Here’s a guy a lot of Aberdeen fans will remember fondly; Big Davie Robb. A perrenial of the early ’70’s A&BC footballer cards Dave gianed 5 caps for Scotland. These were all towards the end of Bobby Brown’s time in charge and they don’t make for great reading; Played 5 W 0 D 1 L4 although it does include an appearance at Wembley v England as the Scots lost 3-1 with Hugh Curran of Wolves scoring the goal, which incidentally was the only goal scored when Davie was in the team so he was the not the goalscoring answer for Scotland but then again very few are. To be fair to Davie all his games were in 1971 and the full stats for that year are an alll time low. Played 10 W 2 D1 L7 F5 A14. The two wins were the first two games of Tommy Docherty’s reign.
Davie left Aberdeen to carve out quite a successful career in the NASL firstly with the Tampa Bay Rowdies and then the Philaldelphia Fury among others. At Tampa Bay he played alongside Rodney Marsh and at the Fury with the likes of Alan Ball and Frank Worthington.
Another one from our Magazine Picture section. This I believe is Danny in action in his very first Scotland game against Wales at the Racecourse, Wrexham. This was Willie Ormond’s second game in charge and he had made sweeping changes following a 5-0 crushing defeat by England in his opener. Out went Bobby Clark, Alex Forsyth, Martin Buchan, Eddie Colquhoun and Lou Macari among others, to make way for five players making their debuts; Danny plus Peter McCloy, Derek Johnstone, Derek Parlane of Rangers and Manchester United’s Jim Holton.
Scotland won 2-0 thanks to goals from George Graham, who was also with Manchester United at the time.
Danny would go on to play for Scotland a total of 62 times and would surely have won more, had it not been for a major injury prior to the World Cup of 1978. He was of course, well remembered for his defensive full back pairing with Sandy Jardine, which only happened on 20 occasions.
One of the interesting things about the FitbaStats website is that you can look up any Scotland player and find out who their teamates were and on many occasions. For Danny, the top ten read as thus; Dalglish 53, Rough 32, Jordan 26, Jardine 20, Gemmill 19, Rioch 19, Hartford 17, Donachie 16, McQueen, 16 and McLeish 15.
James Forrest of Celtic will be 25 on July 7th. It’s fair to say that James’ Scotland career has kind of stuttered as perhaps has his club career too. In many ways he is similar to Shaun Maloney, who like James didn’t make all that great a start to his Scotland career and also has had injuries to overcome.
James’s first cap came against the Republic of Ireland in the Carling Cup game at the Aviva on 29th May 2011 under Craig Levein, which Scotland lost one nil. James won 7 of his thirteen caps under Levein but in each game that Gordon Strachan has picked him, excepting the Georgia away game, he has been a starter.
After the debacle that was the opening game of our 2014 World Cup Campaign against Serbia that ended in a poor nil nil draw, James was drafted in for the Macedonia game also at home three days later. It seemed as though the chance to shine was there for James but for some reason it just never happened as Scotland slugged out another miserable draw.
Strachan did play him in our last two qualifying home games against Germany and Poland and he probably played as well as he has in a Scotland strip but like the team he just wasn’t good enough.
Sadly, the most remarkable thing about James’ Scotland career so far is that in thirteen games he has played against thirteen different teams. There can’t be too many who can say that. He has played against Republic of Ireland, Denmark, Liechtenstein, Spain, Slovenia, Serbia, Macedonia, England, Belgium, Qatar, Georgia, Poland and Germany. (Of course, we all know that John Spencer beats this with 14 different opponents in 14 games)
This could be a vital season ahead for James if he is to make an impact at International level. Time will tell. (I wrote those sentences last year and they’re still true.)
In the modern football era i.e. post war, there have been three Scotland players born with the name James Forrest; in 1958 Jim Forrest of Motherwell gained a solitary cap against England which saw the Scots go down 4 nil at Hampden. Great World Cup morale booster that.
Then in 1965 another Jim Forrest gained two caps as a Rangers player against Wales and Italy, which rather remarkably were followed by a further three as an Aberdeen player in 1971 against Belgium, Denmark and the Soviet Union.
Players with the same name is not that unusual as there were two Tommy Gemmells, two John Robertsons, two Andy Grays and everyone personal favourite two Andy Gorams.
Finally going back to James perhaps one of the main reasons he has struggled and will continue to struggle to get into the Scotland team is because there’s only one Ikechi Anya!!!
So there I was ready to tell of the tale of 6 and then Robert Marshall tells me two more were sold and so overnight we drop from seven needed to sell to 4. So here goes a Scotland 4.
