So what do you give a man for his 60th birthday? Personalised cufflinks, a tankard that reads “grumpy old git” or a 1957 edition of The Times? Gerry Martin would doubtless be happy with any of those, but here is a better idea.
When he enters his seventh decade on Saturday, the Easterhouse lad who moved to England when he was a young man would love nothing better than to see his son, Chris, born and brought up south of the border, score the winner for Scotland at Hampden Park.
It’s not such a leap of the imagination. Martin junior kept alive Scotland’s World Cup qualifying hopes with a late strike against Slovenia in March. If he can repeat the feat in Saturday’s Group F tie against England, his old man will think all his birthdays have come at once.
After all, had it not been for Gerry, the 28-year-old Suffolk-born striker would never have donned a Scotland shirt. “My dad moved to England when he was 20 or 21,” says Martin. “He’s the reason I am here. He’s been a big part in the Scottish bandwagon and the family are all up here. He was always strong on our Scottish heritage so I never had the choice. You don’t mess with your dad. We’ve never been allowed to forget where we’re from.”
Around 15 of Martin’s friends and family travelled north for the Slovenia game. They must have felt for him when an outbreak of jeering greeted his arrival as a late substitute, but his 88th-minute shot, squeezed into the far corner after Stuart Armstrong’s pass, silenced the critics.
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It was the perfect riposte to those who have doubted Martin, an honest, hard-working Derby County striker who is something of an acquired taste at international level. He is a handy target man who holds the ball up well, but he lacks pace and it sometimes seems as though Gordon Strachan is his only ardent admirer.
Still, if he is going to score goals as valuable as the one against Slovenia, the Tartan Army will be queuing up to apologise. “I’ve not had too many of them saying sorry,” he says with a smile. “They don’t need to apologise to me. They can voice their opinion all they like. Hopefully I can change their minds if they don’t have a high opinion in the first place. I am a professional and my job is to get out on the pitch and get the winner. I was lucky enough for that to happen.
“I am still on a high from it now. The memories are still fresh. It was pretty special as it got us back on track. As much as we tried to play it down at the time, it was a vital win for us. I was really happy with it and hopefully we can take the confidence from that in to Saturday.”
Not that he is certain to play against England. Martin was hooked at half time when the teams met at Celtic Park in 2014. Leigh Griffiths was a bright attacking presence in the 3-0 defeat at Wembley in November. The two players are so different that you wonder if they would not work better as a partnership.
Whatever happens, it has been a memorable season for Martin, albeit not always for the right reasons. Quite apart from the Scotland goal and the booing, he has had an emotional time at domestic level, torn between Derby and Fulham, the club where he spent most of the campaign on loan.
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When Steve McClaren, under whom Martin had been successful before, returned for a second stint as Derby manager, there was speculation that the striker’s loan spell would be cut short. Fulham did not release him, he was accused of going on strike and, now that he is back with his parent club, he has yet another new manager in Gary Rowett.
“It’s been crazy,” says Martin. “I don’t want to go into too much detail but if I told people what happened they just wouldn’t believe me. There were certain things said during the January transfer window that didn’t come from myself. That’s the hardest part — trying to deal with things that I had no attachment to.
“It’s been tumultuous, probably the strangest season of my entire career, especially off the field. Football is like that at times. It can be a rollercoaster, but not all in the one season.
“Sometimes you need to ride the wave and hopefully I can top it off with a real high against England.”