The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

Came across this one the other day all the way from 1968 and with, we think George Davidson commentating. It’s a World Cup Qualifier at Hampden against Austria in November 1968. Scotland go down one nil after 2 minutes with Ronnie Simpson not looking too great in in his last game for Scotland, however a few minutes later oor Denis equalises. In the second half Billy Bremner manages to squeeze in between a few Austrians to poke the ball home after a cross from John Greig.
Scotland won 2-1 and that night the line-up was Ronnie Simpson, Tommy Gemmell, Eddie McCreadie, Ronnie McKinnon, John Greig, Jimmy Johnstone, Charlie Cooke, John Hughes, Denis Law and Bobby Lennox. Alan Gilzean came on for Law in 75 minutes. The match was played in front of a crowd of 80,856.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook September 22nd, 2015

I eventually managed to get my hands on a programme for the recent Georgia-Scotland match – Well you’ve got to collect the rough with the smooth haven’t you? Anyway, it was good to see much of the programme was in English and it can be enlightening to see ourselves as others see us.

An interview with Zurab Khizanishvili, the former Dundee and Rangers defender now playing in Azerbaijan with Inter Baku, revealed that he thought the majority of Scotland’s travelling support would be Celtic fans. Hmmm….. He also thought Scotland had a much stronger team back in 2007 when we last visited Tbilisi.

Yep, it’s one of Hans-Hubert’s boys; Gareth Williams future star of the Scotland team was how he was portrayed at the time by Berti. Sadly, once again I must point out to you Ladies and Gentlemen to the curse of Berti. Yep, Gareth Williams, another one who’s career ended prematurely or went up the spout for a couple of years. Don’t believe in such a thing. Well, look who was among the debutees in the five games Gareth played for the national side; Robbie Stockdale (retired aged 29), Michael Stewart (retired aged 30), Maurice Ross (retired aged 30), Kevin Kyle (retired aged 33), Lee Wilkie . . . do I really need to go on?
Anyway back to the luckless Gareth, who started his Scotland career whilst a Nottingham Forest player. Gareth was lucky in one respect he wasn’t chosen for Berti’s first game in charge that mighty mauling in Paris by France but was given a starting berth for the next game against Nigeria up at Pittodrie on 17th April 2002. Despite Christian Dailly scoring in seven minutes the Scots were to lose the game 2-1. Gareth would make way for Michael Stewart of Manchester United in the 64th minute when the scores were still level.
Next up was the Far East tour of 2002, whilst everyone else was getting ready for the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, we had to make do with this travesty.
The first came in a future World Cup stadium against South Korea in Busan; the Scots would lose 4-1 with West Brom’s Scott Dobie scoring his only Scotland goal on his debut. Gareth came on at half time in place of Garry O’Connor probably to shore up the midfield unfortunately it was only one nil at half time. To be fair, South Korea performed very well in the World Cup beating Poland and Portugal in the group stages then beating Italy and Spain (on penalties) in the knock out phase before going out to a narrow defeat to Germany in the Semi-Finals.

South Africa also did themselves proud in the World Cup, just missing out in the knock out stages after beating Slovenia, drawing with Paraguay and losing 3-2 to Spain. On their way to the World Cup they met Scotland in Hong Kong as part of the Reunification Cup tournament. The Scots were beaten two-nil in front of a crowd of 3007. Gareth would start in this game being replaced by Scott Severin of Hearts in the 77th minute. This game would also mark the debut of James McFadden, another whose career is on the scrapyard prematurely.

Finally a win for Bert’s boys against the might of the Hong Kong League XI. “Jackie Chan, Jackie Chan (not to be confused with Chaka Khan, Chaka Khan), Yun-Fat Chow, Sally Phillips and a host of others. We gave your boys a hell of a beating, a hell of a beating”.
Yep, we did with goals from Kevin Kyle, Steven Thompson, Christian Dailly (ah who can forget Christian shouting “ F**kin Diving Bastards in the background, with Berti on mike saying “Christian, Christian” trying to calm him down in his Germanic tones after the 2-1 defeat to Germany in September 2003.) And a final goal from Scot Gemmill. Gareth had come on in 60th minute for Allan Johnston.
Gareth’s final game came in the torrential rain of Braga as Portugal beat Scotland 2-0 coming on as a sub for Paul Lambert in the 60th minute.
Although he would go on to win caps for the Under 21’s and would make moves from Forest for Leicester and then Watford; making his debut in EPL for them in February 2007. Gareth only played twice more for Watford before suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury which despite six operations never healed fully and he retired in 2009.
His profile for Four Four Two makes quite sad reading when you think of how things ended for him. In Five Years’ Time I’ll be in . . . The Premiership . . . established in the Scotland team. If all goes to plan I’d love to be part of the next World Cup.”
Still it’s not all doom and gloom as his celebrity wife would be Natalie Portman. Ok, she’s not quite Hattie Jacques but if she’s good enough for Thor she’ll do for me too.

