I covered Scotland at France 98 - and the similarities with Steve Clarke's World Cup adventure are striking

Early model laptops that were no more than glorified word processors, wiring stories back to Scotland via a jack at the back of a landline handset. Ask your granny about dial-up internet, she might remember it.

Mobile phones the size of house bricks. No apps telling you what time the next train was coming, no GPS if you got lost; no such thing as Google translate to help fill in the gaps left by scraping a pass in O Grade French.

Paper tickets for everything from flights to crucial group stage fixtures. And accreditation ID based on digital photography so rudimentary that one colleague famously just ‘adopted’ another reporter’s identity when he replaced him at the tournament; the fact that there wasn’t even a ballpark resemblance between the pair didn’t seem to matter in an age of more relaxed security.

So much has changed since Scotland last competed at a World Cup. Technology and social media have completely transformed our daily lives in the intervening 27 years.

But good God, the similarities between what Steve Clarke has just pulled off and the boys of ’98 are remarkable. History doesn’t often repeat itself, but it sure as hell rhymes from time to time, right? Just consider the parallels.

An undervalued head coach leading a squad of undoubted quality – but just lacking that one world-class striker who might make all the difference in tight games. Yep, sounds familiar.

A restorative journey back to international relevance achieved through trauma and suffering, healing the spirit of a once-proud footballing nation in the process. Check and, yes, check.

A sense of sheer delirium once automatic qualification had been secured by topping a tough qualifying group? Oh, that never gets old.

Those were the days

Flying home from France on the morning after the night before in June of 1998, none of us could ever have imagined that it would take the thick end of three decades before Scotland returned to a World Cup. For a country that had qualified for five consecutive finals from West Germany in 1974 through Italia 90, being back in the big time felt like a return to normality; failure to make it to the USA in 94 was merely a blip.

Still, it would be hard to describe the mood as chipper on those flights home. For travel reasons that I never quite understood, being sat between Jim Leighton and Derek Whyte didn’t make the journey any more inspirational.

But that was the end of the adventure. And what an adventure it had been, beginning even before that opening game of the tournament in the newly-minted Stade de France, as Craig Brown’s unfancied underdogs came close to giving defending world champions Brazil – with THE Ronaldo leading the line - a shock.

The 1-1 draw with Norway was typically Scottish. Giving Brown’s boys a chance to do something no Scotland team had ever done by progressing to the knock-out stages of a major tournament. All we had to do was beat Morocco. Simple, right?

As it transpired, Norway beating the Brazilians with a late penalty in Marseille meant our own humiliating 3-0 defeat to the Moroccans at the St Etienne’s Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, a venue many of us would revisit with Scotland’s rugby team during an egg-chasing World Cup a few years down the line, counted for nothing. Not that it lessened the pain.

Still, having stormed through qualification with Champions League winner Paul Lambert at the heart of our midfield and Colin Hendry leading the defensive line, there was a confidence that Scotland would be back. Even if Brown, beloved in retrospect but regularly vilified by supporters during his reign, had reservations about a lack of frontline firepower leaving his team perpetually short of goals.

The dark ages

History tells us, of course, that Scotland wouldn’t return to ANY major finals until Clarke steered his team past Serbia in a penalty shoot-out to secure a spot at the delayed Euro 2020 finals. The two decades-plus that passed between tournament appearances were not, it must be said, a greatly enjoyable time to be a Scotland fan.

Sure, the late heartbreaks and agonising disappointments stand out. But there were entire campaigns, remember, when Scotland never even felt part of the process; we were hopeless outsiders never likely to trouble the scorers, feeling out of the running after three or four games.

Even after making it to back-to-back Euros under Clarke, there was an acceptance that we’d benefited enormously from expansion of the tournament. From making it to Euro 92 when only EIGHT nations competed, qualifying for a finals open to nearly half of all UEFA members was the bare minimum. Getting to a World Cup, now that would be a true test of this team’s quality, ability and drive.

The bigger the challenge, the great the opportunity

Voting for Scott McTominay in this year’s Ballon D’or was always going to draw abuse and accusations of small-minded nationalism from some quarters. One guy even reached out with an invitation on LinkedIn purely to take issue with the ballot cast.

But McTominay consistently produces when it matters. For Napoli and for Scotland. His overhead kick last night was just an example of what the big man does.

The truly great thing about an incredible 4-2 win over Denmark, of course, was the sheer number of individual heroes who emerged in a stunning collective performance. Not just the goal scorers, although McTominay, Lawrence Shankland, Kieran Tierney and Kenny ‘hit it’ McLean all deserve enormous credit, but every single starter and sub – including Grant Hanley being dropped into the first XI after John Souttar pulled up during the warm-up.

There’s character in this team. And genuine quality in key positions. Which is why they deserve every accolade coming to them between now and next summer.

Across Planet Football, there have been some incredible international stories of late. Haiti returning to a World Cup for the first time in half a century. Cape Verde shocking everyone to qualify for the finals in Canada, Mexico and the USA.

But Scotland’s achievement is up there. Scotland are up there, joining fellow group winners like Germany, France, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands, to name but a few. Exalted company. Exciting times. For all who were actually there in France all those years ago, it feels like a return to a happier era.