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Not sure how many of these there were but I’ve only ever seen three of them. I can only imagine that the Record wanted part of the Christmas annual market that the Scottish Football Book edited by Hugh Taylor got. That reached up to the mid-twenties in releases. The funny thing is that Hugh Taylor contributes to this too.
It is quite a high quality book for a football annual with plenty of great photographs throughout and it seems to have a fair share of pieces on teams that weren’t Rangers or Celtic, although rather predictably both these teams get more colour photos. The front cover shows Goalkeeper Jim Herriot then of Birmingham City clutching the ball in what would be his last appearance in a Scotland shirt. This was in the World Cup Qualifier against West Germany which Scotland lost 3-2 in Hamburg, effectively ending their World Cup hopes for Mexico ’70. Also, in the picture are Rangers pair John Greig and Ronnie McKinnon.

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Jim Herriot also appears in a photo inside which is from a friendly against Republic of Ireland in September 1969. It’s taken in the second half . . . and how do I know that? Simple Jim Herriot and Dunfermline’s Willie Callaghan were second half substitutes for Ernie McGarr of Aberdeen and Tommy Gemmell respectively. Callaghan won only two caps for Scotland. This game ended one all with Colin Stein scoring for Scotland. The game took place at Dalymount Park so beloved of Robert Marshall who once bored me by telling how much the programme for this game goes for. I think it was up to £60 or something like that but I tend to fall asleep around programme buffs.

The other photo is of course Billy McNeill in a Scotland strip at what looks like Parkhead for some reason.

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Also, inside there’s an article on Aberdeen winning the Scottish Cup, Celtic losing the European Cup as well as a look at the recent Home Internationals although it does bemoan Scotland’s failure to beat Wales and England, both games ending in nil nil draw. It describes the Welsh games as thus “For 90 minutes Scotland gave the Welsh the hiding of their lives, but, as so often happens, they just couldn’t get the ball in the net past Wales’ Fourth Division ‘keeper Tony Millington.”
It’s a good wee book and well purchasing if you get the chance.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook July 14th, 2015