David Stuart

First posted On Facebook September 20th, 2015

Actually to be honest I was going to do another piece but I’m just off the phone to Robert Marshall and it’s depressed me so much I thought I use this photo to cheer me up.

Okay, so we have scored fifteen goals against France in our time and I’m far too lazy to research them all but I’m pretty sure this must be number two in the all-time goals against France list. Although, we did score against them in a 1958 World Cup game with Sammy Baird providing the finish but we got beat 2-1 in that game so it’s discounted from the top two.

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.

At this time when the Scotland players need to stand up and be counted particularly for the failings in Georgia earlier this month, it is perhaps worth remembering that the road to France 1998 was not plain sailing at all.

Although we had good results against Latvia and Sweden; we also had the farce that was the Estonia game which resulted in that famous ‘walkover’ match only for UEFA to change their minds and insist on a replay. Of course we were that sure we would win in the neutral venue of Monaco, but the players forgot you had to score to win games and have to be up for it against the so called minnows but sadly we were found to be lacking and a nil nil draw ensued.

With Sweden and Austria in our group, dropped points could see us fail to get to France, however Tom Boyd’s only International goal in the opposition net in 72 games and a Janek Meet own goal saw us get through a nervous night at Rugby Park in March 1997 and with a visit from Austria a few days later at Celtic Park it was time for Kevin Gallacher to make his mark on our qualifying campaign.

This was a time of very ordinary but hard working centre forwards for Scotland such as Darren Jackson, John McGinlay and Kevin Gallacher. McGinlay had scored the only goal of the game against Sweden at Ibrox in November 1996 (although that game should be remembered for Jim Leighton’s heroics too.) and Jackson had added the second goal in the win in Latvia in October the month before, however as for Gallacher; he was beginning to go the way of many a Scotland forward in all huff and puff but no final delivery. By the end of the Estonia game he had played 26 games and scored only 2 games in a Scotland career that started in 1988.

However, all that was about to change as Gallacher went on a run that was to see him score six goals in the final five games and see us through to France 1998.
First up was the other main rival in the group Austria at Celtic Park. The first goal sees a one two with Jackson and Gallacher, leave Jackson with a shot that the keeper saves but Jackson’s determination sees the ball go loose to Gallacher who needs no second invite to score. The joy on Gallacher’s face is quite evident if you watch the video of the game; however it is perhaps the confidence of scoring again that leads him to hit an audacious thunderbolt into the back of the pokey in the second half that secures the victory for Scotland.

Although, Scotland would lose to Sweden four weeks later in Gothenberg 2-1 with Gallacher scoring again, with Sweden and Austria still to play each other IF Scotland could win all their remaining games they would at least get second place in the group with perhaps an automatic qualification too.
He was not to score in Belarus in June 1997 and the hero that night would have to be Gary McAllister as one year on from his miss at Wembley he took the responsibility to score from the spot the only goal in the game in Minsk.
Two games left and both at home; Belarus at Pittodrie and Latvia at Celtic Park. In the first, Gallacher settles Scotland nerves when a save from a well worked free kick by Collins and McAllister sees him with a tap in to put the Scots in front after only five minutes. He would score a second and Scotland’s third with David Hopkin also scoring two to see us win 4-1. Against Latvia and again it’s his positioning that allows Kevin to head a goal in on 24 minutes after a great shot from Collins is parried out by the Latvian goalkeeper. With ten minutes remaining Gallacher attempts an audacious chip which rebounds off the bar for Gordon Durie to head in and it’s France here we come.

