Kenny Dalglish: My make-or-break nights were a mix of joy and tragedy

Steve Clarke will be looking forward to leading his Scotland squad into Thursday night’s Euro 2020 Play-off semi-final against Israel.

It’s a make-or-break clash, with no margin for error, and every player will need to be right on top of their game.

A victory will result in a visit to either Norway or Serbia next month for 90 minutes to decide if we are playing at the Euros next summer or not.

Playing for my national team, I was involved in a few games we simply had to win to reach a World Cup or a European Championships.

From memory, we had really-important games against Czechoslovakia in 1973, Wales in 1977 and 1985 and Australia in 1985.

They were all tense, for sure.

However, the match that will be etched more than any other in the minds of all Scots was the game against Wales at Ninian Park on September 10, 1985, when Davie Cooper scored a penalty to secure a 1-1 draw.

That was enough to take us to the play-off tie, home and away against Australia.

But it was also the night we lost big Jock Stein. Nobody celebrated that night.

I was player-manager of Liverpool at that time, and missed the game through injury. Graeme Souness, Steve Archibald and Alan Hansen were also unavailable.

That night, I was actually down in Ipswich at an England v Romania Under-21 match to look at players.

I was driving home, and had an early version of a car-phone.

I had pulled in for petrol when my wife, Marina, phoned me to say that big Jock had collapsed, and that it wasn’t looking good.

He was confirmed dead a few minutes later.

After that devastating news, the result was completely insignificant.

We had just lost one of the game’s greats, a man of big Jock’s stature, a man who contributed so much to Celtic FC and Scotland, and who had been a mentor to many managers and coaches.

My drive home that night was a tough one – pretty depressing, to be honest.

I couldn’t believe the news, and I was numb, I suppose.

I got back into the house, and just sat there for a long time.

The nation rallied, and the players were then put under the charge and guidance of Sir Alex Ferguson.

We got through against Australia, and I played in the 2-0 win at Hampden, thanks to goals from Frank McAvennie and Davie Cooper.

I didn’t travel to Melbourne for the return, but it was 0-0 over there, and we were through to Mexico ’86.

A few years earlier, qualifying for the 1978 World Cup Finals in Argentina was very special.

We had to play Wales, and they moved the game to Anfield to cope with the demand of the supporters.

I’m sure the Welsh FA and their players expected it to be full of red-and-white as it was their home game.

But the Tartan Army snapped up most of the tickets.

The likes of Joey Jones and John Toshack ran out to a wee cluster of Wales fans in a corner of the ground. The Scotland fans occupied the rest.

It was an unbelievable, and highly-motivating, sight for us players.

We won 2-1. We got a penalty in controversial circumstances with that infamous handball incident involving big Joe Jordan. Don Masson tucked the ball away well.

I also scored with a glancing header, and I must pay tribute to Martin Buchan for the quality of his delivery.

It was perfectly placed, with the right pace on it, and all I had to do was hit one of the corners to put it into the net.

To score in front of the Tartan Army at Anfield – which was by then my home ground as I’d joined Liverpool that summer – was superb. It always was.

Marina and I were still staying at the Holiday Inn in Liverpool at that time.

When we went back there after the game, and itwas full of Scotland fans, really enjoying themselves to the full – and rightly so.

The place was absolutely jam-packed. I think the whole of Glasgow was down and we recognised plenty of faces.

My goodness, had Health & Safety been around back then, there might have been a problem!

But it’s part of football. The fans really do make it.

Unfortunately, there won’t be any of the Tartan Army inside Hampden on Thursday. That doesn’t make it any less important.

Steve and the players are coming off the back of a 2-1 win in the Czech Republic. They also drew 1-1 against Israel last month.

They will want to feel the warmth of the nation and the media in the next few days.

I’m not asking for any untruths to be said or written in the build-up to the game – but we all need to try to be supportive.

Andy Robertson and the players will be desperate to win this game, we all know that.

And we all want to see them succeed.