In the space of less than ten minutes on Sunday night, an unsung sportsman from Greenock on Clydeside travelled from desperate ignominy to euphoric triumph and in the process continued his team’s unexpected ride to the biggest and most glamorous sporting event in the United States.

In frigid Green Bay, where temperatures fell as low as -31C (-24F) after wind chill – the third-coldest game in NFL history – the New York Giants beat the Packers, the heavily favoured home team, 23-20 in overtime to advance to the Super Bowl, thanks to a remarkable reversal of fortune for Lawrence Tynes, the Giants place-kicker, whose family moved from Scotland to the US when he was a child.

With the score tied at 20-20 and a few seconds left in regulation time, the Giants had placed themselves ideally to win the game with a field goal. Tynes, who had missed one chance to give New York the lead in the fourth quarter, trotted on to the field for what should have been a relatively easy 36-yard field goal. But the snap was high and Tynes dragged the kick well wide, leaving his teammates and coaches in despair and sending the home crowd into a frenzy of premature celebration.

When Green Bay won the toss and elected to receive the ball first in overtime, it looked as though Tynes’s short and unremarkable NFL career would end in memorable circumstances that he would want to forget. But on the second play from scrimmage, Brett Favre, the legendary 38-year-old Green Bay quarterback, threw a pass that was intercepted by Corey Webster, the Giants cornerback. Suddenly, the Giants were again in range for a game-winning field goal and Tynes was presented with an improbable reprieve. This time, from a much more difficult 47 yards amid swirling winds, his kick was perfect and the turnaround was complete.

Afterwards, Tynes said that he did not wait for Tom Coughlin, the Giants coach, to tell him to attempt the field goal. “I was out on the field, I wasn’t going to let him say, ‘Go kick,’ ” Tynes said. “He would have had to pull me off the field.”

The Giants, led by another strong performance by Eli Manning, their quarterback, and their overpowering defence, have won ten straight games away from home, the longest streak in NFL history, and it will be the second straight year that a Manning has played in the Super Bowl after Peyton, Eli’s elder brother, led the Indianapo-lis Colts to their first title.

The Giants will play the heavily favoured New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, Arizona, on February 3. The Patriots will be trying for a shot at a unique achievement by becoming the first team to win all 19 games in a season.

New England won the AFC Championship on Sunday, defeating the San Diego Chargers 21-12. For once Tom Brady, their star quarterback, underperformed, throwing three interceptions. But the Patriots’ stout defence stopped San Diego from scoring a touchdown and Laurence Maroney, the running back, more than made up for a restricted New England passing game with 122 yards rushing.

The Patriots have reached the Super Bowl four times in the past seven seasons under Bill Belichick, their controversial head coach – he was the Giants’ defensive co-ordinator the last time New York were champions in 1991 – and if they win the big game they will surely earn the title of the greatest team in modern football history. They would also become the first team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins to complete a regular season without a defeat and go on to win the Super Bowl. Perhaps only the Scottish émigré from Greenock stands between New England and history. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, owned by Malcolm Glazer, who also owns Manchester United, are one of four possible “home” teams for the next NFL game to be staged in the UK, which will be played in October at Wembley Stadium, Murrayfield in Edinburgh or the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. The others are the New Orleans Saints, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Seattle Seahawks.

Man of the hour: Lawrence Tynes

Position Kicker
Born Greenock, June 3, 1978
Parents American father, Scottish mother
Raised Campbelltown (until the age of 10)
Supports Celtic
Fascinating fact Will be Grand Marshal of New York City’s Tartan Day Parade in April
2007 salary $875,840 (about £450,000)
2007 field-goal percentage 85.2
Longest successful attempt 48yds