Although Kevin never gave us any more OMG moments in the Finals itself, he lit up our France ’98 campaign and his goals got us to Paris and that memorable day in the Stade De France against Brazil.
Shaun Maloney’s goals and contribution has only got us so far this qualifying campaign but we need our frontmen to produce the goods and with a little bit of luck maybe just maybe . .
The hour is near; where is the man?

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook September 16th, 2015

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock……It’s the waiting that’s the killer isn’t it? For Chrissakes, Thursday 8th October – where the hell are you? It’s a perverse double-whammy of [a] wishing your life away and [b] putting your life on hold as we keep 12 to 17 November clear in our diaries in case we make the play-offs. Yes I know there are much more important things in life to worry about but when you are a Scotland supporter all sense of perspective tends to go out of the window – along with the tv, the cat and the mother-in-law especially right after the ‘Torture in Tbilisi’ fixture.

Steven will be 29 on September 14th and hasn’t he marked the celebration well, with a hat-trick against Chelsea on Saturday there (GIRFUY Jose Mourinho).
Steven’s Scotland career began as a Kilmarnock player in 6th June 2007 under Alex McLeish coming on as a sub against Faroe Islands in a Euro Qualifier replacing his old Killie teammate Kris Boyd. Shaun Maloney and Garry O’Connor had already completed the scoring as Scotland won 2 nil.
His next cap would see him start against the Netherlands in September 2009 at Hampden, this would be during George Burley’s reign. Steven had also changed clubs and become a Rangers player by then. Scotland were narrowly defeated but Naismith had an eventful evening with having a goal disallowed and also hitting the post. The Dutch scored the winner in the 82nd minute and Scotland hopes of qualifying for the World Cup were dashed . . . once more.

Cap number four came in September 2010 as Scotland played out a nil nil draw in Kaunas v Lithuania under Craig Levein at the start of the 2012 Euro qualifier. Naismith would also play in that infamous game where Levein in his shit wisdom decided to play a formation of 6-4-0 against a very poor Czech Republic team. Scotland lost one nil with the Czechs scoring a goal that was apparently not part of the plan; as for the Scots we weren’t supposed to score and that plan was followed to a T (or is it a tee?).

Of course a few days after a piss poor performance, Scotland faced the World Champions at Hampden and lost 3-2. Sounds oh too familiar doesn’t it? Steven scored his first Scotland goal that night coming a few minutes after the Spanish had gone 2 nil up and then Pique was to put the ball into his own net shortly after and we dreamed; oh how we dreamed until a further Spanish goal dashed our hopes . . . once more.
Steven would score his next goal against Lithuania in the same qualifying series in September 2011 but again the damage had been done a few days before when the Czechs came to town and were given a penalty that never was and so we sloped out of the 2012 qualifiers.
By this time Steven had become a regular in the side sitting in behind the lone striker and when Levein was thankfully given the heave ho and followed by WGS, he became one of the first names on the teamsheet. He had also moved from Rangers to Everton by this time too.

Goal number 3 came in the World Cup Qualifier against Croatia at Hampden in October 2013 when he saved Barry Bannan’s blushes by netting the rebound from a woefully taken penalty. Robert Snodgrass had already scored in the first half as Scotland beat Croatia 2 nil but again it was too little too late and we were on our way to Benidorm rather than Rio for our holidays.
Steven has managed to score two goals in the current Euro campaign, scoring our second in Poland in the 2 all draw and fitting one in against Gibraltar in between Messrs. Maloney and Fletcher in our 6-1 win. It should be said that Steven has not had the greatest of campaigns despite some good performances he has let a few chances go a begging at times too. However, we are still not out of it yet and maybe with the boost of an EPL hat-trick Steven will find his scoring form in his fortieth Scotland game and give us something to cheer against Poland.

Happy Birthday Steven.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook September 14th, 2015

It’s taken me a week to write this short, cathartic piece – so let’s get it over with shall we?It was no disgrace losing 2-3 to the World Champions, indeed we performed much better at home against the Germans than Brazil did in July last year. What really hurt was the performance and result against Georgia three days previous. It was still annoying however that we didn’t manage to grab a point at Hampden but there were some positives not least seeing that arrogant [though admittedly excellent] sweeper-keeper Manuel Neuer concede two goals. So no clean sheet for you mein Herr but perhaps you can make up for it with a stunning display in Dublin next month.