The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

Continuing with Famous Scotland players and their debuts; this week it’s the turn of Colin Hendry. Colin came to the International scene quite late making his International bow at the age of 27 having never been involved at the Under-21 stage. Colin was in his second period with Blackburn Rovers following a short lived move to Manchester City. As Blackburn’s stock began to rise under Kenny Dalglish so too did Colin’s.
Following a disastrous result in Lisbon in April ’93, Andy Roxburgh decided to go with a new central pairing of Brian Irvine and Hendry. Colin’s first game was against Estonia at the Kadriog Stadion, Tallinn on May 19th, 1993. Scotland would win 3-0 thanks to goals from Kevin Gallacher, John Collins and Scott Booth.
Colin would play in the home game against Estonia with Scotland winning 3-1 but would be posted missing for Andy Roxburgh’s last games in charge. However, Craig Brown chose him for his first game in charge in Malta in November, 1993. Colin would repay Brown’s faith by scoring the second goal in Scotland’s 2-0 win. Brown would rarely leave Hendry out after this and indeed Colin would go on to Captain Scotland 23 times mostly in the absence of Gary McAllister it would have to be said.
Colin earned his 10th cap in Moscow as Scotland played a European Qualifier; making his debut alongside him would be Tottenham Hotspur’s Colin Calderwood. The game would end 0-0 and the Hendry / Calderwood partnership was born. They would play together a total of 26 times including all three games at Euro ’96 and two games of the World Cup ’98 in France.
When the film Braveheart came out in 1995, Colin with his ‘Never Say Die’ attitude seemed to take on a whole new persona as some sort of Mel Gibson / William Wallace amalgam and he was often seen as representing the Braveheart idea of a Scotsmen.
Colin’s Scotland career would come to a sudden halt in March, 2001. Colin scored two goals against San Marino in a World Cup Qualifier in a 4-0 victory at Hampden. However, he had been caught on camera elbowing a San Marino player and was given a six game retrospective ban which would effectively end his time with the Scotland team.
Colin gained 51 caps and scored 3 goals for Scotland and is perhaps the last domineering Centre Half we have had and he seemed to represent all that was great about the team at the time.

First posted on Facebook 28th August, 2016

Oh dear can’t believe I’m going to post this cover. Yes, folks I’m about to recommend the latest issue of Backpass which gives a mention of two of our Southern neighbours minor cup success a long, long time ago and a galaxy far away.
If you can get past the cover though, there are some articles on Scotland including one by Jim Thornton on Scotland’s World Cup campaign for ’66 which ended in defeat in Naples to Italy.
Craig Brown has an article each month and this month it’s about Berti Vogts aka the Coca Cola Man. It seems that during the 1986 World Cup, Berti Vogts as German Assistant Manager dressed as a Coca Cola vendor to spy on Scotland during their training sessions. Craig does mention Berti’s failure in managing Scotland and suggests that communication may have been a big part of it.
There’s also an article on Arthur Graham who claims to have thought that Maradona was the Argentine mascot at the famous friendly game in 1979, so small and stockily built was Diego. He also talks about his club career too.
As I say it’s quite a good issue with some Scotland stuff but that damn front cover!

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook, August 8th, 2016

Happy Birthday to Kirk Broadfoot who will turn 32 today. I think it’s fair to say that Kirk wasn’t the most skilful of full backs but he was earnest and always put in effort. However, big Kirk should be remembered for one thing; he scored a goal in a vital Wold Cup Qualifier. Scotland under George Burley had started their World Cup Qualifying for 2010 in Skopje, Macedonia losing 1-0 in September, 2008. A few days later, Scotland were to face Iceland away in Reykjavik and Kirk who was a Rangers player at the time was brought in to replace Graham Alexander. It took 19 minutes for Kirk to make his mark, scoring the opening heading in from a Barry Robson corner. Scotland would win 2-1 with Kirk performing quite well and so our World Cup hopes were still alive.
Kirk played in the first home game of the campaign as Scotland lined up against Norway in October, 2008. This game ended in a dull 0-0 draw that is perhaps best remembered for Chris Iwelumo’s unfathomable miss late in the game.
Kirk would only play in two more games both friendlies; the first being a defeat to Argentina a month later at Hampden and then a 3-0 defeat to Sweden in August 2010 in Craig Levein’s second game in charge.
Kirk currently plays for Rotherham in the Championship following a spell at Blackpool.
Happy Birthday to Kirk and all the best.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook August 7th, 2016

