The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

First posted on Facebook on October 2nd, 2016

Happy Birthday to Motherwell legend Willie Pettigrew.
Willie will turn 63 today. Willie played 5 times for Scotland, scoring two goals in the process. Scotland would win all five of the games in which he participated which makes you wish he played a lot more times.
His first cap came in April, 1976 and Willie got off to the best of starts opening the scoring against in two minutes against Switzerland. I pity anyone who was late that night, as this would be the game’s only goal.
He then played in the opening two games of the 1976 Home International series scoring the opening goal against Wales in a 3-1 win at Hampden. He would also play in the 3-0 victory over Northern Ireland a few days later but was dropped for the England game with the more experienced Joe Jordan being chosen in front of him.
Willie would make a brief subs appearance six months later as a replacement for Eddie Gray in the final moments of the Home World Cup Qualifier against Wales. An Ian Evans own goal in the 15th minute would give Scotland the victory.
His final game would be against Sweden in April, 1977. Scotland would win 3-1 in this friendly that would prove to be both Pettigrew’s and Willie Ormond’s last games with Scotland. Although, Willie would not score in the 3-1 victory he was given the full 90 minutes. Whether Ormond had him in his longer term plans had he remained in charge is mere conjecture but Ally MacLeod would recall Derek Parlane for his first game in charge a month later with no pace for Pettigrew and so Willie’s Scotland career ended.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook on October 2nd, 2016

Happy Birthday to Stephen Pearson who will turn 34 today. Pearson was first capped as a Motherwell player in November, 2003 coming on in the 71st in one of Scotland’s biggest games in this period for Neil McCann in the 1-0 victory over the Netherlands in the first leg of the play offs for the Euros 2004. Stephen was perhaps fortunate that he missed the return leg but won his second cap as a Celtic player in February, 2004 in Cardiff, Wales where Scotland lost 4-0. Pearson himself was substituted at half time.
In his next three games, he was to return to being on the subs bench coming on for the final seventeen minutes against Hungary at Hampden in August 2004. Scotland were already three down at this point and that’s how it finished. A month later and he would be a half time sub for James McFadden but would only play 14 minutes as the game in Spain was abandoned due to a floodlight failure caused by a thunderstorm. The game was tied at 1-1 at this point.
His final appearance under Berti Vogts was against Norway as Scotland lost 1-0 in a World Cup Qualifier at Hampden in October, 2004. Pearson came on in the 63rd minute for Richard Hughes (who remembers him?) of Portsmouth.
Tommy Burns would pick Stephen in his only game in charge; a rather disastrous 4-1 defeat in Sweden in November, 2004.
Cap number 7 would not come until August, 2007 and he would now be a Derby County player. In the intervening years Stephen struggled with injuries and failed to get a regular place in the Celtic side but the move to Derby County seemed to reinvigorate his career once more. Indeed Stephen had scored the only goal in the 2007 Championship play off to give Derby a place in the Premiership. It was Alex McLeish that brought him back into the Scotland squad and he was a sub in the 1-0 victory over South Africa up at Pittodrie, coming on once more for McFadden at half time.
His next game was in September, 2007 in the Parc De Princes in Paris. I imagine as Stephen came on in the 26th minute for an injured Darren Fletcher we all thought “well there goes our chances of maybe getting a draw here”. Of course, James McFadden hit his stunner in the 64th minute and suddenly we all dreamed of a victory. Stephen like the rest of the team worked tirelessly all that night to ensure that Faddy’s magic moment would seal victory.
Stephen would retain his place for Scotland’s next match; that wonderful 3-1 victory over Ukraine at Hampden with early goals from Kenny Miller and Lee McCulloch giving us the perfect start and although Shevchenko would pull one back in the 24th minute. Another magical finish from Faddy saw us win 3-1. (I will post the video of the game straight after I post this so look out for it.).
However, Stephen would only gain one more cap, his tenth and final one in Tbilisi, Georgia as the Scots crashed 2-0 and their chances of qualification to the Euros in 2008 fell apart. A story that of course repeated itself recently.
And that was it for Stephen as once more injury and subsequent loss of form would see him struggle to get a place in the Derby side and he would move on to Bristol City under Derek McInnes a few years later and then to the Indian Super League with the Kerala Blasters.
Stephen returned to his first club Motherwell last season but has now returned to India to play with Atletico Kolkata. Injury robbed him of a lot of his career and at times it did look as though he could become a valuable player for Scotland but sadly it was not to be.
Happy Birthday Stephen and all the best.