4 caps; oddly there are five players with four caps who have appeared at World Cups starting from 1954 and Jock Aird who was also capped by New Zealand. 1958 we had Stewart Imlach making two of his four appearances and in 1978 Joe Harper made his one and only appearance under Ally MacLeod coming on as a sub against Iran. Joe’s other three appearances were all v Denmark scoring two goals in the process. Allan Evans played in the ’82 World Cup and despite lifting the European Cup with Aston Villa never played again. Finally, Robert Fleck played at Italia ’90.
Whisper it but Chris ‘the Miss’ Iwelumo played four times too.
4 goals – some legends and some not so including Jinky Johnstone, Dave Mackay, Gordon Smith, Asa Hartford, Graeme Souness as well as Steve Archibald, Steve Crawford, John McGinlay, Darren Jackson and Scott Brown.
Number 4 in the World Cup squads from ’78 to ’98 were; Billy Bremner -’74, Martin Buchan – ’78 and then for ’82 and ’86 Graeme Souness. Richard Gough took over at Italia ’90 and then it was Colin Calderwood in France ’98.
We have played Argentina four times and of course were soundly beaten by them in 1979 with Maradona running riot at Hamoden as a precocious teenager but I prefer to remember Stewart McKimmie scoring against them in 1990 to give us a memorable 1-0 victory at home.
So guys 4 left to sell. Think of it as a donation to us for all the hard work we have put in over the last couple of years providing the Facebook page and website.
So Buy Buy Buy. Bye http://www.ebay.co.uk/…/SCOTLAND-EPISTLES-FOO…/381667271162…
Well, well, well . . . finally it happened, someone else bought a copy of issue 4 and took us down to the magic number of 7 copies to be sold and we break even.
So as a reward for one person’s endeavour here is a Scotland 7.
7 caps – Two of the Turnbull Tornadoes in John Blackley and John Brownlie. Celtic legends Jimmy McGrory 7 caps and 6 goals as well as Willie Wallace. Other strikers include the two Duncans; Shearer and Ferguson that is. Frank McGarvey, Ted MacDougall and Craig Mackail-Smith also reached 7. As did a pair of gingers in David Hopkin and Kirin Cup Winner Chris Burke.
7 Goals; Old firm legends Jimmy Quinn and Bob McPhail and then a wad of scorers from the modern era; Andy Gray, Billy Dodds, John Wark, Kris Boyd, Gordon Durie and current player Shaun Maloney.
So who wore the number 7 at the World Cup? Starting from 1974, it was one of the all time great number 7’s in that proud tradition of Scottish wingers Jimmy Johnstone, sadly he would not get to perform on the World stage. Next up was a great player from 1976 and 1977 but not so much 1978; Don Masson. ’82 and ’86 would see another diminutive ginger in WGS filling out the strip. 1990 and 1998 would be strikers who were responsible more than anyone else for getting us to those World Cups with their goal hauls in qualifying in Mo Johnston and Kevin Gallacher.
Jimmy Johnstone, Scotland
We have played the USA 7 times and beaten them twice, draw three and lost two. The first time we met was in April 1952 at Hampden. Lawrie Reilly scored three as the Scots romped home 6-0.
Gary Gillespie will be 56 on July 5th. Gary’s is one of those players who at an early age seemed to be destined for great things but his Scotland career only amounted to thirteen caps and as a bit part player, generally playing when others were injured or unavailable.
And yet his career started well; at seventeen Gary was given the captaincy of Falkirk, by eighteen he was on the move to Coventry City. His first Under -21 cap came a few months after his eighteenth birthday in a friendly against USA at Pittodrie on October 17th, 1978. Andy Roxburgh was in charge of the team at this point and it would be him that would give Gary all his full caps too. Also in the team that day were future Scotland players Alex McLeish, Murdo MacLeod and Eamonn Bannon. The team won three – nil with goals from Murdo, Neil Orr of Morton and Partick Thistle’s Jim Melrose.
By the time of his first team cap at the age of 27 on October 14th 1987, Alex McLeish was on cap 48, Eamonn Bannon’s 11 cap career was over and Murdo MacLeod had gained 5 of his eventual 20 caps. Gary was paired alongside McLeish on that night against Belgium in a Euro Qualifier at Hampden, which the Scots won 2-0 with goals from McCoist and McStay.
Gary, by this time was a Liverpool player having probably spent too many years at Coventry, that possibly hindered his International progress. Gary would also play in the following game, a Euro qualifying match, as Scotland beat Bulgaria in Sofia with Gary MacKay scoring that famous goal that put ROI through to their first Finals.
