The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

Well, well, well . . . finally it happened, someone else bought a copy of issue 4 and took us down to the magic number of 7 copies to be sold and we break even.
So as a reward for one person’s endeavour here is a Scotland 7.
7 caps – Two of the Turnbull Tornadoes in John Blackley and John Brownlie. Celtic legends Jimmy McGrory 7 caps and 6 goals as well as Willie Wallace. Other strikers include the two Duncans; Shearer and Ferguson that is. Frank McGarvey, Ted MacDougall and Craig Mackail-Smith also reached 7. As did a pair of gingers in David Hopkin and Kirin Cup Winner Chris Burke.

7 Goals; Old firm legends Jimmy Quinn and Bob McPhail and then a wad of scorers from the modern era; Andy Gray, Billy Dodds, John Wark, Kris Boyd, Gordon Durie and current player Shaun Maloney.

So who wore the number 7 at the World Cup? Starting from 1974, it was one of the all time great number 7’s in that proud tradition of Scottish wingers Jimmy Johnstone, sadly he would not get to perform on the World stage. Next up was a great player from 1976 and 1977 but not so much 1978; Don Masson. ’82 and ’86 would see another diminutive ginger in WGS filling out the strip. 1990 and 1998 would be strikers who were responsible more than anyone else for getting us to those World Cups with their goal hauls in qualifying in Mo Johnston and Kevin Gallacher.

We have played the USA 7 times and beaten them twice, draw three and lost two. The first time we met was in April 1952 at Hampden. Lawrie Reilly scored three as the Scots romped home 6-0.

So, let’s have the story of number six by simply buying a copy; available here.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/…/SCOTLAND-EPISTLES-FOO…/381667243490…

http://www.ebay.co.uk/…/SCOTLAND-EPISTLES-FOO…/381667271162…

Gary Gillespie will be 56 on July 5th. Gary’s is one of those players who at an early age seemed to be destined for great things but his Scotland career only amounted to thirteen caps and as a bit part player, generally playing when others were injured or unavailable.

And yet his career started well; at seventeen Gary was given the captaincy of Falkirk, by eighteen he was on the move to Coventry City. His first Under -21 cap came a few months after his eighteenth birthday in a friendly against USA at Pittodrie on October 17th, 1978. Andy Roxburgh was in charge of the team at this point and it would be him that would give Gary all his full caps too. Also in the team that day were future Scotland players Alex McLeish, Murdo MacLeod and Eamonn Bannon. The team won three – nil with goals from Murdo, Neil Orr of Morton and Partick Thistle’s Jim Melrose.
By the time of his first team cap at the age of 27 on October 14th 1987, Alex McLeish was on cap 48, Eamonn Bannon’s 11 cap career was over and Murdo MacLeod had gained 5 of his eventual 20 caps. Gary was paired alongside McLeish on that night against Belgium in a Euro Qualifier at Hampden, which the Scots won 2-0 with goals from McCoist and McStay.
Gary, by this time was a Liverpool player having probably spent too many years at Coventry, that possibly hindered his International progress. Gary would also play in the following game, a Euro qualifying match, as Scotland beat Bulgaria in Sofia with Gary MacKay scoring that famous goal that put ROI through to their first Finals.
Gary played in a goalless friendly against Spain in April the following year but with competition from McLeish, Miller and Gough opportunities were few. Gary played in only three of the qualifying games for Italia ’90. A 2-1 win away to Norway in September, 1988 and then the magnificent win against France at Hampden in March ’89, with Mo Jo supplying a deadly brace, that was followed by a 3-1 defeat away to Yugoslavia in Zagreb in September of ’89. Gary scored an own goal for the Slavs third with Liverpool teammate Stevie Nicol hitting their second. Stevie Nicol would repeat this feat in Scotland’s next game away to France. Having not seen those goals I can’t confirm whether they were more difficult than that gilt edged chance he had against Uruguay in Mexico 1986.
Gary then played in four of our World Cup warm ups; two of which saw home defeats to East Germany and Egypt followed by a home draw to Poland in which Gary sent a perfect lob over the goalkeeper to score. It’s just a pity it was Andy Goram. ( I will post video of that game today too.)

