Jock Stein’s great legacy remains a driving force
Posted in News on Sunday September 4th, 2005 2:46pm
Having an exceptional memory has greatly enriched my enjoyment of life. I have always had excellent recall of places, incidents, detail. But when I think of Cardiff I always want to forget it.
Sir Alex Ferguson meant no disrespect to the city when he uttered those sentiments in his autobiography, Managing My Life; it was simply that Cardiff happened to be the location for the worst moment of his career. On the night Jock Stein died - the 20th anniversary is next Saturday - Ferguson was his assistant.
He was sitting beside the Scotland manager in the Ninian Park dug-out as Davie Cooper equalised from the penalty spot, all but ending Wales’s hopes of reaching the World Cup in Mexico the following year. A few minutes later, Stein, mistaking the referee’s award of a free-kick for the final whistle, had risen, perhaps to exchange a few words with his counterpart, Mike England, and stumbled. His heart had given out.
The succession fell to Ferguson, who steered Scotland through a two-legged play-off with Australia to their fourth consecutive World Cup, where they lost pardonably to West Germany and Denmark before being held 0-0 by 10 Uruguayans and coming home.
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