David Moyes on betting with Kevin Keegan, dressing like the Bay City Rollers and cheering on Scotland against England

JUNE 1977, Wembley. Gordon McQueen’s header, Kenny Dalglish running the English defence ragged, and thousands of jubilant Scottish fans spilling onto the Wembley pitch, smashing up the crossbar and goalposts to create some of the most iconic images in the history of the world’s oldest international footballing rivalry.

Every Scottish football supporter of a certain vintage claims to have been there, and to this day, thousands of Scottish back gardens are said to contain clumps of Wembley turf.

David Moyes was 14 at the time, a proud Glaswegian who had travelled to London on a bus with his dad. He remembers both Scottish goals vividly, and was as captivated as anyone by the unforgettable post-match scenes.

Just being at Wembley to witness one of Scotland’s greatest days would have been enough, but a chance encounter with an English legend means he has even fonder memories of a remarkable afternoon.

“I remember it as the day when Kevin Keegan bet me a fiver,” said the Sunderland boss, who will be back at Wembley on Friday night when England and Scotland renew rivalries in a World Cup qualifier. “I was sitting in a seat in the stand, near my dad, and I remember looking round and seeing Kevin Keegan and Joe Corrigan.

“Scotland were 1-0 up at half-time, and Kevin tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘I bet you a fiver that England win’. I was a wee boy, and a fiver was quite a lot of money, but my dad said, ‘Aye’.

“As it was, Scotland won 2-1, and he handed the fiver over. He got up and left about two or three minutes before the end, and he handed the fiver over.

“I kept that fiver for years! And then I must have had a girlfriend or something because I took her out with it and spent it. That was it. I kept it for years, Kevin Keegan’s fiver. Mind you that’s maybe just because I’m Scottish!”

Moyes was raised in the heyday of England vs Scotland encounters, when the game was the annual centrepiece of the Home Nations Championship.

There have been memorable encounters since – Paul Gascoigne’s dink over Colin Hendry’s head at Euro 96, Paul Scholes’ Hampden double in the play-off to reach Euro 2000 – but the rivalry between the Auld Enemies has dimmed somewhat since the fever-pitch of the 1970s and 80s.

Back then, a match between England and Scotland was the undisputed highlight of the footballing year. On Friday, around 5,000 Scottish fans will be inside Wembley, cheering on their side. Three decades ago, it was not uncommon for closer to 50,000 to make the cross-border trip to support their team.

The Moyes family were a regular fixture in the travelling hordes, with the current Sunderland boss often resplendent in his Bay City Rollers attire.

“My dad used to run the buses from Glasgow,” he said. “We lived in a part of Glasgow called Anniesland, in the West End, and we would all get on the buses. My dad let my pals come, so there were three or four of us, and we all went down.

“Everybody had a kilt on, and everybody was completely ‘tartaned’ up. I didn’t wear a kilt, I probably had my Bay City Rollers trousers on, that was more what I was like.

“We only had one hotel room with four of us in it. I’m sure most lads have done this, they’ve been there – two of us would book in, then the other two would come up to the room.

“There were thousands of us going down to London. You couldn’t walk down the aisle (of the bus) – there were two seats either side – because of the cases of beer all the way down. People would get on at Motherwell and Hamilton, and we’d be stopping for a pee every 15 minutes! You would see it running down the floor of the bus, if you know what I mean!

“Those stories were legendary. One of the times we broke down just getting into London, off the M1 at Brent Cross, and we’d been on for it for I don’t know how many hours. Everybody got off the bus, and I tell you what – we were just young boys – but all the older men were lifting their kilts up to every car coming past!

“Those times were great times going to the games, and it used to be so many Scotch would go, who didn’t have tickets. Nowadays, people would say ‘Don’t do that’, but that was the case. There were so many people who went without tickets, who tried to get into the game.”

Back then, Scotland were a major force in world football. The 1977 win, which secured Scotland the Home Nations title, preceded an appearance at the 1978 World Cup finals, with manager Ally McLeod telling his ‘Army’ that the trophy would be heading to Glasgow.

Today, things are different. Scotland have not competed at a major tournament since 1998, started the current round of World Cup qualifiers as fourth seeds, and already face a huge task to make it to Russia having picked up just one point from their last two matches against Slovakia and Lithuania.

Moyes, whose love of his country is immediately apparent, is regularly tipped as a future Scotland boss, but he concedes Strachan is wrestling with an impossible task and regards England as likely winners on Friday night.

“Scotland will hope to catch them out with a wee bit of uncertainty, but England are big favourites,” he said. “You only have to look at the quality of the squads.

“The hard thing for Gordon Strachan is that if you compare Scotland to Wales, they’ve got five or six good Premier League players, and then also one of the world superstars at the moment with Gareth Bale.

“Even Northern Ireland have four or five Premier League players – Jonny Evans, Gareth McAuley, Steven Davis. Scotland don’t have many at that level.

“Scott Brown coming back will help with his experience, but I think we need Kenny Dalglish to come out of retirement and a few others – Jim Baxter – to come and help us.

“When you’re an international manager, it’s very difficult because you can’t go and sign a player to make a difference. I think it’ll be a tough game for Scotland, but we’ve always had a pretty good record going there.”