For a small footballing nation, Scotland boasts the proud record of having qualified for the World Cup finals on eight occasions. But this fantastic feat is marred by the glorious failure of never having reached the latter stages of the tournament. Scotland '74 is a bittersweet celebration of an incredible team of world-class superstars — Billy Bremner, Kenny Dalglish, Denis Law, Peter Lorimer, Joe Jordan and more — who, in West Germany in 1974, managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the dying seconds. It was Scotland's best-ever chance to progress in the finals for the very first time, so how did the only unbeaten team in the tournament fail? Forty years on, it still hurts. Richard Gordon now reveals how it all went wrong. Drawing on archive reports and the memories of squad members, Scotland '74 relates the story of that big adventure, encompassing a shocking start to manager Willie Ormond's reign (a 5–0 beating by England), frequent player indiscipline and, ultimately, the onfield heartbreak that left a nation in mourning for what might have been.
