The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

First posted on Facebook on May 2nd, 2016

Happy Birthday to Tommy Ewing who will turn 79 today. Tommy played left wing for Partick Thistle , Aston Villa , Morton and finally Hamilton. It was during his first spell with Thistle that he was capped by Scotland on two occasions.
He first played for Scotland in November, 1957 at the age of twenty, lining up against Wales with some famous names including Tommy Younger in goal, Eric Caldow, Bobby Evans, Tommy Docherty, Alex Scott and Bobby Collins. Playing in his only International game was Ian Gardiner of Motherwell who was quite a prolific scorer during his time at Fir Park
It would be Collins who would score Scotland’s goal. However, the game was to end in a one all draw.
Tommy was retained for the next game, which was against England at Hampden in April, 1958 and played in front of a crowd of 127,874. Compared to the the Welsh game there was quite a few inexperienced players in the team. Another Motherwell player destined to make his only International appearance that day was Jim Forrest; not to be confused with the Jim Forrest that played for Rangers and Aberdeen and was capped by Scotland too. Jimmy Murray of Hearts also came into the side for first time and he would go on to be the scorer of Scotland’s first ever World Cup goal a couple of months later.
George Herd of Clyde made his debut too and like Murray would only gain a handful of caps. The wonderfully Harry Haddock of Clyde also played that day.
By this point you probably know what’s coming. Yep. it was another stuffing by the English. Bobby Charlton was among the goalscorers as England won 4-0.
And so that was it for Tommy with Stewart Imlach of Nottingham Forest coming in for the next game and being picked for the World Cup squad.
Tommy would move from Thistle in 1961 and spend three years at Aston Villa before returning back to Firhill for a couple more seasons before moving on to Morton and ending up at Hamilton where he took on the role of Manager for short while.
Tommy was inducted into the Partick Thistle Hall of Fame in 2010.
Happy Birthday Tommy and all the best.

