The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

I don’t buy a lot of collectible photos but I saw this one recently on eBay with the late Sandy Jardine’s autograph and bought it. As with anyone who grew up around the Seventies supporting Scotland, Sandy was a favourite of mine and in the end it only cost me around £8.
The photo itself is quite interesting as it comes from a World Cup warm-up against West Germany on 27th March, 1974 at the Wald Stadium in Frankfurt. Scotland would go on to play both Brazil and Yugoslavia in the World Cup there too. Scotland would lose 2-1 but by all accounts played well that night. Kenny Dalglish would score our solitary goal.
Willie Ormond was obviously trying out a few players for the game with some making their debuts. Going from left to right the line up is; Denis Law, Willie Morgan (both Manchester United), Kenny Burns (Birmingham City), Tommy Hutchison (Coventry City), Pat Stanton (Hibs), Martin Buchan (Manchester United), Erich Schaedler (Hibs), Kenny Dalglish (Celtic), Sandy Jardine (Rangers), Thomson Allan (Dundee) and David Hay (Celtic). This would be Hay’s second and last game as captain of Scotland. I’m sure my Dad would have said at the time, they could all do with a haircut.
In goals for his first cap is Thomson Allan of Dundee. The goalkeeper position for Scotland was up for grabs as Ormond had dropped Ally Hunter after his howler in the Czech game at Hampden but even before that there was no definitive choice for goalie as Bobby Clark, Peter McCloy and David Harvey had all been used over the last couple of years. Thomson looks a wee bit nervous and maybe that’s why his shorts are pulled so high. Thomson would play in one more game against Norway, Scotland’s last warm up game before the World Cup. Scotland won 2-1 in Oslo with Jordan and Dalglish scoring. Winning his one and only cap was Hibernian’s Erich Schaedler. Erich would take his own life on Christmas Eve, 1985 and if you’ve read the excellent book ‘Shades; The Short Life and Tragic Death of Erich Schaedler’ by Colin Leslie you get a sense of how profound his loss was to those around him including former teammates; perhaps the most chilling is of Ian Redford trying to come to terms with it, when his death would leave others with the same sense of grief in January of last year.
For Erich the game against Germany was of particularly poignant for him as his Father was a German P.O.W., who remained in Scotland after the war. Erich would also make the squad for the World Cup that year.
Winning the first of his twenty caps is Kenny Burns and what a nice feather cut he has too or is it a page boy? Unlike Allan and Schaedler, Kenny would not make the squad, however he would play two games in Argentina unfortunately neither of those was the Dutch game. The only other player not to make the squad would be Pat Stanton; indeed this would be Pat’s final appearance in a Scotland shirt.
Bobby Robinson of Dundee would come off the bench and make the first of his four appearances for Scotland. Donald Ford of Hearts would also come on for his second of three games for the National side and he would too would make the Finals squad.
As for the German team, eight of their team that night would play in the 1974 final against Holland including Sepp Maier, Berti (the cursed) Vogts, Beckenbauer and Gerd Muller as well as goalscorers against Scotland; Paul Breitner and Jurgen Grabowski.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook August 25th, 2015

Alex Cropley could on one hand be considered a very unlucky player due to injuries including leg breaks he suffered in his career but had he been playing a decade earlier he would not have played for Scotland at all.
Alex was born in Aldershot; I had always assumed that like Bruce Rioch who was also born there that he was an ‘army brat’ but no his father Jack was playing for Aldershot FC at the time. Alex started his football career at Easter Road and was part of Turnbull’s Tornadoes.
When Tommy Docherty became Manager of Scotland in 1971, he quite quickly took advantage of the rule that allowed players who were born outwith Scotland but of Scottish parentage to play for the National team. In his first game in charge he picked Arsenal goalkeeper Bob Wilson to the chagrin of many a Scotland supporter and in some cases players but Alex Cropley was also given his debut. Doc’s first game was on 13th October, 1971 against Portugal at Hampden in a Euro Qualifier, having already lost to Belgium, Portugal and Denmark away, the Scots were out of the reckoning by this time. However, Docherty rallied the troops and Scotland won 2-1 with John O’Hare and Archie Gemmill supplying the goals.
Cropley held his place in the team for the next game, another qualifier taking place up at Pittodrie against Belgium in November 1971 with John O’Hare scoring the only goal of the game. Although, this was to be Alex’s last game for Scotland, he does hold two claims to fame. One; he was substituted in the second half to let Kenny Dalglish come on for his Scotland debut and two; he was in a Scotland side that beat bloody Belgium!
After leaving Hibs, Cropley went to Arsenal for £150,000 but within a month of his debut he broke a leg and indeed shortly after his return from that injury he broke his leg again. He would only make thirty odd appearances before moving to Aston Villa where incredibly he was to suffer a third leg break. Alex would retire from football aged 31.
As to his answers for the Focus On piece; Favourite player was Denis Law with Sandy Jardine as his most difficult opponent. His most memorable match was his debut for Scotland as well as being capped his Biggest Thrill. I love his Professional Ambition which was to be “ in a Scotland team which beats England at Wembley”. Sadly he never managed this but here’s hoping a few others do come November 2016.
As for some of the other stuff; his favourite food is . . . drumroll please – Steak! TV Shows – Dad’s Army and Morecambe and Wise. Singers are Neil Diamond and Frank Sinatra. His Actor / Actress are Dustin Hoffman and Candice Bergen (oh goodie another photo op).

Here’s a cracking video. Well, not so good if you’re looking for a Scotland win but just look at that mud; it looks more like the Belgian battlefields of 1917 rather than the Stade Sclessin in Liege. According to the SFA site this game took place at 3pm but it is more likely a night time game surely; either that or it gets really dark in the Belgian winter.
The Scotland team that night were; 1 Jim Cruickshanks, 2 David Hay, 3 Tommy Gemmell, 4 Pat Stanton, 5 Ronnie McKinnon (watch out for his own goal), 6 Bobby Moncur, 7 Archie Gemmill (watch out for his great sliding tackle), 8 John Grieg (nice petulant kick at a Belgium player), 9 Colin Stein, 10 John O’Hare and 11, Charlie Cooke. Stanton and Stein came off at half time with Jim Forrest (number unknown) and Tony Green (16) replacing them. See who you can spot?
Other than the McKinnon own goal, Paul Van Himst scores the two other goals including a peach of a free kick

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook August 23rd 2015

Also, having a birthday on August 21st is Paul Ritchie, who will turn 40. Like David Hopkin, Paul Ritchie only played seven times for Scotland and although their careers overlapped, they never played in the same team.
If you have read Scott Cockburn’s excellent ‘Club and Country’ article in the first Scotland Epistles, Paul Ritchie is one of the players mentioned in it. The gist of the article is about Scott’s ambivalence in supporting Scotland because as a Hearts fan over the last twenty years or so, he’s had to endure many a Jam Tart making the grade as an Internationalist for Scotland and then leaving Hearts, primarily for Rangers. If you think about it there’s Ritchie, Dave McPherson, Alan McLaren, Andy Webster, David Weir, Neil McCann, Allan Johnston and even Lee Wallace who all ended up at Ibrox even if via other clubs.
As for Ritchie, although he only played seven times; he managed to play in games against Germany, England, France and the Netherlands, which not too many have on their résumé. Paul’s first appearance was in a friendly with Germany in Bremen, which rather surprisingly the Scots won 1-0 (what we would give for that score next month?) with a goal from Don Hutchison. Paul had come on as a sub for Colin Hendry in the 66th minute just after Don scored. Also making his debut that night was club teammate Colin Cameron who won 11 of his 28 caps as a Hearts player.
Paul’s next game saw him line up alongside Colin Calderwood in defence for Scotland against the Czech Republic in Prague in June 1999. This was to be a night of ecstasy and agony for the Scots and Ritchie. It all started well with Paul heading a goal in the 30th minute, which was then added to by former Hearts player Allan Johnston who was with Sunderland at the time, 62 minutes into the game.

