Stuart Kennedy still remembers the open-top bus journey as if it was yesterday. And the sight and sound of tens of thousands of passionate fans lining the streets and celebrating as if there was no tomorrow.
Yet this wasn’t the aftermath of Aberdeen’s epic success in the European Cup-Winners Cup in 1983.
Instead, it was the manner in which the Tartan Army sent its blessings to the Scotland squad, prior to Ally MacLeod’s squad jetting off to Argentina for the 1978 World Cup.
That’s right. A victory parade – with admission at 50p a seat and 30p on the terraces – before a ball had been kicked.
No wonder Kennedy, the former Scotland and Aberdeen defender, still sounded a little baffled when he looked back on one of the great follies in the history of Caledonian sport.
It’s 40 years tomorrow since MacLeod’s men started their campaign against Peru. The manner in which the wheels fell off will be chronicled in a BBC documentary next week, ironically entitled “A Love Story”.
But Kennedy, who featured in two of the three group games, still believes MacLeod has been overly criticised for how his compatriots slumped to a 3-1 defeat against Peru and a 1-1 draw with Iran, as the prelude to famously beating Holland 3-2 with a superb display when it was too late.
He said: “Ally was my boss at Aberdeen and he never claimed we would win the tournament. He did talk us up but we had a good group of players so he was only giving his honest opinion.
“It wasn’t him who organised the bus parade at Hampden (30,000 supporters turned up), and he wasn’t helped by the awful facilities at our hotel once we eventually got to Argentina.
“As players, we couldn’t quite believe how many supporters thought we were going to fly back with the World Cup on the plane.”
But these great expectations were out of our control – although that was no excuse though once the competition kicked off.
Kennedy added: “Ally was a down-to-earth person, somebody who trusted his players. That worked well at Aberdeen, because the trust was mutual. Sadly, though, he didn’t get the same respect from some of the big names in the Scotland squad and they were messing around even before we left for South America.
“If it had been Jock Stein or Alex Ferguson in charge, I suppose things might have been different. Although, you have to remember we took the lead against Peru through Joe Jordan early in the game.
“Then, although they equalised, we were awarded a penalty on the hour mark…only for Don Masson to miss it.
“That changed the momentum. It deflated us and gave Peru a boost. They dominated and were worth their win.”
Suddenly, the Scots were under pressure and the SFA stumbled into one controversy after another. Willie Johnston failed a drugs test, details were leaked of dressing-room rows over bonus payments and the 1-1 draw with Iran was depicted as a national disgrace.
Kennedy said: “I missed that match after eating something that didn’t agree with me. But we never performed that night and you couldn’t lay the blame at Ally’s door. We were all thinking Iran was famous for oil, not football, and it was two points in the bag. You can’t go into any World Cup with that attitude.
“The thing is we did have a very talented squad and Graeme Souness was immense when we met the Dutch. They were a terrific side, who went all the way to the final (before losing to the hosts), but we played them off the park.
“Jordan got in their faces, Archie Gemmill was immense and the victory that night felt more like 4-1 or 5-1 than 3-2. We needed to win by three goals and, on another evening, that might have happened.
“I still think it was a big opportunity missed, and it was pretty typical of Scotland that we saved the best until last and Gemmill scored the goal of the tournament.
“But Ally was hung out to dry after that.”
Kennedy, who enjoyed tremendous success with the Dons and was part of the bus parade along a packed Union Street in 1983, soon picked up the pieces. But, for MacLeod, who died in 2004, life was never the same.
l Scotland 78: A Love Story will be shown on Wednesday on BBC1 from 9-10pm