First posted on Facebook on May 2nd, 2016

Willie Miller will turn 61 today. Although born in Glasgow, in heart and soul Willie is an Aberdonian, having played just under 800 games for the Aberdeen in total and was also the manager for a couple of years in the early ‘90’s. Willie gained 65 cap in total, winning his first cap in 1975 and his last in 1989 and scored one goal.
It was Willie Ormond who first capped Miller in June 1975. Scotland had just lost to England 5-1 at Wembley, the week before and Willie was brought in to bolster the side in midfield replacing Alfie Conn. Goalkeeper, Jim Brown of Sheffield United was given his only cap that day with Stewart Kennedy dropping out. Scotland drew 1-1 with Romania in Bucharest in a Euro Qualifier with Gordon McQueen scoring a last minute equaliser.
That would be Miller’s only cap for almost three years until Ally MacLeod brought him in for one game in February 1978. Scotland defeated Bulgaria 2-1 in a friendly at Hampden with Archie Gemmill and Ian Wallace providing the goals.
MacLeod would prefer the likes of McQueen, Buchan, Forsyth and Kenny Burns over the next few months and once again Willie was left out in the cold. Eighteen months later and Willie was back in for one more game as Jock Stein played him in a 2-0 defeat to Belgium in Brussels. At this point, Willie has three caps, in three different years under three different managers. Which must have been quite unique but 1980 would bring a change to Willie’s International career and he would become a regular for the remainder of the 1980’s.
Jock Stein would begin to deploy three recognised central defenders in his team for the next year or so and utilise one as a holding midfield player; this involved the likes of Alan Hansen, Paul Hegarty, David Narey and his Aberdeen teammate Alex McLeish. In his very next game this paid dividends for Miller and Scotland as he scored the only goal of a game at Hampden v Wales in May 1980 in a Home International.
For the start of the 1982 World Cup campaign Jock reverted to a central defensive partnership and for the first game in Stockholm, Willie lined up alongside Alex McLeish. Scotland beat Sweden 1-0 with club teammate Gordon Strachan providing the only goal. Miller would play in games against Portugal at home (0-0) and away (1-2), Northern Ireland; home and away (1-1),(0-0). Scotland clinched their place for the 1982 World Cup in Spain in Belfast. However, Miller had not always been paired with McLeish and played alongside Alan Hansen in some of the games.
Willie and Alex McLeish however did play together as Scotland beat England in 1981 at Wembley with John Robertson of Notts Forest scoring the only goal from the penalty spot.
As Scotland headed towards the World Cup, Allan Evans of Aston Villa on the back of the winning the English First Division began to stake his claim for a place in the team and Willie didn’t feature in any of the Home Internationals that year.
Willie did not start in the opening game of the World Cup against New Zealand but perhaps the loss of two goals to the minnows saw Stein change his mind and Willie was back in the line up alongside Hansen to face the Brazilians. David Narey would open the scoring in 14 minutes and that was as good as it got.
Then came the disaster of the Russian game with Miller and Hansen clashing with each other with the ball being handed to Shengelia to score and Scotland were out of the World Cup despite a late equaliser from Souness.
Hansen and Miller were played together in 3 of Scotland’s next four games, all of which were Euro Qualifiers with Scotland beating East Germany at home, losing to Switzerland away and drawing with the Swiss at Hampden on the night of Charlie Nicholas’s debut. Scotland as usual at this time had a poor Euro Qualification performance and by the time of his 35th cap; Willie lined up alongside McLeish for the opening game of the 1986 World Cup campaign.
Willie was an ever present throughout the qualification process which included victories home and away to Iceland; a 3-1 victory over Spain at Hampden with Mo Johnston providing a double and a loss to Wales at Hampden in March, 1985. (Happier times at Hampden would ensue as Scotland beat England 1-0 in the Rous Cup in May thanks to a Richard Gough goal).
In their final qualifier Scotland would have to get at least a draw at Ninian Park, Cardiff to qualify for a play-off. As we all know, Scotland did just that due to a Davie Cooper penalty in the 81st minute. Sadly what should have been a night of celebration turned to one of sadness as it was announced that Jock Stein passed away shortly after the match.
Alex Ferguson, his team boss at Aberdeen would then take over the Scotland team on a caretaker basis and Willie would play in both legs of the play off matches against Australia with Scotland winning 2-0 over the two legs.
Willie would play in all three of Scotland’s games in the World Cup in Mexico winning his 5oth cap against West Germany in Queretaro. Scotland would lose narrowly to both Denmark (1-0) and West Germany (2-1). In the final game with Graeme Souness unfit, Willie took over as captain of the team as he would do so on 11 occasion’s altogether. The Uruguay game is perhaps one of the most frustrating that Scotland have ever played. Despite Uruguay having a player sent off in the very 1st minute for a brutal tackle on Gordon Strachan, Scotland were unable to breach the South Americans defence and were therefore eliminated from the tournament.
Andy Roxburgh did not favour Miller as much initially and Willie only played in handful of games in the immediate year or so after the World Cup; another poor Euro campaign ensued.
Willie played in the opening two games of the 1990 World Cup Qualifying Group as Scotland beat Norway 2-1 and then a 1-1 draw with Yugoslavia at Hampden. Injury would see him miss a lot of the 1988-‘89 season but he returned to play for Scotland in the game against Yugoslavia in Zagreb in September, 1989. Scotland lost 3-1 but a draw in their final game against Norway at Hampden in November, 1989 would see them through to Italia ’90.
Ally McCoist would give Scotland the lead in the 44th minute but Miller was injured in a tackle in the 66th minute that would see him leave the field of play and would be his exit from the International stage and sadly would see him retire from playing football altogether.
Of course, Willie can be heard commentating or should that be moaning (as he was known to do on the field of play, once or twice.) on Sportsound every Saturday while watching his beloved Aberdeen.
Happy Birthday Willie and hopefully you can raise a smile or two with a glass or two and all the best.

