You know what to do: Scotland vs England, May '72
Perhaps the pitch invader at the start of the second half had summed the pantomime up. Emerging from the Scotland fans in a dark suit with white pocket square, he was carrying a tartan scarf and a bunch of flowers, the first to wave to the crowd, the second to throw at Norman Hunter.
The centenary FA Cup final, at the beginning of May 1972, was intended as a celebration of 100 years of the Football Association. They must have felt a little deflated when their least favoured of soccer's latecomers, 53 year old Leeds United, beat Arsenal 1-0.
By the end of the month, when Scotland and England played at Hampden Park to decide the fate of the Home Championship, celebrations were long forgotten, as British football settled back into its perpetual early 1970s rancour. Leeds were denied the double by a double whammy of Wolves and the Football League, who ordered the game played on Monday after Leeds won the cup on Saturday; Brian Clough greeted the news of his first title win with characteristic smugness from his holiday on the Isles of Scilly. He was less happy when, despite that achievement and his personal publicity campaigns, Don Revie was voted manager of the year, and given a £1,000 cheque by Bell's whisky, for the third time in four seasons.
The day after it was announced, Clough and Revie were due to sit together to analyse Saturday's international for the BBC; I wish I had the footage, but presume Clough resisted the urge to smash anything up. There'd been enough of that in Barcelona that week, where Rangers fans had celebrated winning the European Cup Winners' Cup by invading the pitch, there met by, according to the Reuters correspondent, 'Franco's Fascist police in action.' Rangers were given the trophy in a room under the main stand, and after an hour of violence, stadium officials claimed they retrieved 2,000 whisky bottles from the pitch; fighting had carried on in the streets outside, and Dynamo Moscow were demanding a replay.
Back in Glasgow, attention turned to violence carried out by players. Inspired by Peter Lorimer scoring a goal each against Northern Ireland — Denis Law got another against them — and Wales, Scotland only needed a point to win the Home Championship. England had seen off Wales 3-0 but lost to Northern Ireland, so needed a win over Scotland to force them into sharing the title: the rules were two points for a win, and goal difference wasn't counted.