Yet in a fifteen minute period following that goal, Scotland's Under-Twenty-Threes scored three times themselves and all were works of no little skill and excitement. After twelve minutes a move started in midfield by Conn ended with Craig curling a twenty-yard volley wide of Harvey.

Four minutes later Conn scored himself after arching his body and shielding the ball past three Leeds defenders before hitting a fine right-footed cross shot which beat the Leeds goalkeeper for its pace and placement.

That brought the crowd, whose shouting rebounded off the Hampden concrete, truly alive.They had more patriotic pleasure in the twenty-seventh minute when Forsyth struck a twenty-yard free-kick round the wall and into the back of the net before Harvey had time to move.

One could positively feel Jock Stein beaming in the dug-out for this was encouraging play from the side which he takes to Roumania for the under-age championship match at the end of the month. They had proved themselves in this little segment.

Leeds, however struck back before half-time when Lorimer scored his second goal with a fierce shot from the edge of the penalty area. Even at half-pace the European Cup pretenders contrived to look menacing.

We expected the crowd to grow after the interval as news spread of the Under-Twenty-Threes lead and the taxis hastened from the city to Hampden. As it was the only traffic jam centred around the substitutes' bench.

Leeds called off Harvey, Reaney and Jordan, replacing them with Letheren, Cherry and McKenzie. Stein replaced McCluskey with Miller as he promised and then, cautiously, put on the defender Smith for the striker Pettigrew.

There were signs from both the managers and the players that a result was important to all of them.

The second half, in fact, lacked much of the fluency that had gone before. Scotland using Miller to defend behind the steady partnership of Narey and Young tried to sit on their lead. They replaced Gray with Kilmarnock's Gordon Smith as Stein tried to spread the load around as many players as possible.

The most noticeable event was a piece of obstruction by Bremner on the admirable Conn. From the grandstand one heard the most amazing shout of the season directed at the Leeds captain: "Go home, you English git!"

The last substitution was Houston for Forsyth, who was cheered off the park for his performance. The match ran its course, pleasurably, and with no little satisfaction for Stein's men kept their lead until the end. The victory was a credit to them."