Almost… again
Christian McBride
Scotland comes so wonderfully close so often, in so many ways… but we always trip our own feet, or just fail to take hold of opportunities.
These are the top 4 times Scotland promised so much, and failed to deliver….
4. Andy Murray – For years Scotland had only entertained tennis as a pass time, Wimbledon was sort of close and those with the money might like to enjoy some champagne and strawberries down there. But other than that Scotland was disinterested. Even so far as to be the subject of a Monty Python flying circus sketch, where an alien invasion could only be thwarted with a Scotsman winning Wimbledon. Suddenly we had our own rising tennis star, a man who might bring the Wimbledon title back to Britain for the first time since Fred Perry. However year after year Murray succumbs to the Scottish mentality and all the ability in the world (which we’re told he has in abundance when he plays well) goes out the window and he bombs out.
3. Scotland v Argentina, 2011 Rugby World Cup – This one was a simple case of fulfilling our roll as the great bottle merchants. A win would have meant progress to the next round, a close game to the finish. Amorosino fumbles and knocks it into touch, Parks takes a kick that high school rugby players across the nation would swear they could make… and shanks it left. Scotland fail to progress past the group stages for the first time in any world cup.
2. Colin Montgomerie, 1995, PGA Championship, Riviera Country Club – Monty would birdie his last three holes to tie Steve Elkington and take it to a sudden death play off, but while in a far better position on the green Monty would miss his putt while Elkington sinks a 35 foot putt.
1. Football World Cup 1978 (and to an extent ’74) – Scotland has the best of the worst track records in regards to football World Cups, but in ’78 it was something special. Ally MacLeod had the nation believing they would come back with a medal. “We’re on the road with Ally’s army” was being sung across the nation. But in our opening two games we were sat with one point, and had to beat the Netherlands by three goals to proceed. That day Scotland would score three goals, one of which by Archie Gemmill would be considered one of the best goals of the tournament. However on that same day the Dutch would score two, dashing Scotland’s dreams of progression and putting us out on goal difference for the second world cup in a row.
Radio Napier 
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