The inside story of Scotland's bittersweet Euro '92 campaign

This article features in Euro '94: Scotland and Euros, a Nutmeg and Herald special

Euro '92 was the tournament of the kiss, strange squad numbers, ridiculously expensive pints and, in good, old Scottish football tradition, ended in glorious failure.

Throw into the mix the Tartan Army picking up an award, Stuart McCall being thrown into a fountain, Pat Nevin ending up in a Hollywood movie and Ally McCoist taking bets on who picks his nose first then you have a tournament full of incident and memories for the Scotland players and fans.

 Even getting to the finals in Sweden back then was an achievement in itself as this was a time when qualifying for the Euros wasn’t as easy as it is now. Scotland are among 24 teams playing in Germany this summer. When Scotland first qualified for the UEFA European Football Championship under Andy Roxburgh in 1992 only eight were involved.

Think about that for a moment. They were in the quarter-finals straight away if you want to look at it that way – which is exactly what the players did. It sounds much better than saying they were one of the teams in the two qualification groups of four.

Getting to the Euros for the first time in Scottish history may have been tough but compared to the hype and excitement there is now their achievement was taken for granted in some quarters. Getting to the 1990 World Cup had raised the bar in terms of the expectation among the fans.

They qualified with ease, topping a group that included Bulgaria, San Marino, Romania and Switzerland. The only game they lost was away to Romania when Gheorghe Hagi scored the winning penalty with 15 minutes left. Top scorer in the qualifiers for Scotland was McCoist, the European Golden Boot winner in 1991/92, who netted four times.   

Scotland started 1992 with a friendly game against Northern Ireland with just 13,650 turning up for the 1-1 draw – McCoist got the goal – at Hampden on February 19, 1992. A further indication of the lack of interest that year came when a paltry crowd of 9275 turned up at Hampden on March 25 for the final home friendly before the Euros which was against Finland.   

The opposition may not have been a box-office draw, but they did have a young Jari Litmanen who went on to win the 1995 Champions League with Ajax before going on to play for Liverpool and Barcelona. He got the Finnish equaliser with a fine volley after Paul McStay had opened the scoring from a Dave Bowman pass. The match ended in a 1-1 draw.

Paul McStay and Stuart McCall in 1992 (Image: SNS)
Scotland head coach Andy Roxburgh had five weeks to work with his 20-man squad – no Gordon Strachan, who retired from international football in May, 1992 – before they travelled to Sweden.  When he named his squad Roxburgh did a strange but simple thing that impressed his late, great assistant Craig Brown. When this writer was having a coffee with Brown in Glasgow, the habit of having your personal number on your strip came up. It was around the time that Cristiano Ronaldo’s No.7 jersey was becoming a marketing tool for the man from Portugal.

“We didn’t have the problem of who wore what number in Sweden,” said Brown. “Every player has an ego, so who do we give the No.9 jersey to? We had Ally McCoist and Kevin Gallacher and neither was a shrinking violet. Giving one of them the ‘nine’ jersey would make him think he was the cock of the north, the man who would definitely start in the Euros, and we wanted to keep the players on their toes.

“To get round that Andy adopted a number-by-caps system for the outfield players. Richard Gough was given the No.2 jersey because he had the highest number of caps, then Paul McStay was given No.3 as he had the second highest, then Maurice Malpas had four. McCoist wore five in the Euros. That one took a bit of getting used to by Ally, but he was fine with it in the end. It was genius idea by Andy.”

Two months after the match against Finland they played two away friendlies against Canada and the United States in May. Both ended in Scotland wins with the game against the USA in Denver being significant for two reasons. The main one was that this was the game when Duncan Ferguson made his Scotland debut. The other reason was a bit more left-field, then again it did involve Pat Nevin.

A year after the Euros, Pat went to the cinema to watch the movie So I Married an Axe Murderer. The black comedy stars Mike Myers of Wayne’s World fame who plays Scotsman Charlie McKenzie. In the most iconic scene in the movie, he tries to get his son, who is nicknamed “heed” because of the massive size of his head and his big ginger afro, out from in front of the television as he is blocking his view of a Scotland football game. That game is Scotland against the USA and Nevin has just scored.

Although you don’t see him scoring Nevin is adamant the celebrations afterwards show him in shot. There is maybe a director’s cut because the YouTube clip available is fleeting. I struggled to see him or even the goal being scored but check it out for yourself.  Next up was a game against Norway in Oslo on June 3, 1992 – nine days before the first group match against Holland. Maurice Malpas won his 50th cap in the Norwegian capital and played for nearly 70 minutes before being replaced by Stewart McKimmie. The game ended 0-0 but nobody cared. The focus was now on Sweden and the opening game against European champions Netherlands.

