Legend of the commentary box Archie Macpherson on the pain, pride, hate joy of covering football's...
Daily Mail It wasnt a classic. Just Kenny Dalglish, scrambling the ball past Ray Clemence at Wembley in 1977, in a way that warranted no mention in either of the strikers subsequent autobiographies.
But it is a measure of the deeper, existential significance of the fixture for those north of the border that the goal and Scotlands 2-1 win that day still resonates so deeply for the man who has interpreted, assessed, and commentated on England v Scotland more than anyone else.
Dalglish was leaving for England that summer, to replace Kevin Keegan at Liverpool, and, like many Scots, Archie Macpherson felt the sting. A native born, who had oodles of talent, was going away from us, he reflects.
And there was also the sad inevitability of it. The sad inevitability that somehow the whole commercial, professional trend meant a talent like that would always now go south.
A haunting image in Macphersons biography of Jock Stein one of the broadcaster and writers 10 books, chronicling his life in sport captures the great manager at the top of the steps of East End Park, Dunfermline, watching Dalglish head down them to play his last game for Celtic on August 10, 1977. Its like a father watching his son disappear, Macpherson says. That expression of Steins might have expressed that of Celtic and the wider Scottish support.
