England vs Scotland: Alan Shearer, Tony Adams, Ally McCoist and Gary McAllister recollect on famous Euro 96 encounter at Wembley
Legends recall game twenty years ago which has gone down in history for the dentist chair celebration
IT WAS the summer of hope for England.
Three Lions on the shirts . . . but Terry Venables’ Euro 96 squad were on the rack.
His stars had been hammered for the ‘Dentist’s Chair’ booze- up in Hong Kong and the damage aboard the flight home.
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The mood got no better with a miserable 1-1 draw against Switzerland and next was a make-or-break clash with Scotland.
SunSport talks to ALAN SHEARER, TONY ADAMS, ALLY McCOIST and GARY McALLISTER about that famous day.
TONY ADAMS says the 2-0 win over Scotland at a packed Wembley was the “turning point” for the Three Lions.
England’s Euro 96 skipper recalled: “We’d got off to a poor start against Switzerland.
“There were a lot of factors in that, the heat, the nerves, picking up the pace of the game.
“The hype and build-up to the Scotland game was amazing with all the ‘Football’s Coming Home’ feel-good stuff. But we had to get our heads into football and get used to the atmosphere.”
ALLY McCOIST was Scotland’s strike leader and like the rest of Craig Brown’s side, he believed Scotland were ready to pull off a Wembley upset.
He said: “England were under massive pressure that day. They had drawn with Switzerland, even though Alan Shearer had put them ahead, and we thought they were a wee bit vulnerable.
“I will tell you that right now. We so fancied it.”
ALAN SHEARER had broken his 12-game England scoring drought in that 1-1 draw and admits the players were feeling the heat ahead of facing the Auld Enemy.
Shearer said: “There was huge pressure on us and not just because it was Scotland.
“We’d come into the tournament with the ‘Dentist’s Chair’ still hanging over us — although I was hiding in a corner to be fair!
“After Switzerland we knew that questions were going to be asked. It was billed as win or bust as we had to face Holland in our final game.
“So it was understandably a loud but also tense atmosphere.”
That atmosphere appeared to be affecting England more than the visitors.
The hosts laboured in the first half but Terry Venables made a bold change, sending on Jamie Redknapp for Stuart Pearce. Eight minutes into the second period, his bravery was rewarded.
SHEARER: “When Gary Neville got a ball wide on the right I trusted where it was going to go.
“We had worked on it and he put in a brilliant cross which I met with a header at the far post.
“My confidence in an England shirt had returned after the Switzerland goal but I don’t think I have celebrated a goal quite so much as that one against the Scots. Of course it’s not a goal many people remember because of what happened next.”
What happened next was two of the most remarkable minutes in the history of England — and Scotland — tournament football.
ADAMS: “When Shearer had headed home we knew we were as good as in the quarter-finals. But I had a bit of a nightmare when I brought down Gordon Durie to give away the penalty. I was sickened conceding it like that.”
Wembley held its breath.
McCOIST: “I should have taken it. Not taking that penalty is the biggest regret of my career.
“We decided before the game who was taking a penalty if we got one at Wembley. That’s wrong, the more I think about it.
“Sometimes it takes a bigger man to walk away.
“But the penalty-taker should be someone who really fancies it. Someone who is 100 per cent confident and really wants to take it.
“I wanted to be that guy. I might have taken it and missed it, I suppose. But it is, without doubt, my biggest regret.
“It would have changed the game. We would have beaten England.”
Instead, the responsibility fell on Gary McAllister. As he stepped up, for no reason on a breathless day, the ball oscillated.
McALLISTER recalled: “It always comes down to the penalty miss. That will never go away.
“That’s something I have to live with. I still get wee flashbacks about it.
“After I planted my left leg, in the millisecond before I struck the ball with my right, the ball moves.
“It’s like a golfer lining up a putt on a windy day and just as he pulls the club back it moves a fraction, just enough to be noticeable and affect your swing.
“Everyone’s seen Tiger Woods stop addressing a putt when something like it happens. I was the same — the only difference was that I didn’t stop.
“In that fraction of a second, everything went through my head. I had a vision of one of those videos of football gaffes where players in non-league games fall over the ball.
“I decided as I drew my foot back to go for power rather than accuracy — and you know the rest.
“It was a great save by David Seaman. It hits him on the elbow and spins over the bar.”
ADAMS, bailed out by his Arsenal club-mate, was the first to react: “When David saved it I rushed over to plant a big kiss on his head.
“He recently sent me a photo of the moment for my 50th birthday!”
McALLISTER: “There’s no doubt in my mind, if I’d scored we’d have won.
“It was a period of the game when we were on top. But I missed and we never really recovered.”
England defended the corner and immediately launched a counter-attack. Teddy Sheringham won the long ball, Darren Anderton played it instantly forward and suddenly Paul Gascoigne was confronted by just Colin Hendry.
SHEARER: “Gazza produced a moment of brilliance.
“I knew Colin well from our time together at Blackburn and knew he’d be fuming at the way he was fooled.
“But it was just a piece of magic that sometimes no defender can legislate for.”
ADAMS: “Gazza was really up for it that day, wanting to impress the country where he earned his living at that time with Rangers.
“I was 50 yards behind looking through a group of players, wondering what he was going to do next.
“It was a great goal, but the defender in me took over.
“I was thinking about how Colin Hendry was allowing Gazza to lob him. I wouldn’t have let him do that to me!
“But it was an outstanding goal, that lob over Colin then volleying past Andy Goram.”
McCOIST: “It was a piece of absolute genius by Gazza.”
And so was the celebration.
SHEARER: “We had decided on the celebration before the tournament if Gazza scored and I was one of those re-enacting the Dentist’s Chair night as we squirted water in his mouth.
“But we had turned the situation round and now people were laughing about it.
“The atmosphere afterwards in the dressing room was brilliant and the manager let us all have a few drinks that night back at the hotel.”
ADAMS: “Gazza got the brandy and cigars out at Burnham Beeches where we were based as befitting his self- image there as lord of the manor!”
England went on to thrash Holland 4-1 en route to the semi-finals, while Scotland failed to get out of the group.
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McCOIST: “To be fair to England, they did their absolute best to help us qualify by knocking Holland for four while we beat Switzerland 1-0.
“But Seaman lost a late goal through his legs and it wasn’t enough for us and we were out.
“How Scottish is that? It sums us up. Our best ever chance of qualifying for the knockouts for the first time and an English goalkeeper letting one through his legs does us in.”
SHEARER: “Beating Scotland in a home tournament was one of the greatest days I’ve had in football.”