Gary played in a goalless friendly against Spain in April the following year but with competition from McLeish, Miller and Gough opportunities were few. Gary played in only three of the qualifying games for Italia ’90. A 2-1 win away to Norway in September, 1988 and then the magnificent win against France at Hampden in March ’89, with Mo Jo supplying a deadly brace, that was followed by a 3-1 defeat away to Yugoslavia in Zagreb in September of ’89. Gary scored an own goal for the Slavs third with Liverpool teammate Stevie Nicol hitting their second. Stevie Nicol would repeat this feat in Scotland’s next game away to France. Having not seen those goals I can’t confirm whether they were more difficult than that gilt edged chance he had against Uruguay in Mexico 1986.
Gary then played in four of our World Cup warm ups; two of which saw home defeats to East Germany and Egypt followed by a home draw to Poland in which Gary sent a perfect lob over the goalkeeper to score. It’s just a pity it was Andy Goram. ( I will post video of that game today too.)
Gary didn’t start any of the games in the World Cup but he did get to replace Murdo in the third game against Brazil, after he had the ball blootered off him by Branco and ended up unconscious. Scotland lost a soft goal in 81st minute to Muller which saw us sent home again, too early.
Gary was called up again in November, 1990 for another game in Sofia against Bulgaria in a Euro Qualifier, which Scotland drew one all. Although Scotland had a successful campaign and qualified for the finals in Sweden, Gary was never picked again for his national team. All the best to Gary on his birthday.
Douglas Kenney tagged the Scotland Epistles Magazine to a picture from the Football Memories League of Dixie Deans. I was going to post the picture and leave it, however being a sad sack I decided to locate my Dixie Deans book and read about his time with Scotland.
Dixie only won two caps and he was pretty aggrieved about that as he had been scoring goals for fun with Celtic from the early 70’s following his move from Motherwell in 1971. Dixie feels that he should’ve been picked by Tommy Docherty and Willie Ormond prior to his call ups in season ’74-’75.
However, he points the finger at Jock Stein and feels he was perhaps shafted by the Big Man, imagining coversations between Jock and Willie Ormond; “Ach, the boy Deans is carrying a few pounds” or “Dixie? Nah, he’s a good lad but if I were you, Willie, I widnae pick him.”
Dixie does suggest that Jock quite often put Celtic first, which is understandable and would pull players from squads to ensure their availablity for Celtic. Dixie is also quite damning about not being chosen for the World Cup in ’74 and in particular Denis Law’s inclusion for the game against Zaire when goals were needed. He is not disrespectful of Denis but perhaps rightly believes that in some ways sentimentality in playing Denis cost Scotland and feels he could have got the goals needed against Zaire but that’s strikers for you.
It was after World Cup and when Dixie feels he was not playing at his peak that he was called into the Scotland squad for a friendly against East Germany at Hampden. Dixie made his debut on 30th October, 1974 as did Graeme Souness who was with Middlesbrough at the time. Scotland won 3-0 with goals from Tommy Hutchison (penalty), Kenny Burns and Kenny Dalglish.
Although, Dixie didn’t score he did enough to merit a second cap and so faced Spain in Scotland’s opening game of the Euro Qualifiers at home a month later. Billy Bremner gave Scotland an early lead in front of a crowd of 94, 331, however Tommy Hutchison missed a penalty ( well, they were hardly going to give it to Dixie to hit) to give Scotland a comfortable lead and they would pay the price as the Castro scored two goals either side of half time and Spain went home with the 2-1 win. Scotland then played catch up after this in qualifying and ultimately failed to progress due to the home loss.
As for Dixie that was the end of his time with Scotland and he would soon move from Celtic to Luton Town and would end up playing in Australia.
43 years ago to the day I attended my first Scotland game as Scotland hosted World Champions Brazil at Hampden Park in front of a crowd of 78,180 + 1 (Me). Derek Johnstone would score an own goal in 33rd minute, which would be the only goal of the game.
The line-ups were; McCloy, Jardine, McGrain, Holton, Derek Johnstone, Hay, Bremner, Morgan, Dalglish, Jordan and Parlane. George Graham would replace Dalglish in the 70th minute.
Brazil ; Leao, Pereira, Piazza, Ze Maria, Marco Antonio, Clodoaldo, Paulo Caesar, Rivelino, Valdomiro, Jairzinho, Dirceu. Almost a year later the two teams would meet again in the World Cup where a 0-0 draw was fought out..
The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine 