The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

(First posted on Facebook on March 11th, 2016)

Full back John Brownlie, was one of the mainstays of the Hibernian team in the early ‘70’s. John was a skilful, over lapping defender in the classic mould. He was first capped by Bobby Brown in his last match as Scotland manager in a one nil defeat to USSR in Moscow in June ’71. Also winning his first and only cap that night was Bobby Watson of Motherwell.
Tommy Docherty would pick John for the friendly against Peru at Hampden in April ’72 and then for the Home international game against Northern Ireland that followed. Both games were won 2 nil. John would also play in that month’s game against England which saw Scotland go down to a single goal defeat at Hampden. The Doc then picked John for two World Cup qualifiers away and at home against Denmark in October and November 1972 respectively. These wins would set Scotland up for qualifying for Munchen ’74. However, just as it seemed that John had begun to cement his place in the Scotland team, fate would then play it’s part within a few months.
By the time of Scotland’s next game in February, Scotland had changed manager with Willie Ormond coming in and John had broken his leg against East Fife in January 1973. It would take over a year for John to recover and to some he was never the same player after this. May ’73 also saw Danny McGrain make his debut for Scotland and his partnership with Sandy Jardine was about to flourish.
Willie Ormond would pick John once more for cap number seven against Romania in December 1975 in an Euro Qualifier at the end of another failed European campaign. However, Danny McGrain was cap number 24 by this point and would prove to be impossible to shift for John.
John would leave Hibs in 1978 and move to Newcastle for a few seasons before spells at Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, Berwick and Blyth Spartans. John would also have spells in management in the lower Scottish Leagues.

(First posted on Facebook on March 11th, 2016)

Former Rangers goalkeeper Billy Ritchie, died today at the age of 79. Billy will be best remembered as the Rangers goalkeeper from the mid-fifties through to 1967 and made over 350 appearances for the club. He would also go on to play for Partick Thistle, Motherwell and Stranraer.
However, Billy was capped for Scotland on one occasion. This was in May, 1962 when he was given the second half against Uruguay in a friendly at Hampden. Eddie Connachan of Dunfermline started the game between the sticks, in what would be his second and final cap. A crowd of 67,181 had turned up; no doubt wanting to cheer on the side that had beaten England 2-0 at Hampden the month before. Scotland would score two goals but unfortunately by the time of those goals Uruguay had already sailed into a 3-0 lead.
The score was 2-0 at half time when Billy replaced Connachan and within two minutes Luis Cubilla had scored his second goal of the game, his first came on the stroke of half time.
There was a bit tension during the game and at one flashpoint it did look as though it was going to boil over but temperatures did cool eventually and no one was sent off. Scotland did stage a comeback with late goals in the last ten minutes from fellow Rangers players Jim Baxter and Ralph Brand but 3-2 was how it finished and thus ended Billy’s brief Scotland career. Scotland would continue with Bill Brown of Tottenham in the main over the next few years but the likes of Liverpool’s Tommy Lawrence, Adam Blacklaw of Burnley, Jim Cruickshank of Hearts and Campbell Forsyth of Kilmarnock were all given a chance also.
At this time our thoughts go to Billy’s family. Billy Ritchie rest in peace.

One of the many disappointments relating to Scotland’s 21st century wilderness years is our non-appearance in the associated Panini stickers albums for the World Cup and European Championship finals.

France 98 was of course the last time that I was able to savour the primeval enjoyment of inserting head and shoulder images of the Scotland squad into a said album. How I miss our dodgy hairstyles, Village People moustaches and dour-faced defiance.

(First posted on Facebook on 10th March, 2016)

Dave will be 52 today and played for Scotland from 1992-93 and indeed was a squad member for the Euros in 1992.
Dave was also part of the Scotland Under 18 team that won the UEFA European Youth Championships in 1982 alongside the likes of Pat Nevin, Paul McStay and Gary Mackay to name a few. By the time he was capped for the full team, he had already played for Hearts and Coventry City and was then a Dundee United player. Dave would make over 350 appearances for the Tangerines in a twelve year period from 1986-’98.
His first cap came under Andy Roxburgh as part of Scotland’s pre-tournament schedule for the 1992 European Championships. Despite Scotland qualifying for the European Finals for the first time, there was a not a huge appetite for their last home game before the finals against Finland in March, 1992 as less than 10,000 turned up. Dave was the only new cap; playing for opposition was Mixu Paatelainen, who around about this time would move from Dundee United to become an Aberdeen player. Paul McStay had given Scotland the lead midway through the first half but Jari Litmanen would equalise before half time to end the scoring on the night.
Dave was then given 24 minutes of a game against the US, in Scotland’s short non-acclimatization tour of the US and Canada to prepare for playing in Sweden. Scotland won 1-0 thanks to a Pat Nevin goal after seven minutes.
Despite his scant appearances Bowman made it into the squad of twenty for the Euros but would not be given any playing time.
He would return to the side in March, 1993 for a friendly against Germany at Ibrox. Scotland would lose 1-0 with Karl-Heinz Riedle scoring the only goal. Making their debuts that night were Hearts goalkeeper Nicky Walker and Aberdeen pair Stephen Wright and Scott Booth.
After Scotland’s humiliating defeat against Portugal in Lisbon in April, 1993, Bowman was brought in to play his first competitive game; in a World Cup Qualifier against Estonia in May 1993. Scotland won comfortably 3-0 in Tallinn with goals from Kevin Gallacher, John Collins and Scott Booth. (Will post footage of this later. Please check out the Facebook page for this and other videos)
Dave would play in two more qualifiers in Scotland’s unsuccessful campaign for USA ’94. The first in September ’93 as Scotland drew 1-1 with Roy Hodgson’s Switzerland at Pittodrie with John Collis netting for Scotland. The second and his last cap came in the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, where Scotland went down 3-1 with Kevin Gallacher scoring Scotland’s solitary goal.
This would also be Andy Roxburgh’s last game in charge as Craig Brown would take over for the final qualifier against Malta, where Dundee United teammate Billy McKinlay was preferred over Dave.
Dave would of course go on to play for Dundee United for a number of years and spent some time with Raith Rovers and also Forfar, where he infamously indulged in a wee bit of name calling to a referee and ended up with a lengthy suspension. Dave has recently returned to Tannidice as a coach.
Happy Birthday Dave and all the best

