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Poland visit Hampden in October for the fourth time and currently we are still looking for a victory. Sort it out Scotland. The first meeting came about in May 1960 and saw Scotland lose a friendly match 2-3 in front of 26,643 in what proved to be John Hewie’s last game for his ‘adopted country’.Five years later the Beatles had conquered the world but in the world cup Scotland [managed by Jock Stein on a part-time, temporary basis] messed up and lost 1-2. Celtic and Scotland captain Billy McNeil gave Scotland the lead after 14 minutes but a crowd of almost 108,000 looked on in disbelief as we conceded in the 84th and 86th minutes. From a purely arithmetical perspective, a Scottish victory would ultimately have meant a play-off with Italy for the right to go to England 66 and who knows, World Cup Willie could have been Bremner or Henderson or Johnston or McNeill……

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Poland’s most recent Hampden appearance was 25 years ago [19 May 1990 to be precise] – in what was our fourth and final home warm-up match for Italia 90. I remember there was a group of nine of us on the uncovered east terracing [amongst a crowd of 25,142] as part of a mate’s stag day celebrations. Maurice Johnston-then of Rangers- gave Scotland the lead after 42 minutes but a second-half own goal from Liverpool’s Gary Gillespie – who looked more pished than we did – ensured that honours finished even.

Gillespie would win three more caps [to take his final tally to13] including one against Brazil at Italia 90 whilst my mate Andy would get married, emigrate to America and become a big fan of the Grid Iron game. Life is full of disappointments…..

Robert Marshall

First posted on Facebook on May 19th, 2015