The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

(First posted on Facebook on March 27th, 2016)

Ian Wilson will turn 58 today. Midfielder Ian was capped five times by Andy Roxburgh in the late 80’s. Unusually, Ian played the full ninety minutes in each of his games and was also part of a Scotland team that beat Belgium only to disappear from the International scene altogether.
Ian first came to prominence as part of a decent Leicester City team in the eighties. He was thrown in at the deep end in his first game as he was picked to start against England at Hampden on May 23rd, 1987. Scotland lined up with Wilson, Roy Aitken, Paul McStay and Aberdeen player Neil Simpson winning one of his five caps in midfield. The teams played a non-score total bore draw.
Next up, was Brazil a few days later, which Scotland lost 2-0 with goals from Rai and Valdo.
October, 1987 and it was Euro Qualifier action against Belgium at Hampden, which for a change Scotland actually won. Goal heroes that night were Ally McCoist and Paul McStay. By this time Ian had become an Everton player.
Scotland had a poor start to their campaign and were already out of the reckoning by the time Gary MacKay popped up to score the winner in Sofia, Bulgaria to send the Republic of Ireland to their first ever Tournament Finals and Gary into Irish folklore.
Ian’s last game came in an extremely poor Scotland performance as they played out a nil nil draw in Luxembourg but then again Graeme Sharp was played up front.
So that was it for Ian; five caps and then no more. It would seem his club form began to suffer and indeed he is not remembered too fondly by Everton fans who thought he was rank. Ian would then move on to Besiktas for a successful season, winning the Turkish League and Cup with them before moving on to Derby, Bury, Wigan and finishing up at Peterhead, whom he would manage on three separate occasions.
Ian now runs soccer camps in the Aberdeen area. Happy Birthday Ian and all the best.
(As to the photo not sure why Orbis felt to include him in their sticker set for Italia ’90, the sticker is taken from our Cards & Sticker section on the Scotland Epistles website)