The following article appeared in the February, 2001, issue of When Saturday Comes as part of the series Football Myths

Football Myths No. 17

Scottish goalkeepers are no good

After Estonia failed to turn up for their home World Cup qualifier with Scotland in late 1996, a Scottish fanzine printed the following picture of the Scots lining up to kick off against their no-show opponents: as the referee blows his whistle to indicate a walkover, one player, raising his arms in the air, shouts out: "We've won without playing!" To which another replies: "We've been doing that for years."

Most Scots would be hard pressed to deny that there is at least a scantling of truth in the gag, although the joke does not necessarily malign Scottish football. Faced with an almost complete lack of truly world class players in an increasingly level international playing field, Craig Brown, and before him Andy Roxburgh, have ground out some creditable, if not downright miraculous, results over the past 20 years to help Scotland qualify for every World Cup except USA 94, and for both the 1992 and 1996 European Championships.

Given the shortfall of outstanding outfield players and consistent goalscorers, how has this been achieved? Canny tactics, for sure, and a generation of unremarkable but industrious midfielders prepared to work like mules in front of doughty defenders to close down more technically talented opposition players. Yet there is one more position that is crucial to the success of a workaday team like Scotland ‚ that of goalkeeper.

It is now over ten years since Italia 90, when Jim Leighton allowed the ball to squeeze out of his grasp in Turin and the Brazilian Muller followed up to score the only goal of the game that lead to Scotlandís elimination from that tournament. It had been raining all afternoon and both the ball and the surface were wet. Scotlandís attack created only one real scoring opportunity during the whole game. The week previously they had missed a thousand chances and gone down to Costa Rica. And it was Leighton's only mistake over all three games. Yet it was the wrong mistake at the wrong time, and he was blamed for Scotland's exit.

Aside from this, I cannot think of any other time since the infamous days of Bobby Clarke, Stuart Kennedy and, occasionally, Alan Rough, when Scottish goalkeepers have let their side down. And even in the 1970s, despite the odd aberrant performance (usually in the annual match against England when everyone was watching), they couldn't have been that bad given that Scotland qualified for the 1974 and 1978 World Cups at a time when the finals only hosted 16 teams. They certainly didn't get there by giving away goals like the one Peter Shilton did against Poland at Wembley in 1973.

On the other hand, I can remember times when Scotland have survived only because of their goalkeepers, chiefly thanks to two men who have guarded the Scottish net with guile and consistency for long enough to gain 133 caps between them ‚ the aforementioned Leighton (91 caps), and the portly but strangely agile Andy Goram (42).

Two games stand out, both involving the unfairly damned Leighton. In 1985 I can recall listening on the radio to Scotland play a World Cup qualifier in Reykjavik. It was one of those painful fixtures they had to win, but which you knew they were capable of messing up. Iceland made all the chances and Leighton made all the saves. Jim Bett stole a late goal for Scotland, but even then they barely held on and Leighton had to make one more distensible one-handed stop. The TV highlights later repeated the save several times, deservedly so, but implying that Scotland were lucky to win. But it wasn't luck, it was Leighton's skill, and if they had dropped only one point they would have finished behind Wales in the group and missed out on Mexico.

There was a similar scenario at Ibrox Park over a decade later, as Leighton kept out the team who had two years earlier finished third at USA 94. Scotland won 1-0 against a side that was clearly superior in every department bar one, on one of those days when you can only watch the game with fingers stretched over your eyes. Reports described Leighton's display, which included two meta-superlative close range stops, as the best of his career. Without it they would have faced a play-off game for France 98 against opponents such as Italy or Russia.

There have been too many similarly solid games by Scotland's number ones down the years to mention here, like Goram against Holland at Euro 96, and Leighton in Russia the year before, with the gloves now passed down to the competent Neill Sullivan who handled well in Latvia and Croatia last autumn. Yet the myth persists for the usual reasons ‚ the patronising London-based media, and a complete lack of imagination among England fans, perhaps best personified by Jimmy Greaves, who built his television career on snickering at the supposed fallibility of Scottish goalies (though he, like them, never made it to the latter stages of a World Cup tournament).

The Scottish national team will probably have to live through another blemish-free half-century or so to eradicate such lazy misconceptions. In the meantime, keepers, keep on saving Scotland.

Ian Plenderleith