FLYING starts of one sort or another were almost second nature to Kevin Gallacher. As an individual he had a turn of speed which would leave most opponents standing; at club level he scored one of the most celebrated early goals in the game, a second-minute strike for Dundee United against Barcelona; and as a Scotland player he was part of the last side which won its opening World Cup qualifying match and went on to get into the finals.
That last occasion was 20 years ago almost to the day. Norway provided the opposition, Paul McStay and Maurice Johnston the goals which gave Scotland a 2-1 win.
There has been one successful beginning to a World Cup campaign since, a single-goa
l victory over Latvia in 2000, but qualification did not follow. The campaign begun in 1988 thus remains the blueprint for the kind of path which Scotland must follow if they are to make it to South Africa in two years' time.
Some of the members of the present squad were mere infants then, and few had even turned professional by 1998, which is the last time to date that a Scotland team has graced the World Cup finals. That lack of experience has been singled out by some as an obvious deficiency, but Gallacher believes it can be offset by the experience of George Burley, the national manager, and his assistant coaches.
"Obviously the younger players will have more nerves, but they've got a lot of experience to draw on," he said. "As well as George Burley, there's Terry Butcher and Steven Pressley, and they can all tell the less experienced members of the squad what it's like to play in big games in difficult conditions.
"Craig Brown has been in to talk to the squad as well, so they've probably been given more information, from more people, than we ever had when I was a Scotland player. Andy Roxburgh was my first manager, and usually it was just him who talked to us. When Craig took over he invited other managers to come in sometimes, but on the whole there were fewer people who talked to us.
"The older players in the squad can help as well. They know how long the qualifying competition lasts, and how hard it is to get to the World Cup finals.
"With the players who have never been to the finals of a major tournament you can only dangle the carrot in front of them by telling them what it feels like to get there and represent your country.
"A lot of the squad will have similar experience of the big stage from playing in the Champions League, but that can never prepare you entirely for playing international football." The game against Norway which opened the qualifying campaign for the 1990 World Cup was just the third time Gallacher had played for Scotland. Far from suffering from stage fright, he recalls almost taking the game in his stride, and believes it is only as players age and become accustomed to the pain of defeat that they grow more cautious.
"I was in and out of the squad at the time, and I was probably a bit blasé about it. I was back-up to players like Gordon Strachan, living in their shadow really. It was like stars in my eyes.
"It's maybe only once you qualify that you realise what a big deal it is. And I think it gets harder once you know how much effort it takes to qualify." Gallacher certainly does not believe that this afternoon's match against Macedonia will fit into the easy category. A freelance commentator these days, he will be in the stadium working for BBC Radio 5 Live, and is reluctant to forecast the outcome.
"My feelings about this one are a little bit mixed, really. Macedonia may not be great travellers, but I know the kind of results they can get at home. On the other hand, I'm quite optimistic about what this Scotland squad can do.
"It's going to be very warm – the last forecast I saw was 39 degrees, so that will make it pretty tough. In that heat you are not able to play the normal high-tempo Scottish game.
"But you get used to playing in conditions like that. Training in that heat the day before at the same time as kick-off helps, for example. Your lungs adjust to it and you adjust to it as a person as well."
Gallacher's optimism, he explains, stems from the steady progress which the national team has made over the past few years, and from a belief that there is no team in this group which should strike dread into Scottish hearts. "Kenny Miller and all these guys have experienced the very low side of international football.
"But the team has been picking up again for the last couple of years, and confidence is high now. There have been changes of manager, which might have been difficult at the time, but George Burley has been there for long enough now that the players are used to him.
"It's a tough group. I'd probably fancy us to finish second. Norway are not as good just now as they used to be.
"Holland are a fantastic side, and they seem to have got their act together again. But they know the problems Scotland can cause them, and you don't know what the state of the group will be by the time we meet them. We're looking for a minimum of four points from these first two matches. We'll take points off the best and give points to the worst. That's usually the Scotland way."
Gallacher went on to win 53 caps for his country in an international career which lasted 13 years, but victory over Norway was his only involvement in the qualifying matches for the 1990 World Cup, and he was not included in the squad which made the trip to Italy. "Missing out on the 1990 finals was a big disappointment for me. I'd been a fringe member of the squad, but I still hoped to get selected to go to Italy, so being left out felt like having the carpet pulled out from under my feet at the last minute."
That phrase brought the conversation round to a subject close to Gallacher's heart – this week's crisis at Newcastle United, one of his former clubs, which ended in the resignation of Kevin Keegan. Without singling out either executive director Dennis Wise or owner Mike Ashley for blame, Gallacher is convinced that Keegan was not given a proper chance by them to manage the St James' Park team.
"It was a weird situation at Newcastle. We've seen at other clubs like Liverpool what happens when there are two people who are both acting as managers. It doesn't work. When you're not getting the run of the roost as a manager, it's not successful."
Gallacher spent two seasons at Newcastle around the turn of the century after Keegan's first spell as manager at St James' Park had come to an end. But although he did not work directly with the former England striker, the Scot knows him, and admires his enthusiasm for the game.
"Kevin is a genuine fellow. He knew how tough the job was going to be second time, which is why I think he was not as fiery, as bubbly, as he used to be. Whatever he does now, it would be fantastic if he got that bubbly attitude back again.
"I have very happy memories of my time there. I enjoyed it, it's a good club, and I still have a place in my heart for it.
"I feel that for all my former clubs, really. When I left Blackburn Rovers, I was actually happy to stay, but Brian Kidd came in and he must have wanted his own men, so he decided to get rid of me. But I still live in the area, and I still like to get along to the ground when I can to see the team."
The two teams of which he feels most fond, however, are Dundee United and Celtic. "They're the clubs whose results I look for first – United because they were my first senior club and I was there for so long, and Celtic because they were the team I grew up supporting."
Celtic also became the team against whom he scored his own favourite goal. Scoring from wide out against Barcelona in the Uefa Cup might have been special, but his own preference was scoring against Celtic in the Scottish Cup.
"Everybody remembers the Barcelona goal. Whether it was meant or a fluke, I still don't know. But while that match was a fantastic occasion, and the goal helped set us off on a great adventure, it's not my favourite.
"That would have to be one I scored against Celtic in the Scottish Cup final. I was racing against Roy Aitken and I sent a shot flying into the goal."
That was in 1988, and United lost the game 2-1. Four months later, Gallacher put the disappointment behind him to become part of that Scotland team which beat Norway. Now, 20 years later, he hopes his successors will put the disappointments of past campaigns behind them, and get this one started with a win.
The full article contains 1582 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
