Kenny Dalglish: The blame for Argentina was laid at Ally MacLeod’s door, but the players could all have given more

FORTY years ago today, I played for Scotland against Peru in Argentina.

That was the start of the most disappointing tournament of the three World Cup Finals where I represented my country.

We headed out to South America with the full support of the nation.

Rightly or wrongly, as we made our way to Prestwick Airport for the long flight to Buenos Aires, our supporters had a real sense of optimism.

Indeed, there was a genuine belief that we might just actually win the World Cup.

Thousands upon thousands of fans lined the streets from Glasgow down to Ayrshire to wave us goodbye.

Unfortunately, on our return a couple of weeks later, they all stayed indoors!

I couldn’t blame them.

The main reason for the optimism was down to the manager, Ally MacLeod.

He had drummed up a fantastic level of support for the squad.

It was great to see, both at the official farewell at Hampden, and on the road down to the airport.

It was just unfortunate we couldn’t deliver and live up to the expectation.

We lost that first game against Peru 3-1. They were a good side, and had some very talented players, such as Cubillas, Oblitas and Cueto.

Cubillas was outstanding from dead-ball situations, as we found to our cost.

Joe Jordan opened the scoring for us, but we never took off from there and the Peruvians scored three times to win comfortably.

But the next game was the real tragedy of the tournament for me, when we could only draw 1-1 with Iran.

Again, we took the lead, this time with an own-goal as half-time approached. But couldn’t see it out, and allowed the Iranians to equalise.

Out of the many World Cup disappointments I had with Scotland, that was perhaps the sorest and the most difficult to comprehend.

Amazingly, despite our failings in the previous two games, we still had a chance to qualify going into the last game if we could beat Holland by three clear goals.

I scored to make it 1-1, but the game is best remembered for Archie Gemmill’s glorious individual goal to put us 3-1 ahead and within a goal of going through to the next stage.

But the Dutch got one back through Johnny Rep and we were out.

At the end of the day, we only had ourselves to blame.

It would be easy to point to other things, and use them as excuses, but that’s not really my style.

Sure, the hotel facilities in Alta Gracia weren’t great.

I remember when we arrived in Argentina and were on our way to the hotel, the team bus broke down trying to get up a hill. That wasn’t the best of starts.

Then there was the really heavy security at our hotel base.

We would sit out on the balconies, relaxing, and taking in the scenery across the hotel gardens.

But every so often, we’d see the bushes moving because there were armed guards hiding in them!

That left us wondering a wee bit just what exactly what was going on.

We also had the incident with Willie Johnston. He took two Reactivan antihistamines just before the game against Peru.

He was then called in by FIFA for a drug test, and I was there with him, having also been chosen at random.

Willie failed the test, and the rest is history. But I honestly believe he just made a genuine mistake.

He was sent home immediately by the SFA.

Could it have been handled better?

Willie has made his own feelings clear on the matter in some recent interviews he has given about the incident.

There was plenty of other negative headlines as our campaign in Argentina went wrong.

I remember the gossip that we were out drinking almost every night with the punters. That just wasn’t true.

It was also suggested there was in-fighting with the SFA over bonuses. Again, I don’t recall that.

Some people lay the blame for how Argentina worked out for Scotland firmly at Ally’s door. I also think that isn’t fair.

Sure, he did get a wee bit carried away, but you couldn’t question his enthusiasm.

It’s easy to point the finger at the manager, but there has to be a collective responsibility.

We all could have given more – and I include myself in that. I should have done better in the tournament.

It seemed during my time representing Scotland, we just weren’t able to turn it on during tournaments.

We’d always have a more than decent qualification campaign, but couldn’t take it further at the Finals.

It was the same in 1974 in West Germany, and again when the tournament was played in Spain in 1982.

We just couldn’t get a real rhythm going, even after scoring five goals against New Zealand in our opening game.

Big Jock Stein was our manager in that tournament. After he sadly passed away, Alex Ferguson was in charge for Mexico in 1986.

Now, they are the two most- successful Scottish managers of all time, yet not even the pair of them could lead us to the next stage of a major tournament.

It just seems to be a Scottish thing, and we would have a moan about not getting beyond the first stage.

Now, having not been at major tournament since 1998, what would we give just to be at the party?

We all know the answer to that one.