After 47 years..My old man & his great World Cup odyssey

IT WAS the trip of a lifetime for one of Scotland's best known writers - William Mcllvanney headed off on a great adventure to see Scotland play in the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. The celebrated author and four friends joined the Tartan Army for the long trek to South America, all the time dreaming of glory.

- BY LIAM MCILVANNEY Author and lecturer

It was a journey his son Liam, also now a prize-winning author, remembers Mcllvanney taking ... but he had never seen images of the expedition until they were unearthed by the Sunday Mail. Today, on Father's Day, Liam, 56, recalls his dad's voyage and, for the first time, marvels at the mishaps, joy and fun of the great Argentinian jaunt.

WHEN my father and four fellow Tartan Army footsoldiers set off to follow Scotland in the 1978 World Cup, they flew to New York and travelled overland to Argentina.

This was a way of extending the adventure, turning a trip into an expedition. But it also allowed Peter Stone, the formidable Daily Mirror photo-grapher, to document their odyssey in an absorbing sequence of images that have newly come to light, thanks to the research by the Sunday Mail and Mirrorpix. When my father set off on his travels, I was nine years old.

I'd attended my first Scotland match two years before - an unlikely 6-0 demolition of Finland under the Hampden lights, Andy Gray scoring twice - but nothing prepared me for the madness of 1978.