Unfortunately, for Scotland the Czechs got one back almost immediately and followed this up with an equaliser ten minutes later. More misery was added on, as that carthorse of a player Jan Koller, scored with a header with three minutes to go.
Cap number three came in the final game of our Euro 2000 group in October 1999 with Paul lining up alongside Brian O’Neill, then of Wolfsburg at the centre of defence. Scotland beat Lithuania 3 nil at Hampden with goals from Hutchison and Gary McSwegan and Colin Cameron both of Hearts. Their place as runners up was well assured prior to this and so it was off to the play-offs against . . . England.
Paul played in the first leg, a month later at Hampden which as most of us know Scotland lost 2-0 with a Paul Scholes double doing the damage. Paul missed out on the return leg with Mr. Hutchison once again finding the net for the solitary goal on a night we pummelled England but failed to get that second goal to take it into extra time.
Although we never made it to the finals we were in demand as opposition for those going to the finals as games against France at Hampden and Netherlands at Arnhem in March and April 2000 respectively were arranged. Paul was to play in both these games but was no longer a Hearts player having fallen out with the club over the refusal to sign a new contract and so was shipped to Bolton on loan. Scotland lost to France 2-0 and drew nil nil with the Netherlands. Although, Paul finally got the move to Rangers, he apparently desired in the summer of 2000, he never kicked a ball for them and was shipped off to Man City for £500,000 a few months later. As for Scotland caps, Paul was to receive another in 2004 during Berti Vogts’ tenure as the Scotland manager whilst playing for Walsall. Sadly for Paul, this came on the night Robbie Earnshaw ran riot for Wales scoring a hat trick in a four nil mauling. Happy Birthday Paul and all the best.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook August 21st, 2015

David Hopkin will be 45 on August 21st. If you’ve read Scotland Epistles #3 you will know that being included in a World Cup card or sticker set does not mean you are going to the World Cup, such a fate befell Mr. Hopkin too. Of course given the photo they used, perhaps David who has been known to make the list of ugliest Premiership players ever, would have preferred to have been omitted.
And yet it looked good at one point, David had gotten himself into the Scotland team just at the right time. He was due to play for Scotland against Wales in late May 1997 but having scored the play off winner for Crystal Palace against Sheffield United at Wembley a couple of days before he called off for the game. However, Craig Brown did not hold it against him and a few days later on June 1st he made his debut in a friendly against Malta in Valetta. Scotland won 3-2 with two goals from Darren Jackson after an early goal for Christian Dailly. David would be substituted early in the second half with Scot Gemmill replacing him, this scenario would be repeated a week later in Minsk, Belarus, as Scotland scraped a one nil win with a Gary McAllister penalty to keep their World Cup hopes alive.

In the summer of 1997, David moved to Leeds United for £3.25million. He would also be named as team Captain under George Graham at Elland Road. David would win his third cap up at Pittodrie against as Scotland cruised to a 4-1 win with Hopkin coming on as a substitute in the 50th minute and making an instant impact with a goal four minutes later. His second and Scotland’s fourth was a great individual effort, which made it seem as though David was going to be an important player for Scotland in years to come.
Alas, it was not to be as David had an indifferent start to his Leeds career, with injuries, suspension and regularly being substituted, all hindering his impact at Elland Road. He would only play one more game prior to the ’98 World Cup, making a one minute appearance against France in November, 1997. The 2-1 defeat would be the start of Scotland going on their longest run without a win, in a run of 9 games that unfortunately included the whole of the World Cup in France. David would return 18 months later in March 1999, starting the infamous game against the Czech Republic at Parkhead, where Gary McAllister was booed by some sections of the Scotland support. Scotland would lose this Euro Championship qualifier 2-1 and McAllister announced his retirement shortly after.
Cap number six would come against Bosnia in Sarajevo in September ‘99 as a makeshift left back. Scotland won 2-1 with goals from Don Hutchison and Billy Dodds. His seventh and final cap came a month later, also against Bosnia at Ibrox, in his more recognised position in midfield as Scotland won one nil with a John Collins penalty.
And that was it for David, if only his Scotland career had progressed the way we hoped it would that night at Pittodrie, but it was not to be. Happy Birthday David Hopkin and thanks for those brief glittering moments all those years ago.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook August 21st 2015

No doubt the SFA High Command will be contacting us soon regarding re-newing our now biennial membership of the Scotland Supporters Club. As well as enabling access to match tickets and including a membership card that features a photograph of a rapidly agingand often broken man I always look forward to receiving some goodies.

