It wasn’t enough to spark a Scotland comeback, but Andy Robertson’s late strike against England was a fine goal nonetheless.
Scored by a former Dundee United player, and set up by a former Dundee United player, it certainly made a disappointing night more bearable for Tangerines’ fans.
But where does it rank in terms of quality and impact of Scotland goals that were made at Tannadice?
There have been many United players who have left their mark with Scotland down the years, none more so than Maurice Malpas, who represented his country 55 times.
You can count Malpas out straight away though, as the full-back never scored in his long and distinguished international career (he didn’t venture across the half-way line too often, I seem to recall).
Raymond Stewart was a penalty taker of some repute, and had the ball been handed to him at Wembley in 1981 rather than John Robertson, Stewart would have forever been revered by generations of the Tartan Army for scoring a winner against the Auld Enemy, as the Nottingham Forest legend has been.
Andy Gray had an impressive goal record of seven in 20 (far too few) appearances for his country. Most of them were in friendlies though.
Paul Sturrock earned the same amount of caps but only scored three, and there is no television footage of one of them his first against Portugal – due to a strike. So we’ve only got Luggy’s word that it was a peach.
Like Malpas, Christian Dailly is another Hampden Hall-of-famer.
In his 67 appearances he faired a good deal better than Malpas in terms of finding the net there were six Scotland goals.
Although we should show a bit of bias to a Courier columnist, and all three of his goals in qualifiers led to wins, they didn’t live long in the memory and they didn’t help us to a championship finals either.
Had Duncan Ferguson hit the net rather than the crossbar with an overhead kick at Ibrox against Germany, he might have made it into the following (purely subjective) top five Scotland goals scored by current or former Dundee United players.5 Andy Robertson v England, November 18, 2014https://www.youtube.com/embed/HFt0AaDg7ds?rel=0
It was a consolation, but deserves to make the list because it was a class consolation. If Robertson’s Scotland career finished tomorrow (it won’t, it will probably take him to 50-plus caps) he’ll still be able to tell the grandchildren he skipped past Raheem Sterling and worked a one-two with Johnny Russell before finishing like a striker. Because it was in open play, there’s a case for saying it was even on a par with Shaun Maloney’s goal off the training ground against Ireland.4 Richard Gough v England, May 25, 1985https://www.youtube.com/embed/8lsRojIGz5o?rel=0
Thanks to Wayne Rooney and co, Gough’s goal as the rain poured down in Glasgow remains the last home winner for Scotland against England. And (like Robertson’s) is was set-up by another former United player (Jim Bett). Many would put it higher than number four, but because there was only the Rous Cup at stake there have been others (one by the man himself) which have topped it.3 Kevin Gallacher v Latvia, October 11, 1997https://www.youtube.com/embed/lbTYM-dsEiE?rel=0
Nobody can argue about the significance of this one. Scotland needed to beat Latvia at Celtic Park to be sure to make it to France ’98, and Gallacher’s strike put them on their way to a 2-0 victory. His two goals v Austria earlier in the campaign also merit a mention.2 Richard Gough v Cyprus, February 8, 1989https://www.youtube.com/embed/Kc18Zk5DEcg?rel=0
The reason this one is above Gallacher’s is that there was a fair chance Scotland may have found a goal from someone else against Latvia (Gordon Durie got a second that day). Even if they didn’t, they would still have had a chance to qualify through the play-offs. If Gough hadn’t scored (a similar looping header to the England goal) in what felt like the 29th minute of stoppage time (it was actually the sixth), it is likely that Andy Roxburgh’s team would not have made it out of a very tough group to Italia ’90. The way that tournament panned out, some would argue that would have been a blessing, mind you. But we were all optimists at the time.1 David Narey v Brazil, June 13, 1982https://www.youtube.com/embed/AH86CmJqV9c?rel=0
Scotland lost the game, didn’t make it through to the second phase, and a certain BBC pundit questioned the part of the right foot it came off. But Narey’s goal against the best team not to win a World Cup (and my own favourite international side of all-time) is one of the most iconic in Scottish football history.
Archie Gemmill’s against the Netherlands was better, as were Kenny Dalglish’s against Spain and Belgium. James McFadden’s in Paris was comparable (and contributed to a victory), but none of those had the impact (albeit fleetingly) of Narey’s. Scotland were beating Brazil, the Tartan Army were in football heaven, and millions across the world were suddenly aware of a one-club man from Tayside.
And it wasn’t a toe-poke.