IT is only now that Alan Rough can joke about the calamity which was the 1978 World Cup.

Well, he can smile about the 3-1 defeat to Peru. The draw against Iran is still a touchy subject, as is the reception Scotland received on their return after their failure to win the trophy, which had of course been predicted by Ally MacLeod.

“It’s incredible to think it’s 40 years ago,” said Rough. I’m surprised we’ve not had a reunion dinner. Everybody else has had one.”

If such a shindig had been organised, there would have been more laughs in one night than in the weeks that squad had in its four weeks in Argentina.

Scotland face Peru next Tuesday and, for all sorts of reasons the memories come flooding back to Rough about a time in his football life he will never be allowed to forget.

“When we saw the section and we had drawn Peru and Iran, we were naïve,” said Rough. “We didn’t know anything about them. They weren’t big sides in the tournament. We went there with big expectations.

“At the end of the day, the preparation for the whole thing was a bit of a shambles. We never really knew much about their players individually to tell you the truth.

“Ally was very much ‘it’s all about us rather than them’ sort of thing. That is the way we went out and played the game.

“We didn’t know about Teofilo Cubillas and the rest of them. They weren’t household names. You would normally now at least two of a country’s players.

“We didn’t know any of them at all because they hadn’t come to the forefront at club football or international football.”

Cubillas scored a stunning free-kick past Rough and was, in fact, rather famous, what with him being Peru’s best player and all.

But this being Scotland, and this being Argentina, everything went wrong in that first game, despite taking the lead.

At least Iran were in the group and that surely would be the easiest of wins.

“The next game was more disappointing than Peru,” said Rough. “We’ll not talk about that. That was desperate. That was the worst ever game that anybody could play in.

“The heads were down, nobody could lift themselves for that at all. After getting beaten by Peru we looked at the Iran game and said ‘alright, we’re not out of this yet’.

“You always think when you go to the World Cup you have to win your first game. If you don’t win your first game you are under pressure.

“But we still had Iran to go and were thinking ‘three points in the bag’. But as I said, that was probably the worst Scotland game I ever played in.”

Scotland, being Scotland, then beat Holland, arguably the best team in the world, but still it wasn’t enough and a squad which was sent off as heroes by a full Hampden Park was greeted an angry mob in Glasgow.

“The scenes leaving and returning were completely different,” recalled Rough.

“I remember when the plane was coming into Glasgow Airport and I looked out the window and saw the fans on the tarmac.

“Ally was saying ‘oh look there’s a wee reception for us, it doesn’t look too bad’

“I was thinking – wait until we get closer! And when we did we could see some of the banners. People had lost it completely. It was incredible.

“But when we got to Glasgow there was only about five of us on the plane. We had stopped off first in London and the Anglos got off.

“I wondered why the Aberdeen boys got off in London and then I realised!”

Alan Rough was speaking at an event to promote Hampden Park, Scotland’s National Stadium