IT was not quite an Ally MacLeod fanfare, but the current leader of Scotland's international team, Craig Brown, gave his own bugle call that ought to send his chosen squad off to the World Cup with a spring in their step, writes Ian Paul.

However, he did so amid much controversy after having left out the country's top international scorer of recent years, Ally McCoist.

Having also omitted another long-term reliable Scotland man, Stuart McCall, Brown showed some courage in declaring his confidence in the squad's ability to get past the opening round for the first time . . . and backed it up by insisting: ''Our first team is as good as England.''

Discussing the exclusion of the two Rangers players, Brown said: ''Leaving Ally and Stuart out was the toughest thing I have had to do. However, in Ally's case I think it would have been sentiment rather than a valued judgment if I had included him.

''He was out of the Rangers team because of Marco Negri but he came back and hit a fine scoring run before he was left out of the starting line-up in recent weeks.''

Brown had not been able to reach McCoist to tell him of his decision but did speak to the striker's wife and hoped to chat to the man himself last night.

Brown and his assistant, Alex Miller, met up at Amsterdam Airport on Monday where they sat for two hours thrashing out the final 22 names. ''We decided that after the first line of players, we would look towards Euro 2000 for the back-up players. Kevin Gallacher and Gordon Durie are our first-choice strikers and we could have brought Ally to come on and maybe get us a goal.

''However, we decided that we had others who could do that, like Scott Booth or Simon Donnelly, and they will benefit from the experience gained by being there.

''Donnelly is versatile and that is another important factor which we took into consideration and applied also to Darren Jackson. He was in great form before the head operation and again when he recovered, but it was no disgrace to be kept out of the team by Henrik Larrson, just as it was no disgrace for Ally to be left out in favour of Negri.

''Jackson can play behind the front two and that may be an asset we will need in France.''

Asked what he would tell McCoist, he replied: ''I will tell him the truth, that, on balance we decided that he might not be able to find it so easy to score at this level as he did in the past.''

In the case of McCall, Brown said that he had players like Paul Lambert and Billy McKinlay who could fill his role but said: ''Stuart has been such a good and committed player for us that it was difficult to tell him I was leaving him out but he took it well.''

Said McCall: ''Craig was good enough to call me himself, and although it is a disappointment, I was half expecting it after being left out of the Finland game.

''He can only pick 22 and he is going with those he thinks are going to do it for him. That is fair enough. I have played in three major tournaments and have been fortunate enough to get 40 caps.''

McCall made the point with which many others, and that includes this observer, would agree, that it would have been better to take McCoist to France for the simple reason that ''if you want to put anyone on with 20 minutes to go and get you a goal, he is the man for me, no matter what age. I spoke to Ally last night and he was surprised and disappointed.''

If their exclusion seems paradoxical when Celtic's Tosh McKinlay is included, despite not having started a game for the Celtic first team since last August, Brown has an explanation. ''We swithered long about Tosh but we know he is very fit but obviously lacks real top match sharpness. However, he is a specialist and maybe in the main we would want him to come on and give us a different dimension down the left, where he delivers crosses and set pieces so well.''

McKinlay, after having arrived back in Glasgow from Lisbon with the Celtic party, admitted to a sense of elation when his wife, Yvonne, broke the news. ''I knew it was in the balance,'' he said, ''but the manager has been loyal to me and I am very grateful for that.''

Considering that the English, as is their way, have been talking about reaching the final and even winning the cup, the contention that his team is just as good was a bold proclamation from the normally self-effacing

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Brown, who expanded further. ''They have greater strength in depth and could field two or three teams as good as the first choice. We can't do that but I believe that if we had our first-choice side on the field we would be as good as them.''

q BRAZIL defender Marcio Santos has been ruled out of the World Cup due to injury.

THE Morocco squad travelling to a pre-World Cup training camp is:

Goalkeepers: A El Brazi (Royal Armed Forces), D Benzekri (RS Settat), M Chadli (Raja Casablanca). Defenders: L Abrami (Wydad Casablanca), A El Hadrioui (Benfica), Y Rossi (Rennes), A Saber (Sporting Lisbon), M Laaroussi (Academica), R Neqrouz (Bari), N Naybet (Deportivo Coruna) S Triki (Lausanne). Midfield: R Azzouzi (Greuth Furth), S Chiba (Compostela), M Hadji (Deportivo Coruna), A Ouakili (TSV 1860 Munich), R Riahi (Raja Casablanca), J Sellami (Raja Casablanca), T Lakhlej (Benfica), Y Chipo (Porto), G Amzine (Mulhouse) Forwards: S Bassir (Deportivo Coruna), Y Abdelaoui (Rayo Vallecano), A El Khattabi (Heerenveen), K Raghib (RS Settat), R Roki (Chabab Mohammedia), M Moustaoudaa (Raja Casablanca) A Hadda (Club Africain).