David Stuart

First posted On Facebook on October 2nd, 2016

Happy Birthday to winger Willie Morgan who will turn 72 today. Willie was first capped, not as a Manchester United player but as a Burnley player. His first cap came in October, 1967 at Windsor Park, Belfast. This is the match that is famous for George Best tearing the Scots defence apart time and time again. Willie had been chosen to play out on the left wing due to injury to Bobby Lennox the week before, having been clouted on the head by a Racing Club of Argentina player during their Intercontinental Cup tie at Hampden the week before. Also, missing at the time were Billy Bremner, Jim Baxter and Jimmy Johnstone due to suspensions, at club level I assume.

Scotland were defeated 1-0 and Willie obviously didn’t make the impact he hoped and was left out of the Scotland side for almost five years returning in April, 1972 for a friendly against Peru at Hampden. Also recalled that night by Tommy Docherty to the side was his Man. U. teammate Denis Law. The fact that it was Docherty that recalled them is perhaps a bit ironic given their treatment by him during his tenure of the United management post. Scotland won 2-0 and although he would not be picked for that season’s Home Internationals; Willie was back in the side for all three games of the Brazilian Independence Cup and would play in the first two Qualifiers for the 1974 World Cup. Both these games were against Denmark home and away. Willie was to score his only Scotland goal in the 4-1 win in Copenhagen, October ’72.
Willie Ormond continued with Morgan in his side right up until the defeat against Northern Ireland at Hampden in May 1974. By this time Morgan had won 18 caps; 16 of them consecutive. And the man that replaced him; the one and only Jimmy Johnstone. Scotland won 2-0 and Jinky would keep his place for the England match, which of course he ran the English ragged in and is seen as perhaps his greatest game in a Scotland shirt with Scotland winning 2-0.
Willie would play twenty one minutes of the World Cup warm game replacing Johnstone in the defeat to Belgium.
The big surprise would be that neither Morgan nor Johnstone would start in Scotland’s opening game of the World Cup as Ormond chose to go without a winger to compensate for Denis Law’s inclusion against Zaire.
Ormond would chose Morgan ahead of Johnstone for the two final World Cup games and perhaps it was more about his knowledge and trust of Morgan and what he could bring to the side having played in for the vast majority of the games he had managed; that Morgan was more likely to play to Ormond’s tactics and be a team player than Jinky. This is all conjecture on my part but the thrust Johnstone could have brought to the team through individual genius may have proved to be the difference between winning and drawing the games against Brazil and Yugoslavia.
As it was, these were to be Willie’s final games for Scotland as Manchester United plummeted into the Second Division and although Willie would lead them back up as Captain he would not be recalled to the side.
Willie may not go down in history as one of the great Scottish wingers but there is one Golden moment in his time with the National side; take a look again at the game against Czechoslovakia where Morgan turns inside his man and with the outside of his foot floats in the most precise of crosses to Joe Jordan to score. Genius.
Happy Birthday Willie and all the best.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook on October 1st, 2016

