After five flights to Germany I’m gutted – but it was worth it – BBC News

It took Jim Taggart five flights to get to Germany to follow his beloved Scotland team. And it’ll take five more to get back home to the Yukon in Canada.

Scotland are out of the Euros but the former Glaswegian is not down.

“It’s a long way – five flights – but it was worth it,” he told BBC Scotland News.

“It’s been a long long time since we qualified without Covid being around so I think we all had to be here.”

As fellow Tartan Army foot soldiers pack up their camper vans around him in Stuttgart, Jim is philosophical.

He says: “Some of the football’s been good, some of it not so good. But I wouldn’t want to miss it.

“I am gutted, disappointed, angry sad, but it is not totally unexpected given the form we have had over the last eight or so games.

“I thought we would maybe find some way of being eliminated as Scotland always does.”

Despite a marathon plane journey home, he says he is already looking forward to the next one.

Three games on, she is proud the team got to the tournament – but the disappointment is palpable.

Fiona and her husband Graeme took their trip to Germany seriously.

“Before the draw in December, we knew where the possible venues would be – so we had a few flights booked that were cancellable.

“On the day of the draw, Graeme watched and put our plans into action to secure the travel.”

Their plans were months in the making, with their trip taking in all three games and some travel around Germany.

They even knew which pubs they would visit on the way to the matches.

She describes the Monday mood as “proud but disappointed”.

Fiona and Graeme are heading home to Seafield in West Lothian. A relief for Graeme who was running out of leave days, but they had planned to return.

Fiona says: “I booked three and half weeks off work in a vague optimism. If we qualified we were probably going to go home for a few days then come back out.”

John Campbell from Winchburgh in West Lothian laments “One goal could have kept us here another week”.

Instead he is packing up the camper van and heading home after three weeks in Germany.

“Munich was incredible, Cologne was incredible, Stuttgart was incredible. Unfortunately the performance on the park hasn’t matched the desire of the fans.”

His trip – cut short now – was decades in the making.

“Since 1998, my wife and I have waited to be able to come to a European championship to do this.

“Germany has been special, the people have been fantastic, the Tartan Army has been incredible – the football not so great – but that’s what it means being a Scotland fan.

“One goal last night and we would have stayed another week and seen where we ended up next weekend.”

Josh Henderson is a public health practitioner for the NHS in Glasgow.

He has followed Scotland for almost 15 years. But this was the first big tournament he travelled to.

“Last night was a sore one,” he says. “We needed to go for the jugular but we were really passive. It’s gut wrenching.”

But he has had a ball in Germany: “To be there in the stadium to kick off the tournament with my friends was extra special. The past 12 days has been the trip of a lifetime.

“I’ve had to take a significant amount of time off work.

“Financially it has been really hard going, in terms of the amount of money we have had to shell out.

“But we said we would have paid anything to be here, it was just that important. Now I have got this experience forever.”

In the cold light of day, thought, Josh has realised that there is a silver lining.

“I’ve realised I have probably saved myself £600 or £700 because I don’t have to come back next week.”

But he already has his eyes on the next trip.

“We’ll go home, back to work and the day-to-day routine and we’ll start thinking about the Nations League games – and how we are going to qualify for the World Cup.”