The goodies tend to fall short of the pre-Oscars trinkets and in 2012 included a keyring with mini-Scotland jersey attached, a circular enamel badge depicting the S.F.A. crest, a drawstring bag and a tartan scarf. The badge and keyring were attractive little collectibles but the scarf irked me some seeing as it was made in China. As we were in the middle of a recession would it have hurt that much to buy in bulk from the Edinburgh Woolen Mill?

I seem to recall that at one time only new members were afforded freebies – either a tie, scarf or beanie hat. This millennium however the giveaways have become a bit more varied and interesting. In 2005 the official membership pack included a T-shirt, pin badge, car/window sticker and discount voucher booklet. The discounts could be applied to sportswear, entry to the Scottish Football Museum , coaching courses and physiotherapy treatment!

For the 2006/2007 renewal there was a ‘Limited Edition’ gift box from the sponsors Whyte & Mackay whisky blenders containing a supporters club keyring and a booklet comprising a roll of honour of those Scottish players to have made at least 50 international appearances plus a statistical analysis of the records of all of Scotland’s international team managers. There was also a DVD showing someone’s choice of top ten Hampden goals over a thirty year period as well as some behind the scenes footage of the Scotland squad at training, enjoying some R & R as well as match day rituals which for some included taking time out to the read the programme. There was also the entire ninety minutes of Scotland’s 1-0 victory over the Netherlands in the 1st leg of the play-offs for Euro 2004. Fortunately there was no room left on the DVD to include anything from the 2nd leg.

For 2008 to 2009 the goodie box contained a kilt-pin and a set of six badges commemorating the twelve matches played in the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign. In addition there was the official Scotland CD – fifteen tracks that is a mixture of old World Cup songs and more relatively recent crowd pleasers from Deacon Blue, the Proclaimers and the Fratellis. It also includes Shang-a-lang by the Bay City Rollers. Superb……

To help commemorate 30 years of the supporters club in 2010 we all received a souvenir v-neck jersey. Nostalgia can be a painful experience though, for I seem to recall that when I joined the club back in the 1980s I considered size XL to be an alien concept, reserved purely for fat bar stewards. If I make it to the 50thanniversary I have visions of me heading for Hampden in a dark-blue Demis Roussos style ‘smock’. The diet starts Monday….

Another occasional and somewhat quirky S.F.A. produced collectible were the fold-up, pocket sized travel guides that were provided for supporters heading to away games. They were formulaic but helpful including as they did a city map/stadium location plan; some recommended restaurants, pubs, and night clubs; useful tips on transport, health, safety, security etc as well as some suggestions on things to do and see [ie castles, cathedrals and museums etc and notshebeens, bordellos and knitwear shops]. My one criticism was that within the section on useful foreign words and phrases there has been a tendency to include local translations for stereotypical scenarios such as ‘My mate is a bit crazy but he’s harmless’ and ‘I am drunk please let me into my hotel room.’ Then again maybe I’m just an over-sensitive ex-lush!

Anyway, I’m damned if I can remember what goodies we got for our 2014 to 2015 membership so to help fill a void I would be obliged if someone could help me out – it’s annoying the ‘Daffy-Duck’ out of me if you will pardon the expression. Cheers.

Robert Marshall

First posted on Facebook August 19th, 2015

Last week a tip-off from a friend sent me scurrying up to the Victoria Bar in the Partick area of Glasgow. No they weren’t giving away free pints of Tartan Special and packets of cheese and onion square-shaped crisps but better still there was to be had a selection of Sunday Post beermats depicting Scottish Football Legends. It’s an exciting life being a collector…….

Memories of the Tennents Lager 1978 World Cup squad collection came flooding back as I entered the hostelry at 11.03am that Friday. The friendly bar staff were kind enough to help me locate seven different mats – I think their view was ‘Let’s help this joker out then we can get on with serving normal customers’ – with the Magnificent 7 being Willie Miller, Danny McGrain, Billy Bremner, Graeme Souness, Kenny Dalglish, Denis Law, and…….Andy Goram.