Looking back, you can understand why Scotland fans had a sharp intake of breath when they saw the quality of the opposition. This was a Dutch team full of world-class players including three from AC Milan with legendary status. Frank Rijkaard was the midfield general, Rudd Gullitt moved elegantly round the park while Marco van Basten was the best striker in the world at the time, although McCoist might argue he wasn’t far behind. Then at the back there was Ronald Koeman who didn’t have to move much because he was a great reader of the game and a fantastic free-kick specialist. There was also a 23-year old star from Ajax called Dennis Bergkamp.

The Scotland team flew into Oslo from Glasgow three days before the start of the tournament. Having a Swedish-born captain in Richard Gough (his mum still lived in Stockholm) the local media had a soft spot for Scotland from the start. Unfortunately, Gough didn’t speak a word of the language despite being born there, so any ideas of having him on the local evening news were scuppered. There was more chance of the Swedish chef on the Muppets making more sense.

With the team preparing, the Scotland fans were getting used to their surroundings and the ridiculously expensive cost of living with a pint costing around £5 – which is nearly £13 in today’s prices.

Among those to arrive was Mark “Sheepy” Walker and his two friends Stephen Home and Graham McMillan, who all first met at Lenzie Academy. “We had all saved for ages as we knew it was going to be so expensive,” said Walker, who was a 20-year-old copy boy at the Glasgow Evening Times.

“In the end there were only around 4000 Scotland fans across in Sweden as the high prices put a lot of them off but we were adamant we would go. My first Scotland game was in 1989 away in Paris when we lost 3-0 to France and, because I was in the Scotland travel club, from then I knew I would get tickets for the Euros OK.

“We didn’t have anywhere booked in Gothenburg and spent the first night sleeping in an indoor ice hockey stadium that the authorities had opened to keep us Scots off the streets. The next night we went to the tourist board and were offered a cramped back room in somebody’s house. Nowadays they would call it an Airbnb but we were hardly there.

“We made our base The Dubliner bar and spent a fortune in there. Luckily I was single and spending my money on beer and crisps was the best way to spend my wages. Beer was around £5 a pint but maybe because we drank so much of it at The Dubliner we were getting it for around £3 once the tournament had started. It was a false economy for us fans as we just drank more.

“The bar owners were brilliant and arranged special buses to take the Scotland fans to the last two games against Germany and CIS in Norrkoping that was nearly four hours away from us.

“The bus journey was like the bus in the film The Italian Job but in our case the bus wasn’t full of gold but beer and crisps. The clinking of empty beer bottles all over the bus kept me awake as I tried to sleep on the way back from the German game.”

The Scotland players were equally relaxed as the fans before the tournament. Stuart McCall turned 28 the day the Euros started with the opening game being between hosts Sweden and France. To celebrate his birthday his team-mates threw him into a fountain as they went a walk round Oslo, as you do. They also bought him a birthday cake that they presented to him when he was being interviewed live on television. He was delighted they didn’t throw some of it in his face.

The Scotland squad watched the match between Sweden and France on the big screen with McCoist being the bookie. But as McCoist told his biographer and close friend Crawford Brankin he took some outrageous bets. “Stuff like the first man to pick his nose, kick with his left leg, first man to spit,” recalls Brankin.

The Scottish media were lumbering up by playing the Dutch media on the eve of the game in what turned into a disaster for commentator Jock Brown. The brother of Craig was tempted out of retirement at 46 to play in goal but found himself in hospital after taking out an unsuspecting member of the Dutch media as he bore down on goal. Brown had to do his commentary with his arm in a sling.

The game against the Netherlands was played at the Ullevi stadium in Gothenburg where Aberdeen had beaten Real Madrid 2-1 to win the 1983 European Cup Winners’ Cup. But with Strachan retired there were no survivors from Fergie’s team involved with Scotland. Bowman, McInally and Malpas had played there for Dundee United in the 1-0 first leg defeat to IFK Gothenburg in the 1987 UEFA Cup final.

The night before their opening game the Scotland squad watched England take on Denmark, a late replacement for Yugoslavia who were ejected from the tournament due to the Balkans War. It was a dull affair apart from when John Jensen was through on goal and looked like he was about to score. The legendary Denis Law, who was there as a television pundit, got so excited that he tripped over the television wires and inadvertently pulled out the plug and shut off the television. When it was switched back on it was still 0-0 as Jensen’s shot had come back off the post.

