THE Evening Times of April 16, 1967, could hardly contain its excitement.

“GREAT SCOTS!” it yelled, on the front page.

“Scotland the brave … and the magnificent. The team, given little chance of victory, beat world champions England by 3-2 in a breathtaking international at Wembley today.”

Ah yes, Scottish football fans the world over will recall the mighty victory over England just after the Auld Enemy had triumphed in the World Cup, beating Germany 4-2 the previous summer to claim the title.

Fans had travelled to London with scarves aloft, bravado ahoy but hearts in mouths, eager for a victory but resigned to the fact this was going to be a difficult game.

New manager Bobby Brown, and a squad that comprised Simpson, Gemmell, McCreadie, Greig, McKinnon, Baxter, Wallace, Bremner, McCalliog, Law and Lennox, were determined to give their best performances.

And in front of a crowd of 100,000, Scotland defied expectations, and won, thanks to goals from Denis Law, who gave Scotland an early lead, and Bobby Lennox, who added a second, at 78 minutes.

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England’s Jackie Charlton scored six minutes later, but Jim McCalliog got Scotland’s third goal, three minutes from time. Geoff Hurst’s goal for England was not enough and a landmark Scottish victory was in the bag.

The trains home to Glasgow found many happy fans declaring that Scotland were now, albeit unofficially, world champions…