Four years later, they didn't even have to set foot outside the front door after suffering the ignominy of failing to qualify - and it was the same story in '78.
That year it was the turn of the Scots to take the charts by storm, with Andy Cameron's Ally's Tartan Army.
You remember the one - "We're on the march with Ally's Army/We're going to the Argentine/And we'll really shake them up, when we win the World Cup/
'Cos Scotland is the greatest football team."
Except they weren't - and Andy knew it - and so did everyone else, which sort of made it OK.
And just to really rub England's noses in it, they included the line: "We're representing Britain/And we're gonna do or die/'Cos England cannae do it/'Cos they couldnae qualify".
They might have beaten Iran if they had, mind you.
In 1982, we had Kevin Keegan - undaunted by his Head Over Heels In Love experience - leading the way for England with This Time.
The person who told the bubble-permed Mighty Mouse he could sing must have been a Scotsman.
Together with the rest of the squad, a smiling Kev proudly announced that "This time, we'll get it right" - right into the second round that is, where they lost out to the Germans.