Always like to get hold of a sticker or card of a player who only had a handful of caps and so here is Hearts hero Henry Smith. Henry played just shy of 600 games for Hearts from 1981 to 1996. However, with Jim Leighton and Andy Goram available to Scotland at the time, his caps were limited.
In total Henry won 3 caps, the first coming in the heat of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia as Scotland played a friendly in February, 1988. Henry came on after half-time for Leighton. Scotland were trailing 1-0 at the time but would manage to grab two quick goals from Mo Johnston and John Collins before the Saudis equalised in the 71st minute and so the game ended 2-2.
After, the 1990 World Cup and his fall from grace in the Manchester United line-up, Jim Leighton disappeared from the Scotland scene for three years and Andy Goram was the undisputed Number one. With qualification for the 1992 European Championships in Sweden achieved the search was on for Goram’s understudy and Henry was given the nod for the first pre-tournament friendly in February,1992 against Northern Ireland at Hampden. Scotland won 1-0 thanks to an Ally McCoist goal early in the first half. A tour of North America ensued in May with Henry’s only real rival for the number two spot at the time, Gordon Marshall of Celtic, been given the first game against the U.S. in the Mile High Stadium in Denver. Scotland won 1-0 with Pat Nevin scoring the games’ only goal.
Henry was given the other match which was against Canada at the Varsity Stadium in Toronto. Scotland won 3-1 with Gary McAllister netting two including a penalty and Ally McCoist the other.
In 1992, the Euros only had eight teams and with this, the squads were only of 20, which meant only two goalkeepers. Andy Goram was of course, given the number one shirt but it was Henry who was given the second shirt and travelled to Sweden with the team.
Henry was never called upon to play during the tournament and indeed would never play again for Scotland with Jim Leighton coming back into the team the following year.
Still at least he got to be in a Major Finals sticker set, not a lot of Scotland can say that recently. Maybe just maybe though . ..

First posted on Facebook on October 1st, 2016

Eh, . . is it a tad insensitive to wish Eric Black a Happy Birthday today, given the shitstorm that he’s involved with at the moment?
Anyhoo, today is his 53rd birthday.
Eric gained 8 under-21 caps as an Aberdeen player scoring two goals but would only win two full caps both during his time with Metz. In fairness to Eric, Ally McCoist and Mo Johnston were playing for Scotland at the time.
His first appearance was as a sub for Mo Johnston in the 71st minute against Hungary in a friendly at Hampden in October, 1987. However, by then an Ally McCoist double had everything sewn up as Scotland won 2-0.
His only other appearance was in a game I suppose we would all rather forget as Scotland fought out a 0-0 draw with Luxembourg away in their last game of a poor European Championships Qualifying group.
Eric would replace Pat Nevin with 30 minutes remaining but Scotland were still unable to break the deadlock and so ended up with the blank draw.
That would be it for Eric as Mo Johnston would hit a rich vein of form in the upcoming World Cup Qualifiers and chances to play upfront were few and far between. The final blow would be chronic back pain that Eric had suffered from throughout his playing days and eventually ended his career in 1991. Eric is pictured in his Metz days and of course the photo is in our Scotland Players Abroad section on the website.
Happy Birthday Eric and all the best.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook October 1st, 2016

Scotland have only ever played one match on October 1st and it was way back in 1949. 1949 was a great year for Scotland as they won all four games they played including a 3-1 victory over England at Wembley. In regards to the 1949 match we will look at one player in particular.
Henry Morris has one of those unique Scotland careers, that is somewhat obscure but well worth remembering. I know sometimes if I mention any game before 1960 a lot of people just switch off and it gets one like and most likely from my wife and sadly sometimes if she’s missed it out, I log in for her and like it for her.
Anyway Henry Morris was a centre forward for the mighty East Fife in the forties and into the fifties. This was a golden age for East Fife as they spent ten seasons in the top flight and recorded three League Cup Victories and were Scottish Cup runners up too. Henry had scored sixty goals in their League winning season of 1947-48 and was given the chance to show what he could do for Scotland on October 1st, 1949 in Scotland’s first ever World Cup Qualifier against Ireland which doubled up as a Home International match at Windsor Park, Belfast.
It took Henry two minutes to make his mark and score Scotland’s first ever World Cup goal. This was quickly followed by another four by half time including a Willie Waddell of Rangers double and one each from Billy Steel of Derby County and Hibs legend Lawrie Reilly. Although the Irish hit back with a double quite quickly in the second half, Henry scored a second with 70 minutes on the clock. Ten minutes later and Jimmy Mason, the last Third Lanark player ever to be capped added another to make it seven. Morris rounded off the scoring in the 89th minute to his hat-trick and the game finished 8-2.
Henry is only one of 30 players ever to score a hat-trick for Scotland but remarkably his feat at Windsor Park was also achieved by Hughie Gallacher, Alex Scott and Denis Law. Sadly for Henry this would be his one and only appearance for Scotland and as for Scotland’s World Cup hopes; we did qualify but the SFA in a fit of hubris had declared they would only go as British Champions, sadly a one nil defeat to England at Hampden in April 1950 meant we would stay at home.

