The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

If they ever do allow bevvy at the fitbaw again, here is the perfect ale

I loved the Hampden beer images so much so that they had me scuttling to the back of my garage [aka Area 51] in search of something similar.I think the ‘Hampden Roar’ label is from the 1950s but hey I’m no David Dickinson -TF!

Nowadays, the Mount Florida hostelry, The Clockwork Beer Company produce their own ‘Hampden Roar Ale’ which was previously known as ‘Thunder and Lightning.’ Alas, it gave me a dose of the ‘Bryan Gunns.’WHEN Scotland qualify for next year’s Euros hopefully we will have some celebratory beers to enjoy [EG Saviour Strachan’s Eighty Shilling] and associated labels and beermats to collect.

The Danny McGrain beermat is from the Argentina 78 collection but unfortunately he didn’t make it to South America due to a serious foot injury. Another one for theWhat If? file.

Not many people in Scotland will feel inclined to celebrate the 23rd of April – St.George’s Day. Apparently it’s a big deal for our nearest and dearest south of the border however and not surprisingly the dragonslayer also gets the V.I.P. treatment in Georgia – our potential Euro-qualifying banana skin. That said, Georgia mark the occasion twice a year – on 6 May and 23 November. I think it has something to do with the Gregorian Calendar which I believe is even sexier than the Pirelli one. Also, two public holidays are better than one.

The Coventry City programmes from 1972/73 reminded me that before these wonderful politically-correct times of ours we had ‘Lager Lovelies’ – good looking lassies whose photographs adorned the side of a can of Tennent’s Lager. Ultimately these cans became collectables in their own right.

Well if we can’t have the girls back on the cans how about introducing sets of Scotland International Footballers – past and present – from Colin Stein to Steven Fletcher, players who could deliver a threesome Frank McAvennie can only dream about. I can see some of the advertising slogans already – e.g. ‘With Joe Jordan and Richard Gough you are bound to get a good head’ – er, em if you know what I mean!

The 1970s is now the decade that everyone denies and decries but I loved it. Two World Cups, Jon Pertwee as Doctor Who plus Glam-Rock, Punk Rock and Disco. Look at the photo of Scotland internationalist Willie Carr – Dig it the Dancing Queen…..

In season 1972/73 Carr was at Coventry City a club whose matchday programme was gloriously non-pc as exemplified by the photograph of a scantily clad female on the reverse of that publication which was for the visit of Leicester City.There was a different model on the back of each Coventry City programme that season which I suspect was an effective encouragement for many teenage lads to get into the hobby of programme collecting.

My conscience was bothering me at excluding Dave MacKay from my favourite Scotland Postcards article so here he is. In the Royal Mail British Legends eleven team photo he is flanked by Bryan Robson [yes, really] and Bobby Charlton and is sitting in front of George Best and John Barnes.

I’ve also included an image of the stamp that never was. Ebullient Ally’s enthusiasm persuaded the Royal Mail to design a stamp in the event of Scotland bringing home the World Cup from Argentina in 1978.What gets me however is not the absurdity of it all [hindsight is a great thing] but the ‘suspect-looking’ celebrations of the Scotland players. It looks like a dance routine straight out of the closing scenes of the cult horror movie ‘The Wicker Man’.

I’ve always thought that Tommy Docherty’s oft-quoted quip was a bit unfair given that many overseas postal services are not what they should be, and that is my tenuous link to having a quick look at some of my favourite Scotland postcards as I while away the days waiting on our next international match.The two postcards from Euro 92 and Euro 96 are a wee reminder of our only appearances to date at the European Championship Finals and that qualification for Euro 2016 would therefore complete a glorious hat-trick.

Twice Brazil have staged the World Cup Finals and on both occasions Scotland failed to appear. However there has been one occasion when the word Escosia has been included in a tournament programme – back in 1972 when Scotland were invited to take part in a 20 team competition celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Brazilian Declaration of Independence.

Scotland, managed by Tommy Docherty and skippered by Billy Bremner were drawn in the same group as hosts Brazil plus Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia – two artificially created countries that are no longer with us but whose independent successor states have mostly done rather well football-wise.

Is it just the one Qatar that we are playing at Easter Road in June or is it all ten of them? Boom! Boom! Oh never mind…..

Anyway I believe this is the first time we have hosted an Asian nation at full international level unless you put forward a geographical [as opposed to a political] argument for Israel or a bed-hopping case for Australia.[No doubt HH will keep me right on this one]. Incidently, I still think an invitation to Japan is long overdue.

Hamish Husband’s recent post re meeting Eric Caldow served to remind me that I have met gie few football legends save for a number of Partick Thistle’s 1971 League Cup Final winning team at a 25th anniversary bash at Firhill.

My all-time favourite footballer however is John Greig who won the last of his 44 caps skippering his country to a 3-1 win against Denmark in a Euro Championship qualifier in 1975. It was the only time I actually saw ‘Ham n Egg’ in the dark blue of Scotland and so I missed seeing him more than hold his own at Hampden against the likes of Italy in 1965 [Facchetti, Mazzola, Rivera et al];Brazil in 1966 which included Pele, Jairzinho and Gerson; and West Germany in 1969 featuring the ‘terrible trio’ of Gerd Muller, Beckenbauer, and er, em, Vogts………