On the day of the game against the Dutch, Roxburgh’s team-sheet was numbered in order of caps. Andy Goram was in goal with Stuart McKimmie and Maurice Malpas the full-backs. Dave McPherson and Richard Gough were the centre-backs. Stuart McCall and Paul McStay were in the centre of the park with Brian McClair on the left and Gary McAllister on the right. McCoist, wearing five, was up front with Gordon Durie.

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It is worth laying out the team-lines for all you traditionalists out there who will be driven mad by the way the players were named out of position. Goram; Gough, McStay, Malpas, McCoist, McClair, Durie, McPherson, McKimmie (a right-back wearing nine), McCall, McAllister.

There were 35,720 fans inside the stadium for the match refereed by Bo Karlsson of Sweden. “The fans and the players had a real bond during that tournament and it started when Duncan Ferguson picked up a Saltire flag that someone had thrown on the park ahead of that Holland game,” said Mark Walker. “Big Dunc waved it towards the fans and it was a spine-tingling moment for us all. I’ve loved big Dunc ever since.”

Scotland took time to settle in the first half. Gullit was making life hell for Malpas out wide but when he did manage to get the ball into the box McPherson and Gough – both of whom had played together in four of the five warm-up matches – had Van Basten in their pockets. It was McPherson who nearly opened the scoring but pulled his shot from 10 yards out just wide. The sides went in level at the break.

Gough came close with a header and just when the match looked likely to be heading for a draw the Dutch struck. It was their world-class players Gullit, Van Basten and Rijkaard who all combined to set up Bergkamp for the winning goal with 15 minutes left.

Next up for Scotland was Germany in Norrkoping, a three-hour bus journey from Gothenburg. The world champions had been poor in their opening match against CIS with a last-minute Thomas Hassler goal securing them a 1-1 draw they scarcely deserved.

Managed by Berti Vogts, who went on to manage Scotland for two years from 2002, the sides would meet in the Idrottsparken Stadium that had a capacity of just 19,414 and it wasn’t full, with 17,410 turning up. Scotland named the same team that had given Holland a run for their money. The Germans had six starters from the West German team that beat Argentina in the 1990 World Cup final in Italy. 

For the first 20 minutes Scotland played like they were world champions, with Gough nearly scoring with a header then McPherson smashing the ball over the bar from five yards with his left foot. That was a wake-up call for the Germans with Jurgen Klinsmann going close before they took the lead on the half-hour mark through Karl-Heinz Riedle.

Going in at the break one goal down, Scotland needed a fast start but delivered the opposite. It was a freak goal they conceded, with Stefan Effenberg’s attempted cross deflecting off Malpas, looping over Goram and dipping into the net at the far post.

There are lies, damned lies, and statistics. Scotland had more shots on goal than Germany (17 to 15). The German goalkeeper Bodo Ilgner had to make more saves than Goram (nine to three) and Scotland had 14 corners to Germany’s two. All well and good and suggests Scotland were the more attacking side. They weren’t. Germany hit the post twice and had chances of their own. Granted Scotland played well, but Germany were more clinical and deserved the victory that put Scotland out of the Championships after just two games.

The final match was against CIS, formerly the Soviet Union, also in Norrkoping. If Scotland beat them it would mean Germany would go through regardless of whether they beat Netherlands or not in their final game. Vogts offered to send a bottle of champagne to the Scotland camp if they did them a favour. The CIS players fancied their chances against a Scotland team only playing for pride. The Russians had drawn against Germany and Netherlands and a win over Scotland would take them through to the knock-out stages.

As the group stage came to a close, England were failing just as badly as Scotland in the Euros which was greeted with great joy by the Tartan Army in Sweden. Graham Taylor’s team were eliminated after they lost to the host nation 2-1 in their final game with Taylor incurring the wrath of the English nation by taking off captain Gary Lineker in the 62nd minute when his team was chasing the equaliser.

“Swedes 2 Turnips 1” was the headline in The Sun the following day as England were eliminated from the tournament.  Thomas Brolin, who scored a superb goal 20 minutes from time to win the game, became an overnight hero in Sweden and Scotland. It was the high point of the career of a striker who appeared to get fatter and fatter in every passing year as he bounced around several clubs including Leeds United. He was taken to the hearts of the Scotland players, who enjoyed the English defeat so much, that McCoist christened him “Tam” Brolin. 

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The Scotland players had a sweepstake on the first goal-scorer in the game but when Gary McAllister won the £100 when David Platt opened the scoring he didn’t even clap as he was so disgusted that England had taken the lead. When “Tam” Brolin scored the winner, McAllister was one of the first up celebrating.

