Scotland goal v England was career high for McGhee

While he acknowledges that times have since changed, Mark McGhee has no hesitation in naming his goal against England at Hampden in 1984 as the highlight of his career.

Assistant manager puts 1984 header above Cup-Winners Cup win. Picture: Getty

The Scotland assistant manager remembers that even Franz Beckenbauer was impressed when they met the following day.

Players might not now be so steeped in the history of the fixture, but he can still hear as well as see the moment when he shook off marker Mike Duxbury to head in a cross from Gordon Strachan, who had provided an assist the previous week as McGhee struck a Scottish Cup final winner for Aberdeen against Celtic.

The pair hope to team up to the same positive effect to silence Wembley – or at least the majority of fans in the stadium. With over 20,000 Scots expected to attend, a goal from Scotland will not go unnoticed. It certainly didn’t at Hampden 29 years ago, when McGhee, who had left Aberdeen to sign for SV Hamburg during the week leading up to the match, achieved what he now breezily describes as his greatest moment in football.

It means he is ranking it above other significant achievements, such as helping Aberdeen to European Cup Winners’ Cup glory and signing for Celtic, his boyhood heroes. Even now, as we sit in the Scotland team hotel on the outskirts of London, he says he can remember the eruption of noise after the goal, which was the opener in a 1-1 draw. Only a few were fortunate enough to be responsible for inspiring a Hampden roar of old. As far as McGhee is concerned, the noise generated on the terraces was a phenomenon.

“I remember it being the loudest noise I have ever experienced at a football match,” he said. “It reached that level where it reverberated for a few seconds. I will never forget it. It was a totally different noise from anything I had heard at a football match.”

McGhee did not have much time to enjoy the moment. There was no chance to test whether he would need to buy a drink that night in Glasgow or not.

He was in the midst moving to the Bundesliga from Aberdeen and had another nerve-racking experience the following day, when he was due to meet Beckenbauer, who left Hamburg in 1982 and had only just retired after a stint with New York Cosmos. “I didn’t really get a lot of time to hang about,” McGhee recalled.

“I was doing a presentation the following night with Franz Beckenbauer and I remember him asking me how I got on yesterday. I told him we drew 1-1 and then waited for ages to ask if I had scored. Eventually he asked me.”

McGhee is clearly enormously proud of his claim to have scored against England. Because he played only four times for Scotland, the moment is magnified even further in his mind. “If anyone asks me what the highlight of my career was, I still say scoring against England was without doubt the highlight over all the other things I was lucky enough to enjoy,” he said.

“Playing against England and scoring was the pinnacle for me. “It’s not rhetoric,” he added. “I have always said it.”

He realises that some might be unable to understand why he attaches such significance to the goal, particularly since he also took part in a European trophy success and played in five Scottish Cup finals.

“Times have changed and the players these days experience such highs and amazing competitions such as the Champions League and all the way the Premiership is now,” he said. “Whether the fixture is quite the standout it was then I’m not sure. For me, it was definitely the highlight and probably because there was more of a tradition back then.”

McGhee was in rich vein of form at the time. “Coincidentally, the goalkeeper that day was Peter Shilton and a few weeks later I played for Hamburg against Southampton in the Uefa Cup and scored again against Shilton,” he recalled. “Gordon said he had popped out the crowd to cross that one in as well. He claims credit for everything.”

The pair are now hoping to inspire Scotland to glory at Wembley tomorrow evening. McGhee realises that victory might not mean much in the scheme of things, considering it is just a friendly match and Scotland have already been eliminated from qualification for the World Cup finals in Brazil next summer. However, he insists that the bragging rights should be incentive enough for players on both sides.

“It is not a World Cup or European Championship qualifier,” McGhee conceded. “I think if you got a result at Wembley under those circumstances that would be up there with anything that you could do as a Scottish coach.

“It is a friendly but I think there is a lot of kudos and pride at stake. A lot of the boys play in England and they don’t want to go back to their clubs having been beaten. If they could go back having won it would give them the bragging rights for another 14 years or however long it is until we play them again.”

“Someone said to me that we have nothing to lose but I think that is wrong. I think we have a lot to lose. We can lose the game and these boys go back and lose the bragging rights and we would have to wait again for another opportunity to play them so I think there is a lot at stake for us.”