David Stuar

First posted on Facebook on May 1st, 2016

Happy Birthday, also today to a grand old man of Scottish football; Doug Cowie who turned 90. Doug played in defence over 340 times for Dundee and was capped 20 times for Scotland from 1953-1958 appearing in two World Cups.
Cowie was first capped in 1953 against England at Wembley in April. Playing alongside him was club teammate and Scotland legend Billy Steel. Steel was also born on May 1st but three years before Doug. Steel won 30 caps scoring 12 goals in the process including four in the one match against Northern Ireland in 1950 which Scotland won 6-1. Billy passed away in 1982 aged 59.
The result that day in 1953 was a 2-2 draw with the Auld Enemy with Lawrie Reilly hitting a double; one of which was in the last minute.
Doug would go on to play all four Internationals that year which included two Home Internationals that doubled up as World Cup Qualifiers. Scotland beat Northern Ireland 3-1 at Windsor Park, Belfast and drew 3-3 with Wales at Hampden. Despite a defeat to England in the final game of the series, Scotland travelled to Switzerland for the World Cup as runners-up.
Doug played in both of Scotland’s games in Switzerland; opening with a narrow 1-0 defeat to Austria, followed by a not so narrow defeat to Uruguay. Scotland lost 7-0 in the heat of Basle with their heavy cotton kit making sure they all shed pounds and couldn’t keep up with the Uruguayans who were more prepared for the climate.
Timing is everything in football and Doug would be in and out of the team over the next few years and didn’t feature in any of the 1958 World Cup Qualifiers. However, come the World Cup warm-ups, Doug returned to the side, perhaps as they had lost 4-0 to England at Hampden in April and would play in the first two games of the World Cup in Sweden. Scotland drew their opening game 1-1 with Yugoslavia but followed that up with a narrow 3-2 defeat to Paraguay. Doug would miss the final game, which Scotland lost 2-1 to France.

After the World Cup, Scotland looked to build a younger team and Doug never again played for Scotland he would however, play a few more seasons with Dundee before moving to Morton in 1961 for a couple of years and then moved into coaching and management.
Happy Birthday Doug and all the best

First posted on Facebook on May 1st, 2016

Steven Thompson of St. Mirren will retire from football later today at the age of 37. Steven has played for Dundee United, Rangers, Cardiff City and Burnley as well as turning out for his home town team of St. Mirren. Steven was also capped 16 times for Scotland scoring 3 goals.
Unfortunately all of Steven’s caps were won under Berti Vogts; so he tasted defeat so much more than victory. His first cap was as a Dundee United player and came on the same night as Berti’s Scotland managerial debut. Which means he took part in a 5-0 humping by France in the Stade De France in March, 2002. Steven would only play for the last 27 minutes coming on for Dunfermline’s Stevie Crawford. Steven would start the next game and played the first 75 minutes at Pittodrie as Scotland lost 2-1 to Nigeria.
However, he would taste victory soon enough as Scotland took on the might of the Hong Kong League Select as part of the Reunification Cup in May, 2002. Kevin Kyle would open the scoring after 22 minutes and Steven would add the second 14 minutes later with Christian Dailly and Scot Gemmill grabbing another two in the second half.
Steven would then play in a 1-0 friendly defeat to Denmark at Hampden in August, 2002. A month later and he would mostly be a spectator as a rather inept Scotland team lost two goals in quick succession to the Faroes in Toftir in a game which they were lucky to escape with a point thanks to goals from Paul Lambert and Barry Ferguson. Steven would play for the last 7 minutes replacing Scot Dobie of West Brom. A bad way to start a Euro campaign.
A month later and Scotland gained a good result in Reykjavik winning 2-0 due to goals from Christian Dailly and Gary Naysmith. Steven’s 7th and last cap as a Dundee United player came a few days later in a 3-1 friendly win against Canada at Easter Road with Stevie Crawford hitting a double and Thompson scoring the other.
Another friendly in February, 2003 saw the Scots lose 2-0 to the Republic of Ireland at Hampden with Steven coming on as sub for Stevie Crawford in the 64th minute. By this time Steven was a Rangers player. With Berti there was always friendlies and in most cases defeats as happened in April, 2003 in front of a sparse crowd of 12,189 as Scotland took on Austria. Steven played in the first half swapping with Crawford at half time but by then all the goals had been scored and unfortunately both had went Austria’s way.
Kenny Miller at this point begins to establish himself in the Scotland team and Steven will start to disappear from the International scene. He does however, make two appearances against Germany in the 2004 Euro Qualifiers. In the home tie v Germany in June 2003, Steven comes on in the 89th minute for Kenny Miller. Miller had scored a second half equaliser to give Scotland the draw.
A few days before the game in Germany in September, Steven was given 15 minutes against the Faroes at Hampden as the Scots ran out 3-1 winners with goals from Neil McCann, Paul Dickov and James McFadden.
As to the Germany game, Steven was given the full ninety minutes in Dortmund. Scotland put in a good performance but came away 2-1 losers. Thompson had set up the Scotland goal in the 60th minute with the prefect cross for McCann to volley into the net. However, Maurice Ross was sent off six minutes later and Scotland’s chances of getting back into the game faded after that. Of course, this is the game that Christian Dailly is heard shouting “Cheats and Divers” during Berti’s post-match interview obviously unhappy with the soft penalty award in the 60th minute for Germany.
Steven would play in a couple of preferably forgotten home friendlies in 2004 as Scotland lost to Romania and Hungary before playing in the last ten minutes of a World Cup Qualifier against Norway at Hampden, which was lost one nil. (Why the SFA allowed Berti to continue at the start of the 2006 Qualifiers is hard to fathom?).
Steven won his 16th and final cap in Chisinau, Moldova in a World Cup Qualifier. Moldova would take the lead in the 28th minute through Dadu but Steven would equalised with a well taken goal in the 33rd minute and that was how it finished in both the game and for Steven.
Steven would go on play for Cardiff City and Burnley before returning home to play for St. Mirren. However, there is no truth in the rumour that Steven is retiring to concentrate on the javelin for the Olympics. All the best Steven in your retirement.

