The joy of football
Look at the chaos behind Griff after his 2nd v England. Only football can make us feel this way .. that’s why none of us will ever forget that goal
AT 6.50pm on Saturday, Leigh Griffiths united a nation in a manner that Sturgeon, Dugdale and Davidson can only dream about.
Every single one of us came together in an explosion of joy ignited by a ball hitting the net at Hampden, the shockwaves booming out from the epicentre in Mount Florida to ripple through every corner of this often-divided land.
You didn’t have to be there to be touched by it but those who were, those of us who saw Griffiths place that ball on the turf and begin his run-up, will be forever grateful we were.
As a football fan you live for moments like that. That split-second when you realise the ball has beaten Joe Hart’s flailing hand for the second time in a minute and a half to give Scotland a 2-1 lead over THEM going into injury time.
We are all Scots, proud and passionate about our country.
And when it comes to football we want to beat England because they’re our nearest neighbours, they are bigger and nothing gives us more pleasure than turning them over.
Not because we hate them – most of us don’t – but because they are our rivals. We haven’t done it this century and even when we last did, in November 1999 at Wembley, it was a pyrrhic victory as they still won on aggregate.
So when Griffiths scored the first to level it, we celebrated like there was no tomorrow.
When he did it again, the Tartan Army and those of us in the Press seats celebrated like there was no next week.
Unfortunately, there were still four minutes and we all know what happened.
Our dreams were blown away by a hurricane. Or a Harry Kane. One of the two. Doesn’t matter.
All that did matter on Saturday night was that we’d Scotlanded it. Again. To go from the unbridled joy of that moment to sheer deflation three minutes later mangled the senses and it’s only now most of us are getting over it.
Yet, that’s exactly why football touches the vast majority of us in this country the way no other sport can. We all get put through the emotional grinder by Andy Murray, of course, and celebrate his victories and his career with genuine pride that a boy from Dunblane has conquered the world.
But when Andy loses, the disappointment dissipates far quicker than when Scotland suffer another soul-destroying reversal at the fitba’.
And while Saturday didn’t end in defeat, it felt like one.
Only now, though, as the senses unscramble, we can look back on the weekend and marvel at what happened.
I have been at some fantastic sporting events in my career. I’ve witnessed Scotland v Brazil at France 98, Medinah 2012 and Murray winning Wimbledon last year. Kelly Holmes’s double Olympic gold at the Athens Olympics – different sports, different dynamics, different emotions. But nothing compares to the feeling on Saturday night when that ball hit the net. Would I have preferred the game to end 1-1 and we could all have gone home delighted with Griffiths’s point-saving free kick? No chance. Moments like that second free-kick might only happen to you and your team a handful of times in your life. When the 46,000 Scotland fans who were inside Hampden on Saturday night are in their dotage and trying to remember the standout games they’ve seen, that one will be up there.
For that, we must all thank Griffiths because he produced something quite extraordinary.
With two flicks of his wand of a left foot, he propelled himself into Scottish football folklore.
Archie Gemmill’s slalom through the Dutch defence in Argentina 78, David Narey’s “toepoke” against Brazil four years later ... two of the most iconic moments in the history of our game.
Well, Griffiths joined that exclusive club at the weekend. In 50 years’ time he’ll be 76 and journalists will be trying to get a hold of him to retell his tale. It was THAT big, THAT special.
Gemmell, Narey and Griffiths all ended their respective games feeling gutted. Gemmell’s solo’s effort helped Scotland win 3-2 but still go out of the World Cup, while Narey’s howitzer against Brazil merely annoyed them into stuffing us 4-1.
The likelihood is the point Griffiths’s magic earned us won’t be enough to get us to Russia next summer.
But nobody can say they counted for nothing.