When Scotland enraged Van Basten & won the Under-18 European Championship in 1982

“I said I was going away studying… but then she saw the back page of the papers.”

Pat Nevin was never particularly enamoured with being a footballer. A “very serious-minded young chap”, he recoiled at the notion of telling people that he was one, lest they be seduced by the glamour of him playing part-time for Clyde.

His girlfriend knew about his Saturday secret, but Nevin kept his international activities quiet. And why not? As one of the few players in Andy Roxburgh’s squad not signed as a professional, he wasn’t sure he’d get a game in Finland.

“I was a part-time footballer and a full-time business studies student, that was my mindset,” says Nevin, who has reunited the squad for the documentary. “There were probably team-talks where I wasn’t concentrating because I was thinking about economic theory…”

Others were more focused on football. Centre-back Neale Cooper and forward Eric Black had both established themselves as part of Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen side – so much so that they, along with goalkeeper Bryan Gunn, were unavailable for the finals because it clashed with the Scottish Cup final against Rangers.

All three had been part of the team that beat England 3-2 on aggregate to qualify; a 1-0 win at Ibrox followed by a 2-2 draw in Coventry.

“That was the moment people started to think ‘oh aye, this lot are no bad’,” recalls Roxburgh, now 78. “But the Aberdeen boys being out put a dampener on things because they were the spine of the team.”

Their absence called for a little ingenuity on the part of the coach and his assistant, Walter Smith. “We had no clear-cut striker, so we ended up being ahead of our time by playing what they’d now call a ‘false nine’,” Roxburgh recalls, proudly.

Nevin and Tottenham prodigy Alli Dick were the two furthest forward players, but were detailed to occupy wide areas, with Hearts midfielder Gary Mackay breaking into the space between them.

And the plan worked. Albania were thrashed 3-0, and Turkey eased aside 2-0, meaning a draw with the Netherlands would be enough to advance.

“I sent Walter to watch them,” Roxburgh says. “He came back and said: ‘No chance. The boy Marco van Basten is magnificent, Gerald Vanderburg in midfield is terrific, and the goalkeeper is outstanding’.

“And I remember saying we’d just have to fight them, in that case.”

Van Basten gave the Dutch the lead, but a late leveller by Dundee United defender Gary McGinnis put the Scots through. Dick, who went on to sign for Ajax, remembers future team-mate Van Basten grumbling about the outcome years later.

The point secured a semi-final with Poland, beaten finalists 12 months earlier. “You could tell five or 10 minutes in ‘we can do them’,” Nevin says. And the Scots did, earning a comfortable 2-0 victory to set up a final with Czechoslovakia.

But Nevin had a problem. He was scheduled to have a university exam the afternoon after the final.

“When we reached the semis, I was gubbed because I had to knuckle down to my studying,” he says. “I worked out I could manage both if we reached the final, but my one worry was that the plane would be delayed.”