Gary didn’t start any of the games in the World Cup but he did get to replace Murdo in the third game against Brazil, after he had the ball blootered off him by Branco and ended up unconscious. Scotland lost a soft goal in 81st minute to Muller which saw us sent home again, too early.
Gary was called up again in November, 1990 for another game in Sofia against Bulgaria in a Euro Qualifier, which Scotland drew one all. Although Scotland had a successful campaign and qualified for the finals in Sweden, Gary was never picked again for his national team. All the best to Gary on his birthday.

David Stuart

Douglas Kenney tagged the Scotland Epistles Magazine to a picture from the Football Memories League of Dixie Deans. I was going to post the picture and leave it, however being a sad sack I decided to locate my Dixie Deans book and read about his time with Scotland.
Dixie only won two caps and he was pretty aggrieved about that as he had been scoring goals for fun with Celtic from the early 70’s following his move from Motherwell in 1971. Dixie feels that he should’ve been picked by Tommy Docherty and Willie Ormond prior to his call ups in season ’74-’75.
However, he points the finger at Jock Stein and feels he was perhaps shafted by the Big Man, imagining coversations between Jock and Willie Ormond; “Ach, the boy Deans is carrying a few pounds” or “Dixie? Nah, he’s a good lad but if I were you, Willie, I widnae pick him.”
Dixie does suggest that Jock quite often put Celtic first, which is understandable and would pull players from squads to ensure their availablity for Celtic. Dixie is also quite damning about not being chosen for the World Cup in ’74 and in particular Denis Law’s inclusion for the game against Zaire when goals were needed. He is not disrespectful of Denis but perhaps rightly believes that in some ways sentimentality in playing Denis cost Scotland and feels he could have got the goals needed against Zaire but that’s strikers for you.
It was after World Cup and when Dixie feels he was not playing at his peak that he was called into the Scotland squad for a friendly against East Germany at Hampden. Dixie made his debut on 30th October, 1974 as did Graeme Souness who was with Middlesbrough at the time. Scotland won 3-0 with goals from Tommy Hutchison (penalty), Kenny Burns and Kenny Dalglish.

Although, Dixie didn’t score he did enough to merit a second cap and so faced Spain in Scotland’s opening game of the Euro Qualifiers at home a month later. Billy Bremner gave Scotland an early lead in front of a crowd of 94, 331, however Tommy Hutchison missed a penalty ( well, they were hardly going to give it to Dixie to hit) to give Scotland a comfortable lead and they would pay the price as the Castro scored two goals either side of half time and Spain went home with the 2-1 win. Scotland then played catch up after this in qualifying and ultimately failed to progress due to the home loss.
As for Dixie that was the end of his time with Scotland and he would soon move from Celtic to Luton Town and would end up playing in Australia.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook, June 30th, 2016

43 years ago to the day I attended my first Scotland game as Scotland hosted World Champions Brazil at Hampden Park in front of a crowd of 78,180 + 1 (Me). Derek Johnstone would score an own goal in 33rd minute, which would be the only goal of the game.
The line-ups were; McCloy, Jardine, McGrain, Holton, Derek Johnstone, Hay, Bremner, Morgan, Dalglish, Jordan and Parlane. George Graham would replace Dalglish in the 70th minute.
Brazil ; Leao, Pereira, Piazza, Ze Maria, Marco Antonio, Clodoaldo, Paulo Caesar, Rivelino, Valdomiro, Jairzinho, Dirceu. Almost a year later the two teams would meet again in the World Cup where a 0-0 draw was fought out..

This was my first game what was yours?

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook, 28th June, 2016

Happy Birthday to Phil Bardsley who will turn 31 today. Phil has gained 13 caps so far, all with Sunderland. It’s fair to say he is not favoured by Gordon Strachan at all, 12 of his caps came under Craig Levein gaining his first against Spain at Hampden in October 2011 when Scotland lost out to a late goal to lose 3-2.
Strachan has rarely picked Phil for his squads and has only given him 23 minutes of playing time against Poland in the friendly win in Warsaw 2014. Phil only played 11 times for Sunderland last season and it will be interesting to see if he’s picked much by Club Manager Mark Hughes or International Manager Strachan next season.
Happy Birthday Phil and all the best.