Between 1892 and 1976 representative sides from the Scottish League and the English League [usually referred to as the Football League] met on no fewer than 72 occasions with our noisy neighbours leading the series 40-18 with 14 draws.

Latterly the theory was that such fixtures allowed national team managers to try out league players in international conditions although in the inaugural match there were four Scots in the English League side! The fixture was also seen as an opportunity to reward consistently good players with an international honour.

In March 1976 Willie Ormond’s starting line-up included four Rangers players [Alex McDonald, Bobby McKean,Colin Jackson and Tom Forsyth] whilst Hibs provided Des Bremner and Arthur Duncan. In goal was Jim Stewart of Kilmarnock whilst Joe Wark [Motherwell], Andy Rolland [Dundee United], Willie Miller [Aberdeen] and Joe Craig [Partick Thistle] also appeared.Unfortunately, the English League which included Peter Shilton [then billed as the most expensive ‘Keeper in British football following his £325,000 transfer from Leicester to Stoke] won the match 1-0 thanks to a goal from Leeds United defender Trevor Cherry. I was amongst the ‘crowd’ of 8874 at Hampden Park that saw the curtain come down on this fixture but I would welcome a resurrection, if you will pardon the expression.

As well as the Scotland-England rivalry other semi-regular league internationals were arranged against the Irish League [Belfast-based] and the League of Ireland [Dublin-based ].In the early 1960s the Italian League joined in the fun and played representative games against both the Football League and the Scottish League. Denis Law played for the Serie A XI against the Scottish League in 1961. Unfortunately however, these League internationals went out of favour before our Welsh friends could properly get in on the act.

Over years the Scots played their home games at various stadiums across Glasgow and at Tynecastle Stadium, Edinburgh. English League venues seemed to include everywhere except Wembley. A more egalitarian, decentralised approach appeared to prevail down south.

Indeed, the Scots’ last success in that fixture was at St. James’ Park, Newcastle in March 1966. Alf Ramsey’s world cup hopefuls [which included Nobby Stiles, Alan Ball and Jack & Bobby Charlton] took the lead with a first-half goal from Jimmy Greaves. In the second half however a goal from Dundee’s Andy Penman and two from Joe McBride of Celtic gave the Scottish League a 3-1 victory.

Celtic’s Bobby Evans made the most appearances for the Scottish League – 25 in total between 1948 and 1960 whilst Willie Bauld of Hearts is the top scorer with 15 goals in 13 appearances between 1949 and 1958. Jock Stein’s only international recognition as a player came about in 1954 when he played against the English League at Stamford Bridge.

Well before the arrival of the new millennium apathy, low attendances and overcrowded fixture lists meant that to all intents and purposes it was the end for Inter-League ‘Nationals. Ironically though in these days of multi-national/multi-cultural leagues, fixtures involving Premiership/Premier League selects could be particularly attractive. The question is what incentive would these highly paid divas and divers require to take part? Even more money would mean nothing to most of them so why not go down the charity fund-raising route instead and appeal to their egos by praising them [and their managers] for supporting good causes.

I know I’m probably urinating into a south-westerly but sometimes you’ve got to get these things off your chest.

Robert Marshall

First posted on Facebook August 11th, 2015

If you’ve bought issue 3 of Scotland Epistles [and if you haven’t then you should be ashamed] you will have seen the article which asks the question – ‘When it comes to supporting Scotland do you swing both ways – ie do you support your country at Association Football AND Rugby Football?’

Now of course rugger isn’t nearly as good as soccer but between 18 September and 31 October 2015 Scotland will head south into England to compete in our EIGHTH successive Rugby Union World Cup Finals. That’s a 100% record by the way and although the likes of Argentina and Italy can match that, Spain and Portugal have only qualified once whilst both Brazil and Germany have yet to qualify – and yes they have been trying [no pun intended]. Meantime, Georgia will be making their fourth consecutive appearance at the finals.