How a simple reality has Scotland 'living the dream' for 72-times capped former Celtic captain

There is no mere quirk of fate to Scotland “living the dream” in being returned to a force in international football for Tom Boyd.

The 53-year-old, seventh on the all-time appearances list for the national team with 72 caps, played in both the finals of the World Cup and Euros in the 1990s for Craig Brown’s team. He did so with a squad that boasted English title winners, and players who had excelled for major clubs north and south of the border.

Boyd doesn’t downplay the influence of Steve Clarke for Scotland scaling the headiest of heights in sitting top of Group A as they can move to the cusp of next summer’s Euro finals. The opportunity they must seize when they face Cyprus in Larnaca on Friday to extend their 100% record to an unprecedented five group wins. But he considers the current national manager is in charge at a favourable time – the calibre of player available to him redolent of the halcyon days of the former Celtic captain’s Scotland career.

“You are getting players from a higher echelon,” said Boyd, with such as Andy Robertson, John McGinn, Kieran Tierney and Scott McTominay all of standard that would have earned them leading status in the Brown era. “There was a wee spell there where we didn’t have that and maybe that was a reason why we didn’t qualify. We were also unlucky in a couple of campaigns, certainly in Alex McLeish’s time [in 2006-07] when we got a horrendous group [France, Italy, Ukraine] and nearly got through. But in other ones we have let ourselves down badly. We all love qualifying, the fans love and enhance the tournament.

GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - SEPTEMBER 06: Tom Boyd during a photocall to promote the Cyprus v Scotland game, at Hampden Park, on August 05, 2023, in Glasgow, Scotland. Tom Boyd promoting Viaplay’s live and exclusive coverage of Cyprus v Scotland. Viaplay is available to stream from viaplay.com or via your TV provider on Sky, Virgin TV and Amazon Prime as an add-on subscription. (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

"It looks like we are getting back to being at tournaments regularly. We have qualified for one [with the Euros in 2021] and it looks like we can qualify for this one. But let’s then get back to the World Cup. We are living the dream with our position in the group. A win in Cyprus would almost see us through. But we’ve had a few banana skins over the years - I played against Morocco in the World Cup in 1998 - and we have lost games to teams ranked lower than us, like Georgia. But we have given ourselves the opportunity.”

• Tom Boyd was promoting Viaplay’s live and exclusive coverage of Cyprus v Scotland. Viaplay is available to stream from viaplay.com or via your TV provider on Sky, Virgin TV and Amazon Prime as an add-on subscription.