And no wonder they look happy with themselves. After all they have just beaten England 2-1 at Hampden, May 1976. Pictured are Colin Jackson, Joe Jordan, Tom Forsyth, Kenny Dalglish, Alan Rough and kneeling we have Derek Johnstone and Danny McGrain. This would be the Colin Jackson’s last game for Scotland despite having never been beaten, playing in the dark blue of his country. Jackson played 8 games; won 5 and drew three, scoring one goal against Wales, the season before this game down at Ninian Park in a 2-2 draw (see video).  A returning Gordon McQueen would take over from Jackson. Alan Rough was also unbeaten at this point having played four games thus far.

First posted on Facebook, June 25th, 2016

Happy Birthday to Callum Davidson who will turn 40 today. Callum made his debut in Scotland’s first game after the 1998 World Cup, as would Barry Ferguson and Neil McCann; all three would be second half substitutes against Lithuania in Vilnius in the opening Euro 2000 qualifier. Callum would start in Scotland’s next seven games and indeed play a big part in their campaign. However, the Czech Republic would win the group at a canter with maximum points with Scotland second; 12 points behind them.
Scotland got through to the play offs against England and would lose the first leg 2-0 at Hampden. Davidson would play in the second game where a Don Hutchison goal gave Scotland a memorable but forlorn win.
Davidson’s first twelve caps would come as a Blackburn player and his next five as a Leicester City player, however he would only feature under Berti Vogts fleetingly due to injury, gaining cap number 17 in October, 2002 against Canada at Easter Road.

Callum would eventually make his way back from the International wilderness in his time with Preston North End with George Burley playing him in two games of the 2010 Euro Qualifiers. Scotland would lose the first game in Oslo 4 -0 to Norway but would beat Macedonia 2-1 at Hampden in Callum’s last game with Scott Brown and James McFadden scoring.
Happy Birthday Callum.

First posted on Facebook on June 24th, 2016
As a lover of international football I am managing to enjoy the Euro 2016 finals which ironically [but for obvious reasons] are also the most painful tournament finals I’ve ‘experienced’ during my lifetime. Even a visit to my local TESCO is painful as it hurts to see large flags of the 24 finalists hanging from the rafters whilst our [small] saltire is tucked away next to dairy or beef products.

As someone who clutches at straws for a hobby I sought solace in one of Scotland’s few European success stories [sort of] by visiting my local Lidl store -official supplier of the Scottish F.A. dontchaknow. There to greet me at the front entrance were cardboard cut-outs of Russell Martin, Ikechi Anya and Andrew Robertson. [There’s an Alan Hutton joke in there somewhere]. Anyway I wouldn’t mind adding the two-dimensional version of the three amigos to my Scotland memorabilia collection – probably a more acceptable cut-out than my Xena Warrior Princess collectible.

First posted on Facebook on June 22nd, 2016

Happy 35th Birthday to Stephen Crainey. Stephen gained 12 caps in total. Does it say something about him that he gained them under Berti Vogts and then Craig Levein? He was first capped as a Celtic player in the horror show that was the Stade De France in 2002 where the French lets us off easy with only a 5-0 drubbing in Berti’s first game.
It didn’t get too much better for Stephen as he played in a few more friendly defeats before an appearance in his only competitive game,unfortunately this was in Toftir in the Faroes as a woeful Scotland scraped by with a 2-2 draw.
Cap number five would come in March 2004, under rather tragic circumstances as he replaced the injured John Kennedy in only 17 minutes of Kennedy’s one and only Scotland appearance against Romania at Hampden. Scotland would lose 2-1.
However, by this time Stephen was a Southampton player as he was, for his sixth cap which was another friendly defeat only this time away to Denmark.
Cap number 7 would come a whole six years later as a Blackpool player as the Seasiders enjoyed a revival under Ian Holloway and with Charlie Adam in tantalising form. Finally Stephen would enjoy victory as Scotland dispatched the Faroes up at Pittodrie in friendly in November 2010 with goals from Danny Wilson, Kris Commons and James Mackie.
However, Crainey would remain nothing more than a squad player filling in for the absence of the likes of Phil Bardsley and others. His last cap would come in the 2-1 victory over Cyprus in Larnaca coming on for Bardsley in the 74th minute.
Happy Birthday Stephen and all the best with AFC Fylde in the National League North next season.

David Stuart