The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

Jimmy Johnstone and David Hay had very contrasting World Cups In 1974. As we all know one of the major controversies of the ’74 was that Manager Willie Ormond never picked Jimmy to play nor did he come on as a substitute in any of the games. In fairness to Ormond though he had brought Jimmy back from the International wilderness after a two year break. After defeat to Northern Ireland on 11th May, 1974 Willie had chosen Jimmy Johnstone ahead of Willie Morgan for the coveted right wing position for the Wales game a few days later. At this point in a ten year period with the Scotland team Jimmy had only accrued a measly 17 caps as no doubt his reputation as a difficult player to handle had made Managers wary of picking him. Although Jimmy received his first cap in 1964, it is interesting that in his seven game part time reign as Scotland’s Manager in 1965, Jock Stein never chose to play him either, generally choosing Rangers’ Willie Henderson ahead of him.

Scotland beat Wales 2 nil and this was followed up by what is seen as Jinky’s greatest performance in the Dark Blue of Scotland in the 2-0 win over England on 18th May. Even this game was clouded with controversy as a few days before, Jimmy had been involved in the infamous Largs boat caper and had at the end of the game give the ‘V’ sign to the gentleman of the press who pilloried him in their rags all through the previous week.

So it seemed Jimmy was on his way to World Cup glory as he also played in the warm-up games but alas no as Willie Morgan was reinstated to the team for two of three games.

As for David Hay, his conversion in the Celtic team from full back to midfield dynamo had seen him become indispensable to the Scotland team. He had become one of the first names on the team sheet for Willie Ormond and by the end of the ’74 World Cup his stock was high after some outstanding performances in midfield. By the end of the World Cup David had earned 27 caps.

The sadly remarkable thing is that only Jimmy ever played for Scotland again. Jimmy would be picked to play in Scotland’s first two games after the World Cup; a 3-0 win over East Germany and a 2-1 defeat to Spain in the Euro Qualifiers, both at Hampden.

As for David Hay, bad luck would dog him for the rest of his short career with injuries, an eye operation and even a family bereavement all preventing him from playing for Scotland again. By 1979, David Hay had been forced to retire from the game. He had been one of my early Heroes in a Scotland shirt and if fate had been kind to him, he would’ve won many more caps too.

As to what’s wrong with these pictures? Neither player gained a cap with the clubs mentioned. Jimmy’s time at Sheffield United was very brief; only making 11 League appearances and of course David Hay never did so with Chelsea as already stated.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook July 26th, 2015

So David Stuart and I [and a few hundred others] go along to Hampden for free beer[initially] and some complimentary pies and then we sit back as Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour [aka Strachan, McCall & Peter Martin] talk us through the opening scenes of ‘The Road to Russia’. Unfortunately the live link to St. Petersburg for the draw went awry to the extent that would be slagmeister Peter Martin went all fish-like and morphed into Peter Flounder. If ever a team cried out for Alan Rough…..

A wise man once said something or other, about something but I’m not sure what it was. So there I was beer after beer awaiting the draw for the World Cup to find that like my sex life it was all over before I knew it. One minute it’s all anticipation and queuing up (such a bad metaphor but I’m a bit tired and alcohol fuelled) waiting for the climax and then the moment has passed (or is it pissed) and in a heartbeat it’s England, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania and Malta. Anyway that’s how it happened to me but enough of my shortcomings.
There are some things in life that it is worth waiting for and for your edification this is one of them. Issue 3 of the Scotland Epistles is just about ready to go to the printers and if I can sober up enough to give it a final proof read; it might even get sent to the printers tomorrow. It’s not the greatest picture of it as it’s a scan of a print but once I get a copy I will post another picture.
As always Robert, Alan and I are grateful of the support you have all given us over the last year. We are struggling to keep it going financially but each and every Like keeps us going, for each and every copy of the Epistles we sell we get more determined to keep it going also. We are committed to 4 issues but then I think of the prospect of England in the World Cup Qualifiers (and who knows how that might end,) and it has given us that extra spark for next year and more issues.
So once more I ask that you take us there; start to share articles, start to add likes and comments, start to write your own and send them to Alan. Let’s try together to get to 300 likes in the next month or so. So over the next few weeks let as many people know as you can about the magazine and the Facebook page. Hopefully the next issue will be out in the next week or two and if you haven’t bought the mag before please do.
Oh I just remembered what it was the wise man said “Buy the magazine and let us live the dream”.

