The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

First posted on Facebook, August 24th, 2016

Happy Birthday to Barry Nicholson who turned 38 today. Barry only won three Scotland caps, which all came during his period with Dunfermline. His first two caps came at the tail end of Craig Brown’s time in charge. He made his debut against Poland in April, 2001. Also making their debut that night and for quite a few playing in their only game for Scotland were John O’Neill of Hibernian, Charlie Miller of Dundee United, Gavin Rae of Dundee. Among the subs making their debut were Andy McLaren of Kilmarnock, Steven Caldwell of Newcastle and Kenny Miller of Rangers. As usual there were quite a lot of changes during the game but Barry would play the whole 90 minutes. Scotland would draw 1-1 thanks to a penalty from Scott Booth.
It would be a few months and games later that Barry would gain his second cap in what was to be Craig Brown’s last game. Scotland beat Latvia 2-1 at Hampden but despite this win they had failed to qualify for the World Cup.
Barry’s third and final cap would not come for another three years and remarkably in an era where Berti Vogts gave Scotland caps out like Sweeties in his 32 game reign, Barry was overlooked at every turn. However, Tommy Burns in his only game in charge brought Barry back into the Scotland fold and played him in the game against Sweden in November, 2004. Unfortunately for both Barry and Tommy, the game was a disaster as Scotland lost 4-1 at Easter Road.
Barry would go on to play for Aberdeen, Preston North End, Fleetwood and Kilmarnock before hanging up his boots but would not play again for Scotland. Currently Barry is the Development coach at Fleetwood.
Happy Birthday Barry and all the best.