As promised another one from the Denis Law book. This time it’s a photo of the Scotland squad before the Northern Ireland game in November, 1960. It is quite an unusual photo in that it actually shows 12 players instead of the customary 11; any other ones I have seen from that era always have just the playing eleven even if it’s taken hours before the match.
Generally it was a given if you were the twelfth man you wouldn’t be playing, which is why a lot of good players such as Ian St. John and Willie Wallace quit the Scotland scene well before their time.
It must have been fairly cold in Glasgow in November and the line-up is as follows; the “rather dapper” manager Ian McColl, Duncan McKay (Celtic), Dave Mackay (Tottenham Hotspur), Jackie Plenderleith (Manchester City), Lawrence Leslie (Airdrie- goalkeeper), Jim Baxter (Rangers), Eric Caldow (Rangers), Jimmy Millar (Rangers), Dawson Walker (Trainer), George Herd (Clyde), Denis Law (Manchester City), Alex Young (Hearts), Ralph Brand (Rangers) and Davie Wilson (Rangers).
And the twelfth man was? Jimmy Millar of Rangers. I’m not sure how many times Jimmy was on the sidelines but it would be almost another three years before he played his first game for Scotland in May 1963, unfortunately for Jimmy this was in the friendly against Austria that was abandoned in 79 minutes by the referee due to one or two wee fights breaking out. If you scroll back to May this year, there is more details of the game there.
Jimmy’s other cap came a month later as Scotland lost to the Republic of Ireland one nil in a friendly in Dublin.
However, let’s go back to the original photo and the game that followed that; the Home International Game against Northern Ireland at Hampden.
Denis Law opened the scoring in eight minutes, followed by a converted penalty by Eric Caldow just before half time. Danny Blanchflower pulled one back from the spot shortly after the restart, however late goals by Alex Young and two Ralph Brand goals sandwiched in between a Peter McParland one for the Irish saw Scotland win 5-2 in front of a lowly crowd for the times of 34,564. Ralph Brand had a great Scotland record scoring eight goals in eight games, scoring a brace in three of his games.
David Stuart
First posted on Facebook September 17th, 2015
The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine 
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