David Stuart

November, 1999 and Craig Brown was about to unleash one of the most embarrassing episodes in Scotland’s history. As our thoughts and dreams were focused on the upcoming play off against England for the Euro finals in Belgium and Netherlands; Craig unveils his latest find Jamaican born David Johnson of Ipswich.
Apparently, Johnson qualified, not for having a Scottish mother or even grandparent but because he was a British Passport holder born outside of the UK, which meant he was eligible to play for any of the four Home Nations according to FIFA rules.
It gets even more embarrassing than that as he had already been part of England Under-21’s squads in 1998, although he had never played. He did, however, get a one minute cameo in an England ‘B’ match. As if, that was not enough; David who was born in Kingston, had been called up for Jamaica in March 1999 and played in four friendlies, scoring two goals.
However, due to the FIFA regulations even after this, David was still eligible for a place with a home nation. September, 1999; Northern Ireland came a courting and were rebuffed by Johnson in favour of joining up with Wales and he was called up for a game that month. Unfortunately, David was injured and withdrew from the squad.
Enter one Craig Brown and Scotland. Yep, despite David being chased by four nations already Craig Brown decided to stoop so low and asked him to pledge himself to Scotland; which he did.
Of course, this caused a massive furore and David was most definitely not wanted by the Tartan Army but Craig was willing to persevere. David was not selected for the play-offs with England as there were four strikers ahead of him in the pecking order but Brown promised he would get a game soon.
Scotland lost out in the play offs and by January 2000; this sorry episode came to an end. It turns out that an agreement drawn up by the Home Nations in 1993 meant that David only qualified for England as his mother was English. A slightly abashed Brown had thought that FIFA were aware of this. Perhaps Craig, you should have been aware of this as you were part of the Scottish set-up back then?
As for Johnson, he never did get picked again for Jamaica although apparently in 2004 Northern Ireland looked at his eligibility once more briefly.
I struggle sometimes with the grandparent rule but accept it for what it is. I am perhaps a bit naive that I always want players who’s first choice is Scotland but at the same time we have had a lot of players who once they’ve stepped over that white line have been as committed to Scotland as any home born Scot. I would hope though, we would never be like a host of other European countries and suddenly have second rate Brazilian’s playing for us just because of they hold a passport in the UK.

After posting a photo of Jamie McAllister the other day I realised that there was another ex- Scotland International that played in the Indian Super League with the Kerala Blasters; namely current Motherwell player Stephen Pearson.
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.

