FOR the parents of Scotland’s trailblazers at the Women’s World Cup this fortnight, the overwhelming emotion will be one of pride. But when defender Nicola Docherty first passed on the news of Shelley Kerr’s squad announcement to her parents, her dad Nicky didn’t know whether to hug his daughter or throttle her.

“I’m a wideo so I phoned up my dad and said: ‘dad, I got a phone call from Shelley [Kerr],’” recalled the Glasgow City defender. “He was like ‘right, well?’ Then I said “I didn’t get in dad”. He was like ‘you’re joking’. I could hear him getting upset so I said ‘dad, just kidding, I’m going to the World Cup’.”

Thankfully, Docherty’s dad recovered from his coronary, and now father and daughter are bound for the World Cup in France, which starts for Scotland in Nice on Sunday, September 9. Out of the picture as recently as six months ago, the 26-year-old from Falkirk admitted it had been an emotional moment when she was preferred to Arsenal’s fit-again Emma Mitchell.

“I was out walking my dog in Queen’s Park,” Docherty recalled. “I got back and I saw ‘missed call, Shelley Kerr’. I thought, ‘do I phone her back or do I not?’ I phoned her back and there was no answer. I had pure anxiety. My hands were sweating. I was looking out the windows.

“She eventually phoned back and gave me the news that I was going to the World Cup. It was such a relief to hear that news. I can barely even remember what Shelley was saying to me because I was crying so much.”

It was an injury-ravaged Scotland side which went down 6-0 to England in their first match at Euro 2017, ultimately just falling short of reaching the knockout stages. But Docherty feels Scotland have come on leaps and bounds since then and she isn’t the only one.

“I feel like this is a massively different squad to 2017,” she added. “We have got a fully-fit team whereas at the Euros, there were a couple of niggles here and there. This is the strongest squad that Scotland has ever had and we are going into the World Cup with confidence from a run of games that we have played well in.”

US-based captain Rachel Corsie, meanwhile, insisted that this group of players deserved the 18,555 crowd which turned up at Hampden Park to see their 3-2 send-off against Jamaica.

While she had also played at their last visit to the national stadium, back in a Euro 2013 play-off first leg against Spain, she said the chance to grace this famous Mount Florida stadium on Tuesday night would prove invaluable to the younger members of the squad.

“The crowd were incredible – the girls deserved that as we’d worked hard the last 18 months to put ourselves in this position,” Corsie said. “The SFA have given us the opportunity to play at the national stadium and to play in front of such a crowd was special.

“A few of us have had that experience but for a number of them it was their first time. It’s a different feeling to play at their national stadium and I’m sure it’s an experience that will live with them for a long time.

“We know there’s a community in the women’s football world and they turned out,” said the 29-year-old from Aberdeen. “The encouragement they gave us was huge. We work so hard and it was just an opportunity to enjoy the night. Hopefully we’ve earned some fans that’ll come back again.”

Central defender Corsie, who plays her football at Utah Royals out in the USA, isn’t limiting this squad’s ambitions in a group which contains England, Japan and Argentina.

“It can be hard to live in the moment but I think the team knows, that we need to enjoy it as much as we can,” she said. “We need to recognise the achievement we’ve done in qualifying and we are going there to do well

“We have ambitions to get out of the group and from then on in, the draw can go many ways,” she added. “In one-off games anyone can win and we won’t limit ourselves.”