Walking out from behind the goal at Wembley and stepping on to the pitch, it felt like my biggest game in a Scotland shirt.
We lost the first leg of our Euro 2000 play-off with England 2-0 at Hampden, and on the way down to the return game in London, Craig Brown had given me the nod I was going to play.
It turned out to be another glorious failure for Scotland. We’ve had enough of them but these big moments live with you forever.
Now it’s Steve Clarke’s team who stand on the edge of something monumental, this time trying to become the first Scottish team to qualify from a group at a major tournament.
This could be our time to make history.
Big Don, awards & Dutch pain
I was actually really, really disappointed not to get involved at Hampden when we lost 2-0 to England.
It was a tough watch warming up and not getting on, never mind then suffering the defeat.
When we got down there, I was on the pitch the night before and I just felt excited. It wasn’t about nerves.
I can still vividly see the view walking out from behind the goals and lining up for the national anthem and thinking ‘wow, this is what it’s all about’.
We won 1-0 with big Don Hutchison scoring, but the memory of the deflation of going out and deserving to go through sticks with me.
We showed on the night we were more than good enough.
We were popping the ball about, there was no doubt in my mind we were going to get another one to put England out at Wembley.
I won man of the match, but it meant nothing at the time. It’s nice to look back on now, but it felt hollow when we’d come up short as a team and a nation.
A few years later we then faced the Netherlands in another play-off game, this time we won 1-0 with that goal from James McFadden.
