IT IS the goal described as the greatest of all time. A darting, swerving run from Archie Gemmill which cut the Dutch defence to ribbons in the 1978 World Cup.
However, few members of the Tartan Army can claim to be as fanatical as John Low, who is travelling almost 4,000 miles to the Mendoza stadium in an effort to recreate it.
With Scotland having failed to qualify for Euro 2008, he instead chose to jo
in supporters of the national rugby team on a tour of Argentina with the intention of paying homage to Gemmill's wonder strike.
Low, from Castle Douglas, who was president of Stewarty Rugby Club for 16 years, was in Rosario yesterday and plans to be in Buenos Aeries for the rugby test on Saturday, but his real reason for making the journey will take place on Wednesday afternoon in Mendoza.
At 2pm, Low will attempt to take to the Mendoza football pitch with a football and recreate Gemmill's run and shot.
He said: "I missed the original goal because my first wife ran away with my best friend and neighbour so I was going through a messy divorce at the time and that has always niggled me.
"So I just wanted to pay my own tribute to the best goal in the World Cup. I haven't organised anything at the stadium so I'll just have to wing it and hope I get onto the pitch."
It is not the first time Gemmill's goal has been recreated – 200 children performed a dance routine based on in his mazy run at Hampden Park, in Glasgow, in 2001.
The dancers recreated Gemmill's feints, turns, composed finish and celebratory punch of the air.
Scotland's 1978 World Cup campaign had been a disastrous affair – defeat against Peru and a draw with Iran sandwiched a failed drugs test by Willie Johnston, which saw him sent home in disgrace.
However, in their final game Scotland almost managed to snatch success from the jaws of failure against the mighty Dutch who, even with Johann Cruyff boycotting the tournament for political reasons, were one of the favourites.
Holland took the lead through a Rensenbrink penalty but the Scots rallied, with Kenny Dalglish grabbing an equalising goal.
Just after the break, Archie Gemmill converted a Scottish penalty to give the Scots the lead, but his moment of glory was still to come.
With 70 minutes gone and Scotland still needing two goals to qualify for the second round, Gemmill picked up the ball on the right wing and began to race towards the Dutch box.
His mazy, jinking run took him past three defenders and he deftly chipped the ball over onrushing Dutch goalkeeper Jan Jongbloed and into the net, a goal universally rated as one of the finest of all time.
Scotland were now just one score away from qualifying for the next round. Sadly, Holland's Johnny Rep unleashed a thunderbolt of a shot past Alan Rough to bring the score to 3-2 and Scotland were out.
Despite coming up so cruelly short, Gemmill's goal was not forgotten and is still talked about to this day, and no doubt will be for the next 30 years as well.
The full article contains 540 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