So there I was on Tuesday morning quietly pleased with myself for having managed to buy tickets on line to watch Thistle v Wigan for the Tuesday night and then for Rotherham on Saturday when my fellow Epistler or is it Bullshitter Baldy Boabby Marshall emails me to say he has won tickets to watch the World Cup draw at Hampden on the Saturday too.
It was a slight dilemma for me, but when Robert told me the details i.e. a drinks reception at Hampden, Gordon Strachan and Stuart McCall in attendance along with Peter Martin sans Alan Rough, well what can I say but Robert you had me at a Drinks Reception.
So I’m looking forward to it although I am going straight from work, so will probably fall asleep half way through the CONCAF draw. Like Gordon Strachan I don’t have a preference for who we get, although the Isle of Man and Guernsey would be nice especially if they came out of Pot 1 and 2. You never know with these Russians and the shenanigans at FIFA of Mr. Blatter. Seriously though, it doesn’t matter who you get for in a years’ time, one team slumps whilst another one improves and before you know it we’re chasing our tails trying to qualify.
Still, couldn’t we just forget about the qualifying stages and just make it a knockout cup tourney every year, with seedings so that our World Cup journey starts against the Pitcairn Islands (why should Australia always get the big scores?), Belize, Greenland or Cape Verde Islands that way we don’t need to worry about getting out of the group stages. I suppose the only thing is the draw would take hours. (Ball number 4 Algeria v Ball 239 Tuvalu).
Anyway here’s hoping we get a decent draw but the question you’re no doubt asking is will Robert and I be punting the Epistles at the draw or having pictures taken with WGS holding #1 and 2 in his hands. I can’t help thinking we should but we won’t. Hopefully we might see some of you there although I don’t know who any of you are; unless of course Thistle sign make a major signing in the morning and by that I don’t mean a Feckin’ Mascot.PS Happy Birthday to Jim Leighton for the 24th and Darren Jackson for the 25th.

I know it’s still a couple of months away, but with the Germany and Poland home ties next up, with Georgia away in between, I can’t help but get excited about the prospect of a good result in each game and what that might lead to – hopefully a place in France 2016. There might be a hermit living in a cave on Pluto just about to be discovered by NASA’s latest mission who doesn’t know that our last proper finals appearance was in France 98, but we all know and for some that seems auspicious. I personally don’t go for auspicious dates or suspicious signs or the planets being in alignment, I am fully aware that all we need is good results to get us there. I want to experience that festival again.