Happy Birthday to Paul Lambert who will turn 47 today. Paul gained 40 caps for Scotland, scoring one goal. He gained his first two caps with Motherwell, then a further 7 with Dortmund, whom he won the Champions League with, before heading to Celtic and winning a further 31 caps. Paul’s only goal came against the Faroe Islands in 2002 in that lamentable 2-2 draw.
Happy Birthday Paul and all the best.

First posted on Facebook 6th August, 2016

Finally, finally it happened late last night Scotland Epistles #4 went into profit. It’s only a fiver but if you have ever sold a fanzine you will know rarely do you come out on top. Of course, every other issue has failed to break even and we lost a good few bob on the first issue. Issue 2 may also break even if we sell a few more too. In the meantime thanks to everyone who has supported us in this venture and remember all five issues are available on ebay. As for the photo it is Robert Marshall enjoying the Scotland Epistles profits.

First posted on Facebook 6th August, 2016

Came across this photo this morning which has two Scotland players in it. The word legend is too readily applied at times; for definite Dave Mackay, who was manager of Notts Forest at the time of the photo and on the left is considered one but do we consider John Robertson one? In the pantheon of great Scottish wingers there’s Jinky Johnstone, Davie Cooper, Willie Henderson, etc. but Robertson rarely seems to get the same type of plaudits when he was a winner of the European Cup twice; scoring the winner one and having a hand in the only goal in the other he played in. In terms of Scotland he scored 8 goals in 28 games, most of which were penalties including a winner at Wembley.
Back to the photo what a complete mess the pitch is in and who the hell is the third guy?

First posted on Facebook,  August 4th, 2016

Happy Birthday to Robert Connor who will turn 56 today. Robert was capped four times for Scotland in a rather puzzling International career that lasted from playing his first game in 1986 and his last in 1990, in an almost random pattern.
Robert who was born in Kilmarnock but started out down the road at Ayr United before moving to Dundee where he won his first Scotland cap in April ‘1986. Robert was given his debut on the same night as Ally McCoist in Scotland’s final warm up game prior to the 1986 World Cup. Both players contributed to a solid Scotland performance against the Netherlands in Eindhoven. The scoreline ended 0-0 but if you watch the You Tube highlights which I will post also; both players showed up well, however, interim Manager Alex Ferguson chose not to take either to Mexico.
Ferguson would though pay, Dundee £275,000 and a player to take the midfielder to Aberdeen in August ’86. Robert’s next cap, once more came abroad as he played nine minutes of a friendly in all places, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in February ‘1988. Robert replaced Frank McAvennie as Scotland played out a 2-2 draw against the Saudi’s with goals from Mo Johnston and John Collins.
Connor would wait another 15 months for his next cap as he was chosen to play against England in the Rous Cup by Andy Roxburgh at Hampden in May ‘ 1989. An ineffectual Scotland lost 2-0 to the Auld Enemy and Robert was replaced by Celtic’s Peter Grant in the 57th minute and once more dropped out of the International scene.
His final cap came in another 16 months later as he faced Romania in September 1990 at Hampden. Despite going behind to an early goal, Scotland would win this vital Euro Qualifier 2-1 with goals from Hearts’ John Robertson on his debut and Ally McCoist. Connor would only play 59 minutes before being replaced by Pat Nevin. A surfeit of really good midfield players would prevent this classy midfielder from adding to his tally. Robert would play with Aberdeen for a few more years before moving on to his hometown club Kilmarnock and finishing with stints at Ayr, Partick Thistle and Queen of the South.
Happy Birthday Robert and all the best.