Exactly five years ago Joe Hart sat slumped and shattered on the Hampden turf.
As the Tartan Army jubilantly celebrated two magnificent Leigh Griffiths free-kicks, the foxed England goalkeeper was staring into the international abyss.
Hart was on his way out. The knives were already being sharpened after weak goals lost the previous summer at Euro 2016 to Wales’ Gareth Bale and Iceland’s Kolbeinn Sigthorsson.
Those blades were buried in his back by his critics after Griffiths hurled him left and right without getting near his finishes.
Hart’s fate was sealed. He wasn’t instantly disregarded, but he won only four more caps under Gareth Southgate. Within five months, he was out.
By the time the World Cup Finals in 2018 came around, Jordan Pickford has taken over between the posts. He’s been there ever since.
Hart had already been robbed of his big Champions League nights after Pep Guardiola swung the Manchester City axe and dumped him out of the Etihad.
However, he is going back on Europe’s elite stage with Celtic in the next couple of months as his revival gathers pace.
Is it possible that Hart could also complete the other comeback by using that Champions League springboard to bounce back onto England duty? At Qatar in the World Cup Finals?
It’s probably unlikely, but at least he’s got a chance.
It’s not quite the same fairy story for his chief torturer on June 10, 2017.
While Hart has been on a rollercoaster which is now back on the ascent since that day at Hampden, things have also changed dramatically for Griffiths.
At that time, the striker’s career was soaring as high and as spectacularly as the two set-pieces from his wand of a left peg that day.
Griffiths had just helped Brendan Rodgers win his first title at Celtic and the free-kicks ticked another important box as they were his first international goals.
On that day, he spoke about having just one more big landmark to tick off. To score in the group stages of the Champions League.
Within four months, he’d done just that by bagging against Anderlecht in an emphatic away win for Rodgers’ team in Brussels.
Either side of that counter against the Belgians, he added to his Scotland tally against both Malta and Slovenia to cement himself as Scotland’s No.1 striker.
But now it is all changed. While Hart is looking forward to facing the elite of Europe again, Griffiths is on the look-out for a club.
As the Englishman rose back to the heights under Ange Postecoglou, the attacker, who amassed 123 goals in his Parkhead career, was struggling to find form in spells at Dundee and Falkirk after the Parkhead club let him leave.
Where he was once the main man, the likes of Kyogo Furuhashi and Giorgis Giakoumakis have taken his mantle.
Internationally, it’s the likes of Lyndon Dykes, Che Adams and Ross Stewart who are in the position that Griffiths once held.
At the age of 31, it’s about a million to one he’ll ever get back there. Those memorable Hampden moments can’t be repeated.
But, although he’s four years older at 35, Hart still has hope of exorcising the ghost.
Obviously, it’s still a long shot. Southgate has shown a tendency to go for youth and new ideas since his appointment and, despite recent harsh criticism of him following last week’s loss to Hungary, his achievements back his theory.
Semi-finals of a World Cup in 2018. The Final of Euro 2020. Both with Pickford in the sticks.
But there are still doubters out there over Pickford. His form at Everton rose over the closing weeks of the Premier League season as the Toffees dodged the drop, but he’s been under scrutiny and lost another saveable goal against Germany on Tuesday night.
The back-up hasn’t emerged as hoped. Aaron Ramsdale is making strides at Arsenal and is part of the current group, but so is Nick Pope and he’s just been relegated with Burnley.
Pope will get a move to boost his Qatar hopes. Fraser Forster has already had one to Spurs, but he’s got little hope of ousting Hugo Lloris. The former Celtic star may just have given up his hopes.
Southampton’s Alex McCarthy has just returned from long-term injury. Jack Butland can’t keep a regular spot at Crystal Palace. Dean Henderson won’t get past David De Gea at Manchester United.
Right now, Hart won’t get in. But six years after his last Champions League outing for City in a qualifier against Steaua Bucharest, returning there offers the shard of light, especially if he performs at a high level.
Age aside, how could Southgate overlook six top-class performances from Hart in the biggest tournament in club football in favour of boys sitting twiddling their gloves on benches across England when it comes to picking even his third keeper for Qatar?
Hart’s former team-mate Trevor Sinclair has already stated his old colleague could do it as he said: “Joe has put himself right up there with the top keepers in Scotland.
“He’s got the experience. And, you never know, that England door might not be completely closed.
“Stranger things have happened, particularly if he is playing Champions League next year. Let’s hope so.”
It is exactly five years today since Hampden. When England fly to Qatar in November, it’ll be exactly five years after Hart’s last England appearance in a friendly against Brazil.
For a long time, that Wembley game against the South Americans looked to be his last. Maybe now that’s not 100 per cent guaranteed.
