CLASS ACTS OF 2006

LANDING at Poznan Airport 14 days ago I never imagined it would end up as it did 16 years earlier - a Scotland team facing a major final and again I was on the outside looking in.

As a victim of Craig Brown's Under-16 World Cup squad cull in 1989, it's a laptop as luggage rather than a load of heartache this time around.

John Watson - the Scotland physio and my old Clyde medicine man, better known as "Sconie" - hasn't aged one bit and at passport control he said we should meet up.

I said: "Later, Sconie. I'll be up at your room at half past six for a rub."

My reply didn't go down too well with Under-19s boss Archie Gemmill who gave me the same disparaging look Brown had done when he broke my heart all those years ago.

Having spent weeks at our base at Inverclyde to prepare for the Under-16 Youth World Cup I was out while my Dundee United team-mates Gary Bollan, Andy McClaren and John Lyndsay, as well as Brian O'Neil and Paul Dickov - who went on to be stars for the senior Scotland side - made the cut.

But now the twists of fate have brought this wannabe just hours away from witnessing another golden generation of young Scottish footballers play a major final.

But I've played my part this time. After reaching the semi-finals here with a win over Turkey, Celtic's lippy kid Simon Ferry shouted: "Hey Daily Record man, your paper didn't believe in us but we're through."

Umbridge had been taken to the headline, 'Blown to El'. I replied: "We were trying to inspire you Simon - and it seems to have worked."

In 1989 the bearded Saudi Arabia side that lined up at Hampden to face my peers had enjoyed easy access into Glasgow's over-21 nightclubs but our baby-faced starlets over here haven't had the same luck.

A daily allowance of 20 zlotys or £15 in real money didn't go far in the hotel casino.

The sweat on my soaking jersey as Calum Elliot headed in our glorious semi-final winner against the Czechs was a reminder of old times.

But this time it was a combination of the scorching temperatures and poor lifestyle choices that were taking their toll.

Pitfalls aplenty lie in wait for the class of 2006 with guys like the gifted Kevin McGoldrick and Billy Dolan having no professional CV to reflect on after 1989.

Current skipper Scott Cuthbert has a bit of Kevin Bain about him and even keeper Andrew McNeil is a dead ringer for our old shot-stopper Jim Will.

Eventually I did manage to sit down with Sconie, who carried the physio's bag in 1982 when our Under-18s lifted the European Championship trophy in Finland. And even he has been caught up in the nostalgia.

He said: "The current squad and the one I was with in 1982 are similar in that there was an abundance of players who were emerging for their club sides, like Paul McStay.

"Our strikers were Brian McClair and Eric Black. Now we have Calum Elliot and Steven Fletcher. Pat Nevin was our flair player and we have Celtic's Michael McGlinchey doing that job for us here.

"Our keeper was Bryan Gunn and here it's Andrew McNeil who is very similar as is Andrew Cave-Brown, who is excelling in the same role Stevie Clarke performed back then.

"The team spirit is identical to when we won the trophy in Finland and that includes the backroom team. I call Archie Gemmill the midget and he lets me away with it.

"And when the players come to me for the banter as well as a rub down I feel like a father figure. They are more likely to come to me with a problem with their girlfriends than they are about a strain.

"There is boredom for them. All the lads had to look at in Finland was trees but we've tried to get them doing things here

"When it goes on as long as this players get homesick and I've been lending them my phone to call their girlfriends and they come back out buzzing."

I didn't get a rub but the more we spoke it was clear we were aware of the good fortune we both shared in being part of another huge Scottish success story.

Sconie said: "It still makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck when I hear the national anthem being played and whenever I stop feeling that I'll give it up.

"Who'd have thought a wee scrubber like me from Motherwell would be associated with the Scotland squad. Just think about all the hundreds of physios who would love to be in my shoes.

"Travelling back after we lost 4-0 to Spain I told Archie we would play them again in the Final and so it has come to pass.

"The big difference from '82 is we didn't have foreign players in Scotland keeping them out at their clubs but this group are getting a chance to show how good they are."

I'm even getting good luck text messages from home! One said: "What a jolly you must be on! Fletcher is suspended so you must be in line for a starting berth for the Final."

Aye, if only.

'Archie gave me the same look Craig Brown had done 16 years ago'

Taken from the Daily Record