For a moment it looked like Archie Gemmill and the boys might actually lift the trophy…
For a short, giddy time some people were actually contemplating
Scotland winning the World Cup, as illustrated on the cover of the Observer Magazine with copious cans of Tartan Ale and a bottle of Bell’s Whisky, of course (’Meanwhile back in Glasgow…
World Cup Fever’, 28 May 1978).
One of the features in the magazine was a profile of World Cup referee Clive Thomas. ‘This 41-year-old Welsh executive with an office-cleaning company suffers from self-doubts in the same way that Kojak suffers from dandruff,’ wrote Alan Road. The piece ended by stating that of the three
UK referees officiating: ‘If they fail, the clamour for their blood will doubtless carry across the Atlantic to Thomas’s home in Treorchy in the Rhondda Fawr valley.’ Well, funny you should say that…