I tend to stay away from doing pieces on players that gained a lot of caps. It’s so much easier to tell someone’s story when there’s only 15 caps or even 30 but Alex gained 77 and is third in the all-time list behind Kenny Dalglish and Jim Leighton. So here goes. Jock Stein gave Alex his first cap against Portugal in March, 1980 in a fine 4-1 win at Hampden in a Euro Qualifier. Of course being a Euro qualifier despite this great result we were already well out of contention, finishing fourth behind Belgium, Austria and Portugal. Thank goodness we still had Norway to prop us up. Also making his debut that night and for his only cap as an Aberdeen player was Stevie Archibald who despite his pedigree i.e. Spurs, Barcelona and Clyde never quite sparked in a Scotland shirt, only scoring 4 goals in 27 appearances. Although Alex would start in the first few games of the campaign to reach Spain ’82, by season ’81-’82 he seems to have fallen out the picture with Jock Stein preferring to play in the main Alan Hansen alongside Willie Miller, which as we all know proved to be a mistake come the World Cup. Alex did get game time during the World Cup, making a 30 minute appearance as a sub in the game against Brazil.
Throughout the qualifiers for Mexico ’86, Jock Stein had gone with the Miller / McLeish partnership as would his club manager Alex Ferguson for the play-offs against Australia, however Alex would play in the in opening game against Denmark and would then miss the final two games. I have to be honest and haven’t been able to confirm if he was injured or not;or if his club boss simply left him out in favour of David Narey.
Alex would finally get to play a big part in the World Cup Finals for Italia ’90 where he played in all three games against Costa Rica, Sweden and Brazil. After, the World Cup Alex would play in the first few games of a finally successful Euro campaign but by 1991 was being left out for players such as Craig Levein, Richard Gough and Dave McPherson (that can’t be right, can it?). A final swansong in February 1993 in a World Cup Qualifier against Malta would be Alex’s last appearance in a Scotland shirt. He would of course go on to manage Scotland rather successfully in some ways, in 2007 but like many a fan it rankles with me that he jumped ship to an average English club side in Birmingham City at the first opportunity.
As to his Focus on, it’s a bit boring but the reason for that becomes clear at the end when asked “ If not a player, what job would you do?”, “Hopefully, an accountant” came his reply and sadly this was actually true as Alex was studying accountancy at the time (Summer ’80).
Other than that his favourite food is . . . Steak! Sorry folks there’s no Scandinavian beauty to post here as he goes for Meryl Streep as his actress. His favourite player is Ruud Krol of Holland and childhood hero was Gerd Muller of West Germany. Favourite singers are Joni Mitchell and Phil Collins of Genesis.
And that was all she wrote as they say.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook July 22nd, 2015

In issue 2 of the Scotland Epistles, Bullshit & Thistles magazine I wrote an article called ‘ The Curse Of Berti Vogts’; the premise was that the bizarre amount of players that were given their debut cap by Berti and how their career ended prematurely or has been hampered by injury. If you think of John Kennedy, Lee Wilkie, Michael Stewart, Peter Canero as proof of the former and how even established Scotland players like Darren Fletcher, Gary Caldwell, James McFadden and Craig Gordon have had to overcome long term injuries. However, for the record with Steven Caldwell announcing his retirement this month I would like to clarify that Steven was not capped initially by Berti but by Craig Brown in April, 2001. So this one is not added to Berti’s cursed list.
Mind you if you have a look at the list of players making their debut that night at the Zawisza Stadium in Bydgosccz, it would seem that some sort of curse was involved that night too. Along with Steven making their one and only appearance in a Scotland shirt were John O’Neill of Hibs, Dunfermline’s Barry Nicholson, Charlie Miller, then of Dundee United and Andy McLaren of Kilmarnock; all of them who have had their hard times in some ways in their football career. The game was a classic of a goal each and numerous substitutions, which of course probably meant that an initial guarded first half was followed by a disrupted second half with the paying punters (20,000) wondering why they turned up in the first place. I think if people are paying money to see these internationals there has to be a limit on the subs; as all too often the game descends into farce. Incidentally, Scott Booth of Twente Enschede scored the Scotland goal.
As for Steven, he would win 12 caps under 5 managers with Craig Levein being the last, which says a lot about the state of Scotland management in last decade or so. Steven would have some highs with the 3 nil away win in Slovenia being the top of the list but whether it was enough to wipe out the memory of 4 nil defeats to both Wales and Norway I’m not too sure.
If you want to read more on the Curse of Berti Vogts issue 2 of the Epistles is still available on eBay. As for issue 3, hopefully it will be going to the printers on July 27th and will ab available shortly after.

If you were to ask me if there was a trophy for the Home Internationals I would probably have answered no as I don’t recall ever seeing it. So it was a surprise when I came across this photo and there it is. I suppose given the permutations on the final day of the Championships, it wasn’t always available for the winning team to hold it aloft. After all it would be quite embarrassing for it to sit at Wembley only for the Irish to win it at Windsor Park.
Apparently the cup was first played for 80 years ago this year and was part of the King George V’s Jubilee celebrations. I have included two other photos to show what a magnificent looking trophy it was.

