1952ire

On this day in 1952 Scotland played Northern Ireland at Hampden in a Home International. The game would end with two late goals; Seamus D’arcy scoring the first for the Irish in the 80th minute. Scotland would equalise in the last minute through who else but Lawrie Reilly of Hibs.
Lawrie scored 22 times for Scotland in 38 caps; injury would see Reilly retire before his 30th birthday. Who knows how many goals he would have scored had he played on for a few more years. If you compare his stats to that of Denis Law and Kenny Dalglish it is quite interesting.
For Denis it would mean his cap total would finish at 42; so there would be no second coming of Denis; no World Cup in ’74. However, it would make his goalscoring total more interesting as he would then have 28 in 42 games.
For Kenny Dalglish it would mean he would only gain 78 caps and there would be no 1982 World Cup. His goal tally would then be 24 goals in 78 games.
The team that day at Hampden was George Farm (Blackpool), George Young (Rangers, Capt.), Sammy Cox (Rangers), Jimmy Scoular (Portsmouth), Frank Brennan (Newcastle United), George Aitken (Sunderland), Tommy Wright (Sunderland), Jimmy Logie (Arsenal), Lawrie Reilly (Hibs), Billy Steel (Dundee) and Billy Liddell (Liverpool).
Jimmy Logie was winning his one and only cap that day. Logie played 328 times for Arsenal scoring 68 goals. It is a remarkable stat as it took him over six years to make his debut. Jimmy had signed in June 1939 but with break out of war he was called up for the Royal Navy serving throughout the war. His time with Arsenal would see him win two First Division Championships as well as the FA Cup.
Jimmy’s career started out at Lochore Welfare as did Willie Johnston, Craig Levein and Colin Cameron.
The programme is from our website, love the creases.

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On this day, in 1969 Peter Lorimer made his debut for Scotland. He would be the last player to win his first cap in the 1960’s coming on as a sub in a World Cup qualifier against Austria. West Germany had already qualified at the expense of both sides. Scotland would lose 2-0.
As for Peter, he didn’t feature again until 1971, when Peter played in a 0-0 draw with Wales and a one nil defeat to Northern Ireland.
He played in all three games in the 1972 Home Internationals underTommy Docherty and indeed scored in the 2-0 defeat of Northern Ireland and hit the only goal as Scotland beat Wales 1-0 at Hampden as were all the games that year. Scotland lost one nil to England in the final game of the series, which was a rather bruising encounter. There were twenty fouls committed in the first twenty minutes and I do wonder how much actual playing time there was.
Lorimer like a lot of English club players didn’t travel to Brazil for the Independence tourney; mostly at the behest of their respective clubs but Docherty did play him in our opening games of the World Cup Qualifiers, away and at home against Denmark which marked Tommy’s last games in charge. Scotland won the first game in Copenhagen 4-1 and Peter scored the second goal of the game at Hampden as they won 2-0.
Peter scored in six minutes and started off a rout in Scotland’s next game unfortunately it was an own goal and was followed by four more as Scotland lost to England in Willie Ormond’s first game as manager in February 1973 aka the Valentine Day’s Massacre.
Lorimer would again feature in a defeat to England as the Scots narrowly lost 1-0 at Wembley in May that year.
Timing is everything and although Peter did not play on the night of the victory over Czechoslovakia and World Cup Qualification, he did play in the game against England a year later which Scotland won 2-0 and was then an integral part of the team; which we all know because of his most famous moment in a Scotland jersey as he walloped in the first goal of our World Cup against Zaire. Peter then did his trademark celebration clapping his hands above his head.
Peter played in the games against Brazil and Yugoslavia; in the Brazil game if you watch the highlights he takes a few free kicks outside the area from a long way out such was the power in his shot.
Although, Peter would play in a few more games after the World Cup with the emergence of the likes of Masson and Rioch he became surplus to requirement and that was it for Scotland, although he would play on for quite a few years and would become Leeds United all time goalscorer, a record which he still holds and is doubtful it will ever be broken. Peter gained 21 caps scoring 4 goals.

David Stuart