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I’m not a religious man and so my favourite prophet remains the late, former Scotland manager Ally MacLeod.

OK so some of his prophecies may have went a bit awry but the hype etc was good fun whilst it lasted.

With MacLeod at the helm we won the 1977 British Championship [the last occasion in which Scotland were outright winners]. Alright so we didn’t win the World Cup in Argentina the following year but looking back it might have been better if 1978 had been a Euro Championships Finals year instead. That way we wouldn’t have had to worry about Asian superpowers [Iran] or South American jet-propelled pensioners [Peru].Don’t forget that in qualifying for Argentina, Scotland had to eliminate the then European Champions, Czechoslovakia.

26th February 2015 would have been Super-Ally’s eighty-fourth birthday. Here’s to you Alistair Reid MacLeod wherever you are.

Robert Marshall