“Scotland’s strength was in defence where there was not a failure although centre half Jim Holton certainly takes some getting used to. Especially, I’d imagine if you’re unlucky enough to be playing against him”
“He’s as hard as nails and about as constructive as a B-52 Bomber – but by heavens, he’s effective.”
Thus wrote Jim Blair about Lesmahagow’s finest in the Evening Times in March,15th 1973 after seeing him play in the dark blue of Scotland for the first time. Scotland had played an Under-23 friendly the night before winning 2-1.
Jim would, of course go on to gain 15 caps for Scotland scoring a goal in the equaliser against Czechoslovakia in the famous win at Hampden in 1973. Jim would play all three games in the World Cup of 1974 but a leg break in December 1974 followed by another in quick succession would see his Scotland career come to a premature end.
Jim passed away following a heart attack on October, 4th 1993.

First posted on Facebook on September 29th, 2016

I recently bought this card on eBay depicting Pat McCluskey in a Scotland tracksuit top. It’s from the 1973 – ’74 A&BC Footballer set, which suggests it was taken around the time of Pat’s first game for the Scotland Under-23’s which came in March 1973 down in Wales. Scotland won a friendly 2-1 with Pat coming on, in the second half for Nottingham Forest’s John McGovern. Kenny Dalglish had scored in the first half but a Leighton James goal in the second half made it look as though a draw would be the final result, however a long throw from Pat in the final minutes would find Asa Hartford, who duly despatched it into the net to give Scotland victory.
Pat would go on to play for the Scotland Under-23’s six times; the last time being on 2nd September, 1975, when the Young Scots won 1-0 in Copenhagen through a goal by Willie Pettigrew. It would be the following night or more correctly the morning of the 4th September following the first teams’ victory over Denmark that would be his downfall as Pat was one of five players drinking ‘til four in the morning in the a Danish nightclub called Bonaparte, to which the police were called to. Perhaps it was ironic, that it was called that as one of Pat’s drinking partners was a small Scottish midfield general who finally met his Waterloo; Billy Bremner.
There was apparently also further infractions back at the team’s hotel where apparently McCluskey and Bremner were caught upturning the bed of a SFA member as a prank. Pat like all five players were banned for life and although the ban would be lifted in 1976 by then, Pat’s chance for a Scotland cap had passed him by.

First posted on Facebook on September 28th, 2016

The photo is actually from Souness’s Scotland debut as he lined up to play against East Germany in October 1974. Graeme had started out at Tottenham Hotspur but having been dismayed at his lack of first team starts, he moved on to Middlesbrough to play under Jack Charlton and alongside the legendary Bobby Murdoch at Ayresome Park.
He had one Under-23 cap to his name having played against England in a friendly in March, ’74. Also included in the line up for game at St. James’ Park were Willie Miller, Jimmy Calderwood and Derek Johnstone. The Scots lost 2-0.
Back to Hampden in October ’74 and also making his debut and one of only two appearances was Dixie Deans of Celtic. Scotland would win 3-0 with goals from Tommy Hutchison, Kenny Burns and Kenny Dalglish.
Graeme would play in Scotland’s next game a 2-1 Euro Qualifier defeat at home to Spain. His third cap came against Sweden in a friendly in 1975. He would then disappear from the International scene until Ally MacLeod brought him back for a friendly against Bulgaria in February, 1978. Of course, by now Souness was a Liverpool player and he would soon go on to become a regular player in the team.
Graeme would gain 54 caps in total scoring 4 times; his first goal would be that late goal against the USSR at Spain ’82 that briefly gave Scotland hope. However, it was the perennial case of too little, too late, once more for Scotland that night.
Graeme would also captain Scotland on 27 occasions. It is not surprising that he would line up alongside Kenny Dalglish for 32 of his Scotland caps, followed by a quartet of Aberdeen players as his most common teammates in Willie Miller (30), Alex McLeish (25), Jim Leighton (23) and then Gordon Strachan (22). Surprisingly, it is then Frank Gray who turns up next with 21 matches who only played 32 times for Scotland.
Finally it perhaps no surprise he was capped under Jock Stein more than any other Manager with a total of 39 out his 54 caps.

David Stuart