For Scotland, the pressure was off against a CIS side that had Alexei Mikhailichenko of Rangers as their captain. They may have lost their first two games but having a Swedish-born captain in Richard Gough and a Tartan Army locals had embraced made Scotland every Swede’s second team. Andy Roxburgh had handled the PR side very well and gifted two Scotland away shirts (Derek Whyte’s and Pat Nevin’s) to the two police outriders with the team coach during their time in Norkopping. The pair wore the Scotland tops as they led them to the stadium.

Roxburgh made two changes to his starting line-up with Tom Boyd replacing Maurice Malpas and Kevin Gallacher taking the place of Gordon Durie up front on a pouring wet day.

Maybe it was the Scottish-style weather that inspired them, but it took just seven minutes for Roxburgh’s side to take the lead in front of 14,660 fans. McPherson picked the ball up on the edge of the area and passed it to McStay, whose shot hit the post then rebounded off the back of goalkeeper Dmitri Kharine and into the net. Nine minutes later it was two. McCoist found McClair whose shot was deflected into the net off Kakhaber Tskhadadze, who had two years at Manchester City starting in 1998.

It took the CIS well into the second half before they got their act together with substitute Igor Korneev going close on two occasions. One of his efforts was stopped superbly by Andy Goram who instinctively saved with his left hand from a close-range shot.

With 11 minutes to go the win was signed, sealed and delivered after some great play from replacement Nevin who tied Oleg Kuznetsov, the Rangers defender, in knots. He left him in his wake before Tskhadadze took him out inside the box. A definite penalty that McAllister slotted away. 

An emphatic 3-0 win for Scotland when it didn’t matter, but it was the perfect ending to the tournament. CIS were shell-shocked as they crashed out of the tournament along with Scotland.  The Germans were delighted at the result as they had lost 3-1 to the Netherlands. The Scotland win over CIS put Vogts’ team through to the knock-out stages along with the Netherlands at the expense of the former Soviet Union.

The magnum of champagne duly arrived from Vogts to Roxburgh after the tournament was over. Scotland left Euro 92 as the only side eliminated at the group stage not to have a negative goal difference and to have won a game. Because of that they were ranked fifth in Europe at the end of the Euros.

The Scottish players went for a meal after the game with a series of toasts all proposed by Derek Whyte. They raised their glasses to “Tam” Brolin and every famous Scot Whyte could remember. Alexander Graham Bell, Sean Connery and John Logie Baird got honourable mentions. Then it was on to the pub where a band had their lead singer replaced by McCoist. After announcing “Good evening, Norrkopping”, he launched into a string of Bruce Springsteen songs. It was harder to get the mic off him that evening than it was to get the ball off him in some games.

The Tartan Army and those watching at home were impressed by what they saw out in Sweden. In the era before the internet the players weren’t sure what kind of reception they would receive when they got back to Scotland. They needn’t have worried. Fans had gathered at Glasgow Airport to welcome them back. Gary McAllister was pleasantly surprised but looked rather bemused.

After all, Scotland had won just the one game and been eliminated at the group stage. McAllister, asked by a television reporter about the airport welcome, replied “Aye, not too bad but it would be better if we won and qualified for the semis then it would be a bit better.’ Indeed it would have been, but it was still a decent enough display by the Scottish team. Defeat against two of the best teams in the world, Netherlands and Germany, before the emphatic victory over the CIS, was nothing to be ashamed of.

Scotland may have left Sweden without a trophy, but the fans were given one by UEFA. They were so well behaved that they were named supporters of the tournament and given the Fair Play award. The moment that secured them the award came when Scotland fan David McGow kissed Swedish policewoman Marianne Lindkvist from Gothenburg.

He had asked to kiss her and as a reward for the Tartan Army making her job so easy during the CIS game he was allowed to do so, although she did look surprised when David kissed her on the cheek as he pushed his face through the fence. A press photographer captured the moment and the picture went all round Europe.

The Scotland fans will be hoping to make such memories in Germany this summer but kissing a German policewoman will be highly unlikely.

At least there will be some Scotland fans who were at the 1992 Euros who will also be in Germany.

“We had the times of our lives at the Euros,” said Sheepy. “It was great fun and let’s just say it wasn’t just a Swedish policewoman who got a kiss from a member of the Tartan Army during the tournament.

“I am proud to be a member of the Tartan Army and all three of us who were in Sweden will be in Germany in the summer. The 32 years have flown by but our love of the Scotland football team is as strong as ever. We will be hoping to bring back as many happy memories from Germany as we did from Sweden. And hopefully the price of a pint will be much cheaper!”