The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

Duncan will be 79 today ( 14th July, 2016) and he played 14 times in total for Scotland. Duncan was a regular for Celtic in the late fifties and early sixties playing at right back. He was first capped for Scotland in April, 1959 taking part in the Home International match against England at Wembley. John Dick a forward for West Ham would make his only Scotland appearance on that day too. Scotland would lose one nil to a second half goal from Bobby Charlton.
Duncan retained his place for the next three games as Scotland played a trio of friendlies. First up was a 3-2 victory over West Germany at Hampden with John White, then of Falkirk, Andy Weir of Motherwell and Graham Leggat of Fulham scoring. From there, towards the end of May, Scotland defeated the Netherlands 2-1 at the Olympisch Stadion, Amsterdam with Bobby Collins of Everton and Leggat hitting the goals. In early June, Scotland lost the final friendly one nil in Lisbon to Portugal.
He wasn’t involved on the two opening games of the 1959-’60 Home International series but returned to face England once more, this time at Hampden in April 1960. Graham Leggat would give Scotland the lead but a Bobby Charlton second half penalty gained England the draw. This game was again followed by a series of friendlies starting off with a 3-2 defeat at home to Poland despite goals from Denis Law and Ian St. John. (This was the first of four home games we have played against the Poles and we have still to beat them; losing twice and drawing the other two).
A small tour of Europe followed and saw Scotland lose 4-1 in Vienna, with Duncan’s namesake Dave Mackay hitting the consolation goal, draw 3-3 with Hungary in Budapest with Willie Hunter of Motherwell, Alex Young of Hearts and George Herd of Clyde and finally on to Ankara in Turkey. Duncan is one of that elite Scottish brand who have played Turkey in a match, as 8th June, 1960 is still the only occasion the two teams have met. Scotland were to lose 4-2 with Eric Caldow hitting a penalty and Alex Young the other.
Duncan played in the two opening games of the ’60-’61 Home Internationals in which Scotland were to lose 2-0 down at Ninian Park and then win 5-2 at Hampden in November, 1960 with goals from Law, Caldow (another penalty), Alex Young and two from Ralph Brand. Duncan had played seven games in a row and had now accumulated 11 caps, however, he was dropped for the game against the Auld Enemy in April ‘61 in favour of Bobby Shearer of Rangers where he was chosen as the reserve player. Ill fortune or good luck? With Scotland losing 9-3 perhaps it was the latter.
He wasn’t involved in Scotland’s opening three World Cup ties that year but was brought back to the defence after a 4-0 crushing by Czechoslovakia in Bratislava to face the Czechs at Hampden in a must win game in September, ’61. Scotland left it late and did it the hard way. Is there any other? Twice, going behind to the Czechs with St. John and Law hitting equalisers before Denis hitting the winner with seven minutes remaining.
Duncan would start one more game for Scotland, a crushing 6-1 victory over Northern Ireland in October ’61. All the goals were scored by Rangers players; Davie Wilson with one, Ralph Brand with two and Alex Scott with a hat-trick. He would be replaced by Alex Hamilton of Dundee who would play in 24 of the following 25 games for Scotland at right back. His final appearance would come against Uruguay in a friendly at Hampden in May of ’62 coming on as a sub for fellow Celt Pat Crerand in the 75th minute. Scotland were three down already in this rather tousy match but two late goals by Jim Baxter and Ralph Brand would put some respectability on to the score line.
Duncan would leave Celtic in 1964 having been with them since 1955 without winning a major honour, however he was very highly thought of at the time during Celtic’s barren spell. He moved on to Third Lanark and then played out his football days in two stints in Australia.
Happy Birthday Duncan and all the best.

