Daddy of all World Cups

Watching Scots perform heroics with loved ones has brought the nation together

- BY AUSTIN BARRETT

IT'S been almost a week since it happened but I'm still trapped in the moment.

Walking home at 6am with the sun high in the sky and Scotland even higher, top of our World Cup group.

It's been a helluva long time since I staggered home to the tune of the dawn chorus after a night out, even longer since I watched Scotland win a match at the greatest show on turf.

The sheer unbridled joy of last Sunday morning's celebrations after John McGinn's deflected winner will stay with me forever. These are memories to last a lifetime, filed in the mental library alongside Narey's toe bash v Brazil, Strachan's leg-up v West Germany and MoJo's penalty against Sweden.

Tonight we go again and a nation holds its collective breath as Scotland take on Morocco knowing a win will almost certainly send us into the knockout stages of a World Cup for the first time.

What really stayed with me after our bonkers Boston victory over Haiti was the togetherness of the whole thing.

The lucky souls in the States who had tickets got the best of it and their post-match celebrations have become the stuff of legend. But those of us watching back home on the other side of the world had a bloody good time too.

For me, it wasn't what I watched, it was who I watched it with. My son Joe, his pals and my mates. Dads and lads, together in tension, screaming at the telly in my mate John's house.