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 and continues to play there. 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.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook April, 26th, 2016

Pat played for Scotland 4 times in the early sixties. All his caps came as a Motherwell player; his first was in April 1961 lining up with the likes of Law, Caldow, Mackay, St. John and making his debut Billy McNeill. It’s just a pity Frank Haffey was in goals (although he’s only at fault for a couple of goals) and Scotland got pumped 9-3 by England at Wembley.
Some record books have Pat down as scoring Scotland’s third and others have Davie Wilson. Wikipedia credits Davie Wilson as scoring 10 goals for Scotland but then breaks it down to nine excluding his ‘second’ one at Wembley. The official SFA site has it down as Davie Wilson’s goal. So perhaps it’s not Pat’s.
Pat played in the two World Cup games that followed this match home and away to the Republic of Ireland. Scotland winning 4-1 at Hampden and then 3-0 at Dalymount Park, Dublin.
Pat’s final game came in a rather ‘tasty’ friendly at Hampden against Uruguay which Scotland lost 3-2 in May 1962.
Pat would move from Motherwell to Blackpool for season ’62-’63 before returning to Scotland to play for Hibs for six years and ending his football career at East Fife. He would manage East Fife for a few years before becoming assistant to Bertie Auld at Partick Thistle for several years too.
Happy Birthday Pat and did you really score that goal?

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook April 24th, 2016

Happy Birthday to Rab Douglas who will be 44 today. Rab was probably Berti Vogts’ first choice goalkeeper but was fortunate that Berti chose to go with Neil Sullivan in his first game in charge; so it was Neil that picked the ball out of the net 5 times rather than Rab in Paris.
Rab was a Celtic player at the time of his first cap which came up at Pittodrie against Nigeria, which despite an early goal Christian Dailly saw Scotland lose 2-1.
Berti did go with Sullivan again in the 4-1 defeat to South Korea that followed. However, after this Rab was given a clear run of games to establish himself as Number one choice.
Our campaign for the Euros 2004 got off to a really poor start as Scotland lost two quick goals to the Faroes in Toftir; an equaliser in the last ten minutes from Barry Ferguson barely saved Scotland’s blushes. David Weir would withdraw from the International scene due to criticism that came his way from Berti after the game; as for Rab he continued to be the first choice for wins home and away against Iceland; a draw with Germany at Hampden and a win against the Faroes at home. He would also take part in the 2-1 defeat to Germany in September 2003 before the victory against Lithuania at home that secured Scotland’s place in the play offs. Cap 15 came with the highest of highs as we beat the Netherlands 1-0 at Hampden in November 2003. Caps 16 and 17 saw him lose 6 goals to the Netherlands and then 4 to Wales and suddenly other names started to appear on the teamsheet such as Craig Gordon, David Marshall and Paul Gallacher as he moved rapidly down the pecking order.
However, things changed when Walter Smith came on the scene and suddenly Rab was back in the mix and indeed started in Smith’s first game in charge, a World Cup Qualifier against Italy in March, 2005. Unfortunately good fortune was not to shine on Rab as he came off injured in 39 minutes and was replaced by Craig Gordon who was winning his sixth cap.
Rab would be given one more cap and his only one as a Leicester City player, coming on as a half time sub for Craig Gordon in a friendly in the Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadion, Graz v Austria in August, 2005. Scotland were leading at half time 2-0 thanks to goals from Kenny Miller and Garry O’Connor but were to lose two goals in the last ten minutes to end the game in a draw.
That was it for Rab but to be fair Craig Gordon was going through an exceptional period at this point and would have been hard for any keeper to shift from the Number One spot.
Happy Birthday Rab and all the best.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook, April, 25th, 2016