David Stuart

Happy Birthday to Arthur Albiston who will be 59 on July 14th. (Happy Bastille Day to all French Revolutionaries and Rush fans too). Arthur probably couldn’t be described an exciting left back; more dependable and a good man to have in your team. He must have been, as Manchester United played him 485 times! As for Scotland, in comparison, a meagre 14. Perhaps Arthur was a bit unlucky, as Frank Gray had made the left back berth his own partnering Danny McGrain for a few years and then Maurice Malpas appeared on the scene. Of course, there is the fact that Jock Stein gave five caps to Ally Dawson in this period too, which maybe Arthur and the rest of us shouldn’t forgive. Mind you his main rival for the left back position at Man. U. for a few years, Stewart Houston only gained a solitary cap in his time too.
Arthur’s first cap came against Northern Ireland in April, 1982 in a dull 1-1 draw. John Wark scored for Scotland whilst Arthur’s Man Utd. teammate Sammy McIlroy netted for the Irish. It was probably a bad time to make your debut, if you were hoping for a World Cup place a month or so later. Jock Stein discarded Arthur at this point as Frank Gray came back into the team; Danny McGrain and George Burley completed the full back cover for Spain ’82.
His next game was in September, 1983 against Uruguay and he would go on to play in ten of the next twelve Internationals. In one of the games he missed, his place was taken up by Doug Rougvie for his sole cap and in the other Maurice Malpas was given his debut.
The Uruguay game also saw the debut of Paul McStay, as Scotland won 2 nil with goals from John Robertson and ‘Elephant Man’ Davie Dodds who was making his debut that night too.
Among the highlights for Arthur must have been that amazing game where Scotland beat Yugoslavia 6-1 in front of a crowd of only 18,512. Of course, this had to be the one night there was no real TV coverage due to industrial action IIRC. There is grainy footage on You Tube though. There is no truth in the rumour, that this game set in motion the disruption of Yugoslavia few years such was the beating we gave them. (A hell of a beating Marshall Tito)
Arthur must have also enjoyed the next two games as Scotland beat; first Iceland 3 nil a month later and then shortly after that, came the night Mo Johnston put the Spaniards to the sword scoring a double in a memorable 3-1 win in World Cup Qualifiers. Not so much happy memories for the Wales game in March ’85 when we lost to them at Hampden, which saw Arthur lose his place to Maurice Malpas and never really regain it. He would play in a friendly against East Germany in Alex Ferguson’s first game in charge and then in the final World Cup warm up against Netherlands in April ’86.
However, Arthur had one last game for Scotland at the Estadio Neza in Nezahualcoytl in one of the most frustrating games ever. Uruguay had a player sent off after 56 seconds and we thought that’s it we’re on our way to the second round but what followed was a travesty of a football match; as Uruguay dug in and weren’t afraid to put the boot in. As for Scotland we barely strung two passes together and that’s was it. Adios Scotland and Adios Arthur Albiston.
Happy Birthday Arthur and all the best.
David Stuart

No, it’s not an article on post Steve Hackett Genesis but we now only have three copies of the magazine to sell to break even. Yep, less than a tenner away from being solvent. I could buy them myself but it’s just not the same.
Anyhoo, enough of this twaddle and on to a Scotland 3.
3 caps; well there’s hunners but included among them are such greats as Bertie Auld who’s three caps all came in the 1950’s. Hearts striker Donald Ford and a member of the ’74 World Cup Squad, Queen of the South legend Billy Houliston, the wonderfully named Barney Battles Snr. of Celtic, father of Barney Jnr. Ian Wallace bought for £1 million by Notts Forest and couldn’t buy a cap beyond his three won at Coventry. Recent ‘great’ prospects that never lived up to expectations Derek Riordan and David Goodwillie also reached 3 caps. Two goalkeepers well loved by their respective clubs Henry Smith of Hearts and Tommy Lawrence of Liverpool also have three.

3 goals – Top of the list from the post-war era is East Fife’s Henry Morris who scored a hat-trick against Ireland on his debut and never featured again. Three Lisbon Lions in Stevie Chalmers, Bobby Lennox and Billy McNeill, two Rangers greats from the same era Jim Baxter (including two against England at Wembley in one game) and John Greig. From Leeds United Eddie Gray and Billy Bremner hit three as did Arsenal double hero George Graham and Spurs double hero the tragic John White. Paul Sturrock, Steven Thompson, Neil McCann, Craig Burley, Colin Hendry all hit three too. From the current squad there’s Ikechi Anya, Matt Ritchie, Christophe Berra, James Morrison and Jordan Rhodes.

World Cup Squads #3;from 1974 – Danny McGrain, 1978 – Willie Donachie, Frank Gray in ’82, Maurice Malpas wore it in 1986 and then in 1990 after giving Jim Leighton the number one spot, shirts were allocated by accumulated caps so that Roy Aitken wore it in 1990. Back to reality in 1998 and it went to Tom Boyd
.So who have we played three times; well there is Peru but let’s not get into that, so we’ll go with Slovenia who we have drawn with twice and beaten rather gloriously 3-0 in the Celje Stadium in 2005 with wonderful goals from Darren Fletcher, James McFadden and Paul Hartley.

So there you go the story of three. So come on, who out there is going cough the last few pennies needed to help us break even. Remember Buy Buy Buy. Bye!!!

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Here’s a guy a lot of Aberdeen fans will remember fondly; Big Davie Robb. A perrenial of the early ’70’s A&BC footballer cards Dave gianed 5 caps for Scotland. These were all towards the end of Bobby Brown’s time in charge and they don’t make for great reading; Played 5 W 0 D 1 L4 although it does include an appearance at Wembley v England as the Scots lost 3-1 with Hugh Curran of Wolves scoring the goal, which incidentally was the only goal scored when Davie was in the team so he was the not the goalscoring answer for Scotland but then again very few are. To be fair to Davie all his games were in 1971 and the full stats for that year are an alll time low. Played 10 W 2 D1 L7 F5 A14. The two wins were the first two games of Tommy Docherty’s reign.

Davie left Aberdeen to carve out quite a successful career in the NASL firstly with the Tampa Bay Rowdies and then the Philaldelphia Fury among others. At Tampa Bay he played alongside Rodney Marsh and at the Fury with the likes of Alan Ball and Frank Worthington.

