The start of the 70s was not a successful period for Scotland and manager Bobby Brown. Even although they shared the 1970 British Championships with England and Wales, Scotland only won two of their first eleven games of the decade and only scored three goals. Brown had to cope with many depleted squads due to the “club v country” battle, but in the summer of '71 Scotland and Brown parted company.

On 12th September 1971 Tommy Docherty became Scotland's caretaker manager, and was appointed full time manager in November. Scotland's results transformed and Scotland won five of their first six games under Docherty. Scotland won their final two qualifiers for Euro '72 under Docherty, but it was too late as Scotland had lost three of their first four games, and therefore they failed to qualify for the latter stages. The 1972 British Championships was shared with England, before Scotland took part in the Brazilian Independence Cup with games against Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and Brazil.