The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

Actually if truth be told, one of the reasons I chose to attend this Rugby World Cup Finals match in Leeds was because it afforded me the opportunity to visit the Elland Road ground for the first time. I was at school throughout the late sixties and early seventies, when Elland Road and Leeds United enjoyed the services of a whole string of SuperScots. Players such as Billy Bremner, David Harvey, Peter Lorimer, Eddie Gray, Frank Gray, Joe Jordan and Gordon McQueen helped make Leeds United a success both domestically as well as in Europe.To a schoolboy in 1970s Maryhill, venues such as Elland Road, Old Trafford and Anfield were mythical Kingdoms that I dreamed of visiting one day so I don’t know why it took this lapsed groundhopper until I was 56 before I eventually reached the Yorkshire city that was the home of ‘The Good Old Days’ in more ways than one.

Of course Leeds United are now in the second tier of English football and were in the ‘Third’ Division from 2007 to 2010. Furthermore, their Scotland caps in recent years have not quite matched ‘The Galacticos’ of the Don Revie era and have included David Hopkin,Dominic Matteo and Ross McCormack.The old memories live on however and the magnificent statue of Billy Bremner outside the south-east corner of the ground just reinforces my view that for a time, Elland Road was the Venue of Legends – Scottish International Soccer Legends.

Anyway, it’s now only nine days to the Poland game and my anal nerves are a-twitching. Apologies for the images this may conjure up,,,,,,,

Robert Marshall

First posted on Facebook 28th September, 2015