Tommy will reach the grand old age of 88 today. Although, most of us will think of Tommy and his days in charge of the Scotland team in the early 70’s, he played for the team 25 times from 1951-’59, travelling to two World Cups in that period.
Tommy was first capped as a Preston North End player in November, 1951 making his debut against Wales at Hampden. Tommy was what we would think of nowadays as a holding midfielder, making the tackles and threading passes forward at this time. Scotland lined up with one or two legends beside Tommy such as Jimmy Cowan of Morton in goals, George Young, Willie Woodburn, Willie Waddell all of Rangers, Lawrie Reilly of Hibs as well as the two Billy’s of the time; Steel of Dundee and Liddell of Liverpool. With all that talent on display Scotland still managed to lose one nil.
Tommy would have to wait 18 months before he got his chance again playing against England at Wembley in April ’53. Scotland drew 2-2 with Lawrie Reilly scoring one of the goals in the 89th minute. A friendly loss at Hampden to Sweden in May that year followed and then a year later two pre-World Cup friendly appearances in May 1954 saw Docherty establish himself more in the team and he would play in the World Cup itself shortly after.
Scotland’s first ever World Cup was a bit of a disaster in many ways. Scotland did pick a squad of 22 players but the great minds at the SFA decided to only take a squad of 13 players and also allowed Rangers to take their players on a Club tour instead. Scotland’s first game was against Austria in Zurich which they narrowly lost 1-0, however in their next game in the heat of Basle they were ran ragged by Uruguay losing 7-0. Tommy played in both games as did another future Scotland manager Willie Ormond.
Sadly, this was not the last time Tommy was in a Scotland side that shipped 7 goals; they would do so again in April, 1955 losing 7-2 to England at Wembley. Aberdeen’s Fred Martin was the unfortunate Scotland goalie on both occasions. Lawrie Reilly scored Scotland’s first goal with Tommy hitting his only Scotland goal late in the second half.
A month later and on a tour of Europe, Tommy took part in an impressive 4-1 win in Vienna in a friendly over Austria.  A week or so later and Scotland lost 3-1 to Hungary in Budapest.
Tommy was an integral part of the team that qualified for the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. After another defeat to England in April ’57, Scotland went on a three game winning spree in May that year. First up was their opening World Cup qualifying game against Spain at Hampden, which thanks to a Jackie Mudie of Blackpool hat-trick Scotland won 4-2. John Hewie of Charlton scored the other goal from the penalty spot.
Next up was another qualifier this time in Basle against Switzerland. Scotland lost an early goal but thanks to goals from Mudie and Bobby Collins of Celtic Scotland emerged with a 2-1 win. Three days later and a 3-1 friendly win in Stuttgart over West Germany occurred with Bobby Collins hitting a double and Mudie adding also to the tally. Docherty was given the captaincy at this point taking over from George Young, who played his last Scotland game in Basle; no doubt injury must have ruled him out.
However, the merry month of May was to finish with a thud as Scotland were crushed 4-1 by Spain with the wonderful Gordon Smith supplying the only Scotland goal in what was to be his last game for Scotland.
November, 1957 and Scotland faced Switzerland at home in their final World Cup Qualifier. Scotland would win 3-2 and I imagine it got quite nervy towards the end when the Swiss scored their second with only ten minutes remaining. However, goals by Archie Robertson of Clyde, Mudie with another and Alex Scott of Rangers had already put Scotland in the driving seat for the win by this time. The Swiss had already drawn away to Spain and this victory ensured Scotland’s place in the 1958 World Cup but before that there was another game against England at Hampden. Scotland could not find a way to beat England during this era and again were the victims of a 4-0 drubbing at Hampden. This would be Tommy’s last game as a Preston North End player for Scotland but also his last as Captain.
Tommy did travel to the World Cup in ’58 but was not fully fit and took on a more coaching, scouting role for the team. Scotland would open with a draw against Yugoslavia followed by two narrow defeats to Paraguay (3-2) and France (2-1).
Tommy moved to Arsenal in 1958 and returned to the Scotland side for the whole of the 1958-‘59 Home International Series. This first of these games in October ’58 was against Wales at Ninian Park where Denis Law would make his entrance to the International stage. Law would score the second of Scotland’s goals with Graham Leggat of Fulham and Bobby Collins, then with Everton scoring the other. A two each draw with Northern Ireland followed in November at Hampden with David Herd of Arsenal and Collins once more scoring.
Docherty’s last game for Scotland was at Wembley in April, 1959 where a solitary goal by Bobby Charlton would prove to be the winner.
Tommy would of course go on to manage Scotland in 1971 and would manage them for part of their successful 1974 World Cup campaign before moving to become the manager of Manchester United. Tommy is of course well known for his wit and humour and at times is a bit full of himself to say the least but for all that; Happy Birthday Tommy and all the best.

David Stuart