Another one from our Magazine Picture section. This I believe is Danny in action in his very first Scotland game against Wales at the Racecourse, Wrexham. This was Willie Ormond’s second game in charge and he had made sweeping changes following a 5-0 crushing defeat by England in his opener. Out went Bobby Clark, Alex Forsyth, Martin Buchan, Eddie Colquhoun and Lou Macari among others, to make way for five players making their debuts; Danny plus Peter McCloy, Derek Johnstone, Derek Parlane of Rangers and Manchester United’s Jim Holton.
Scotland won 2-0 thanks to goals from George Graham, who was also with Manchester United at the time.
Danny would go on to play for Scotland a total of 62 times and would surely have won more, had it not been for a major injury prior to the World Cup of 1978. He was of course, well remembered for his defensive full back pairing with Sandy Jardine, which only happened on 20 occasions.
One of the interesting things about the FitbaStats website is that you can look up any Scotland player and find out who their teamates were and on many occasions. For Danny, the top ten read as thus; Dalglish 53, Rough 32, Jordan 26, Jardine 20, Gemmill 19, Rioch 19, Hartford 17, Donachie 16, McQueen, 16 and McLeish 15.

Here are just a few of the guilty, who have missed a penalty for Scotland. Do you recognise them? Do you know of some others?

First posted on Facebook, July 7th, 2016

James Forrest of Celtic will be 25 on July 7th. It’s fair to say that James’ Scotland career has kind of stuttered as perhaps has his club career too. In many ways he is similar to Shaun Maloney, who like James didn’t make all that great a start to his Scotland career and also has had injuries to overcome.
James’s first cap came against the Republic of Ireland in the Carling Cup game at the Aviva on 29th May 2011 under Craig Levein, which Scotland lost one nil. James won 7 of his thirteen caps under Levein but in each game that Gordon Strachan has picked him, excepting the Georgia away game, he has been a starter.
After the debacle that was the opening game of our 2014 World Cup Campaign against Serbia that ended in a poor nil nil draw, James was drafted in for the Macedonia game also at home three days later. It seemed as though the chance to shine was there for James but for some reason it just never happened as Scotland slugged out another miserable draw.
Strachan did play him in our last two qualifying home games against Germany and Poland and he probably played as well as he has in a Scotland strip but like the team he just wasn’t good enough.
Sadly, the most remarkable thing about James’ Scotland career so far is that in thirteen games he has played against thirteen different teams. There can’t be too many who can say that. He has played against Republic of Ireland, Denmark, Liechtenstein, Spain, Slovenia, Serbia, Macedonia, England, Belgium, Qatar, Georgia, Poland and Germany. (Of course, we all know that John Spencer beats this with 14 different opponents in 14 games)
This could be a vital season ahead for James if he is to make an impact at International level. Time will tell. (I wrote those sentences last year and they’re still true.)
In the modern football era i.e. post war, there have been three Scotland players born with the name James Forrest; in 1958 Jim Forrest of Motherwell gained a solitary cap against England which saw the Scots go down 4 nil at Hampden. Great World Cup morale booster that.
Then in 1965 another Jim Forrest gained two caps as a Rangers player against Wales and Italy, which rather remarkably were followed by a further three as an Aberdeen player in 1971 against Belgium, Denmark and the Soviet Union.
Players with the same name is not that unusual as there were two Tommy Gemmells, two John Robertsons, two Andy Grays and everyone personal favourite two Andy Gorams.
Finally going back to James perhaps one of the main reasons he has struggled and will continue to struggle to get into the Scotland team is because there’s only one Ikechi Anya!!!

So there I was ready to tell of the tale of 6 and then Robert Marshall tells me two more were sold and so overnight we drop from seven needed to sell to 4. So here goes a Scotland 4.

4 caps; oddly there are five players with four caps who have appeared at World Cups starting from 1954 and Jock Aird who was also capped by New Zealand. 1958 we had Stewart Imlach making two of his four appearances and in 1978 Joe Harper made his one and only appearance under Ally MacLeod coming on as a sub against Iran. Joe’s other three appearances were all v Denmark scoring two goals in the process. Allan Evans played in the ’82 World Cup and despite lifting the European Cup with Aston Villa never played again. Finally, Robert Fleck played at Italia ’90.
Whisper it but Chris ‘the Miss’ Iwelumo played four times too.

4 goals – some legends and some not so including Jinky Johnstone, Dave Mackay, Gordon Smith, Asa Hartford, Graeme Souness as well as Steve Archibald, Steve Crawford, John McGinlay, Darren Jackson and Scott Brown.

Number 4 in the World Cup squads from ’78 to ’98 were; Billy Bremner -’74, Martin Buchan – ’78 and then for ’82 and ’86 Graeme Souness. Richard Gough took over at Italia ’90 and then it was Colin Calderwood in France ’98.
We have played Argentina four times and of course were soundly beaten by them in 1979 with Maradona running riot at Hamoden as a precocious teenager but I prefer to remember Stewart McKimmie scoring against them in 1990 to give us a memorable 1-0 victory at home.

So guys 4 left to sell. Think of it as a donation to us for all the hard work we have put in over the last couple of years providing the Facebook page and website.
So Buy Buy Buy. Bye
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