Feature Writer of the Year Kevin McKenna explains why Scotland's World Cup qualification last week was sweeter than all the the others

Psychologists have coined the term "core memories" to describe those childhood experiences that made us feel profoundly happy or sad or fearful. Mine mainly comprise big moments featuring Celtic, Jimmy Johnstone and the odd Scotland goal.

Even the echoes of my proper first date are coated with a patina of football. This was in March, 1979 when I’d forsaken Celtic v Aberdeen at Parkhead to go to the cinema with Eileen from my O-Grade English class. I don’t remember the film, but I do remember suddenly running across the road outside the Odeon cinema afterwards to get a copy of the Evening Times Pink final to find out the Celtic score. Bad move.

The Hoops had triumphed 1-0 with an Alfie Conn goal and a few days later I was gently informed there would be no second date.

If I were to choose the one big memory to bind them all, it would be Joe Jordan’s flying header against Czechoslovakia in September, 1973 that took Scotland to the World Cup in West Germany the following year. That and maybe Celtic’s title winning 4-2 victory against Rangers: my first ever big Glasgow Derby.

To qualify as core, a memory must possess a unique sorcery that allows your adult self to experience momentarily exactly what you felt as a child when the event happened. Memories play tricks, but core memories don’t. Nothing gets distorted or blurred: everything is just as it........

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