The main photo is of course of Joe Jordan, Tom Forsyth and Danny McGrain in an England top, with the trophy. This was taken at Hampden in May 1976, as we have just beaten England 2-1 to clinch the trophy with goals from Don Masson and Kenny Dalglish. All three players pictured had a big part in that win. Jordan with some great wing play to cross the ball for Dalglish to put the ball through Clemence’s legs. There’s also the sight of Danny McGrain splitting the English defence with a great run and passing move just failing to connect fully as he shoots. However, best of all, in the last few minutes as Channon looks to be clean through; a great clearing tackle from Big Tam helps see the game out. Great days and have a look at the video on You Tube. Go for the full length version though and see us denied a penalty too!
As for the trophy; it now belongs to the Northern Irish FA as they were the last winners. For the moment though, it sits on long term loan to the National Museum of Football. Maybe we should request for it to be on display at our National Museum of Football as we won it on quite a few occasions too.

Peter Cormack will be 69 on July 17th. It’s fair to say that Peter’s Scotland career never really reached the heights that was expected of him. Peter had flourished under Jock Stein at Hibernian as a teenager and indeed he would make his Scotland debut at the age of 19.

Peter had played for the Under-23 side a couple of times prior to his first full team game and lining up alongside against Brazil on 25th June 1966 were a couple of familiar faces. Billy Bremner and Charlie Cooke had played with Peter in the Under-23 side but had progressed to first team before him. Also making his debut that day was John Clark of Celtic.

This was a pre-World Cup warm up for Brazil and show were such players as Jairzinho, Gerson and Pele. Stevie Chalmers of Celtic put Scotland ahead in the first minute but Brazil equalised through Servilio in the 16th minute and the game ended 1-1.

Surprisingly it would be a couple of years before Peter would play again for Scotland coming on as a sub with 3 minutes to go in a 1-0 defeat to Denmark. However, a year later things pick up again as Peter plays two games in a row. The first in September 1969, the Republic of Ireland game at Dalymount Park which I mentioned the other day.

He is then picked for the World Cup Qualifier against West Germany. At this point Scotland were still very much in the hunt for a place in Mexico and any kind of result against the Germans would put Scotland in a good position going into their last game against Austria.

Scotland got off to a great start with Jimmy Johnstone scoring in only three minutes, however the Germans equalised just before half time and then went into the lead in 60 minutes. Alan Gilzean would equalise four minutes later but with only nine minutes to go a final German gaol broke Scottish hearts. It was shortly after this that Tommy Gemmell went on the rampage having being hacked down by Helmut Haller; Tommy decided to take full blooded revenge and whacked Haller a cracker. Tommy became only the fourth Scotland players to be sent off and the third Celtic player to do so on National duty with Bertie Auld and Pat Crerand being his predecessors.

Scotland lost the final World Cup Qualifier against Austria in Vienna with Peter missing out but who knows what would have happened had we drawn in Hamburg but isn’t that always the way?

As for Peter, after another period of absence would see him come on as a sub, again against Denmark in November 1970 in a Euro qualifier. This would be his first game as a Nottingham Forest player. Scotland won one nil, thanks to a John O’Hare goal

1971 would Peter’s best year for representing Scotland as he would win his final four caps; mind you it wasn’t a great year for Scotland as their playing record would read P10 W2 D1 L7 F5 A14.

Peter would play in defeats to Portugal, England and Denmark and a nil nil draw against Wales. These results would see the ending of Bobby Brown’s reign as Scottish manager and the beginning of Tommy Docherty’s. In fact, the two Scotland wins would be under Tommy and without Peter. Docherty would bring Peter on as a late sub against the Netherlands in Amsterdam in December ’71 and that would be it for Peter . . . well almost.

Peter would become a Liverpool player in 1972 and would be a pivotal part of their season ’72-’73 Championship and UEFA Cup winning team but there would be no Scotland recall for him that year. However, despite not having played for Scotland since 1971 Peter was chosen as part of the 22 players that travelled to Germany for the 1974 World Cup. It is strange that Scotland played six games prior to the World Cup that year and Willie Ormond chose not to play him but still took him to Germany as part of the squad.

That was it for Peter and Scotland, although his international record was pretty poor as Scotland would only win once with Peter involved and even then the goal had been scored long before he came on.

Happy Birthday Peter and all the best. I do wonder, do you still have those white flares and polka dotted high heels?

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook July 17th, 2015