to frustrate us. They have to come out and have a go at us, so, they may not be as tight at the back as they were last night. This is a game which, if we are at our best, or near it, we can win.

This is where that strange heading to this post: “Will MacSporran's Corollary Strike Again” comes in. MacSporran's Corollary is simplicity itself, it states – in response to “Murphy's Law” - “Murphy always was an optimist.”

It's Scotland we are talking about here, the undisputed world champions at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, so, how will we manage it, if we can, this time?

1. Lose to Slovenia – no, far-too obvious; not the Scotland way.
   
   
2. Qualify, then get one of the “better” teams who have had an indifferent qualifying run, but, should beat us – think Italy, Sweden or Netherlands.
   
   
3. Qualify, then get on of the smaller nations who could cause us problems, Iceland springs to mind here.
   
   
4. Qualify, then get one of the other three Celtic countries – either Irish side, or Wales. We then get drawn into an old-fashioned British cup tie, and lose.

So, Socrates's message is: enjoy last night, but, remember, we are supporting Scotland, we are still a long way off qualifying, so, LET'S KEEP THE HEID.