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I posted this on TAMB a wee while back but it’s such a great image I thought you wouldn’t mind if I posted it here. It was used as a cover to Charlie Buchan’s Football Monthly in March 1968. It’s from the previous Scotland and England game in April 1966 which ended in a 4-3 defeat. Jimmy Johnstone scored two that day and Denis Law the other but a last minute clearance from Nobby Stiles prevented Scotland from snatching a late draw. 1966 was a not great year for Scotland at Hampden. The crowd for the England game was 123,052 but a month later saw the crowds dwindle to only 16,513 as Scotland were thumped 3-0 by the Netherlands. A further defeat to Portugal and a draw with Brasil followed suit. It would be the final fixture of the year against Northern Ireland in November that would see Scotland win at Hampden finally that year as Bobby Murdoch and Bobby Lennox scored to give us a 2-1 win.

However, it is the photo that we’re concentrating on. I just love the colours in this one. The West stand would shortly have a roof over it but as you can see everyone is packed in like sardines. At the back of the East Stand we can the old bus depot with those Glasgow Corporation Buses, to the left of those are the old prefab homes built just after the war and demolished in the late ’90’s. On the top left hand corner there is some of the terracing of Cathkin Park, home of Third Lanark who would fold in 1967.

If you love this postcard I will be posting one from sixty years earlier in the next day or so.

David Stuart