David Stuart

(First posted on Facebook in March, 9th, 2016)

Ernie McGarr will be 72 today. Goalkeeper, Ernie had a brief time in the limelight as for one season he disposed Bobby Clark as Aberdeen goalkeeper and was also capped for Scotland.
In season 68-69, he was given his chance as Aberdeen’s first choice, due to a perceived loss of form by Clark from then boss Eddie Turnbull. Ernie grabbed it with both gloved hands and did so well that he was picked for Scotland by Bobby Brown in September, 1969 to face the Republic of Ireland in a friendly in Dublin.
Luck was against Ernie as he was subbed after only twenty four minutes due to injury with Jim Herriot of Birmingham City replacing him. Scotland were leading one nil through a Colin Stein goal but within three minutes of coming on, Jim conceded a goal and that was how it finished.
Herriot played in the next game, Scotland’s vital World Cup qualifier against West Germany in Hanover, which was lost 3-2 and so was our qualifying hopes were over but McGarr was back in for the final game against Austria, which was lost 2-0 and so Goodnight Vienna and goodnight McGarr.
It is perhaps telling that for Scotland’s next International Bobby Clark was in goals as he had taken over once more at Pittodrie. As for Ernie, he would play for Dunfermline, East Fife, Cowdenbeath, Airdrie and Berwick in years to come. Happy Birthday Ernie.

Also sharing a birthday is another goalkeeper; Jim Stewart, who will be 62 today. Jim’s Scotland career is a bit of strange one and he was involved in the squads since 1974 but didn’t play until 1977 and only gained two caps in total. Kilmarnock goalkeeper, Jim actually made the World Cup squad in 1974 and was third choice goalkeeper as such. However, he never got to play for Scotland until three years later. Ally MacLeod gave him the second half of the friendly against Chile in Santiago in the summer of ’77. Scotland were winning 3-0 at half time but lost two goals in the second half and although they would win 4-2, perhaps Ally had decided at that point not to include him in his ’78 World Cup Squad but that man Bobby Clark would in a strange twist of fate.
However, Jim would get one more cap when as a Middlesbrough player Jock Stein picked him to play in his first game in charge. No doubt Jock gave the news to Alan Rough that he was being left out quite sensitively. “Hey, fat Bastard you’re dropped”. Once again, Jim would concede two goals as Scotland toiled to a 3-2 against Norway at home in a Euro Qualifier in October, ‘78 to start the Jock Stein era.
However, the aforementioned Rough returned as first choice under Stein in the next fixture and Stewart slipped out of the International scene and would go on to play for the Rangers, St. Mirren and Partick Thistle before serving quite a few clubs as goalkeeping coach and is currently serving in this capacity at Rangers.
Happy Birthday Jim.

(Originally posted on Facebook, 9th March ,2016)
Happy Birthday to Gary Holt who will turn 43 today. I’m sure a lot of us had a wee chuckle a way back in the early 90’s when Lou Macari as Celtic Manager announced he had signed two guys from the Army, of course we would chuckle even more when we saw one of his other signings Wayne Biggins play.
However, fair play to Lou, Gary Holt turned out to be quite a good footballer and began to blossom as part of a good Kilmarnock team in the late 90’s; so much so that Craig Brown drafted him into the Scotland squad for a World Cup Qualifier against Latvia in September, 2000. Scotland took the lead through Neil McCann in the 88th minute and to preserve that lead Gary was hauled off the bench and onto the park in Riga to replace Billy Dodds in 90th minute. Craig’s cunning plan work and Scotland managed to hold on to their slender lead although I can’t tell you if Gary kicked a ball or not.
His next appearance was as equally fleeting as once again in the 90th minute he came on as a sub for Paul Dickov as Scotland were holding out in Zagreb for a credible 1-1 draw with Croatia. Dickov himself was a sub at half time. Once more we held out, once more I don’t have a clue if Gary kicked the ball.
Cap three came as a Norwich City player in March 2002, but unfortunately for Gary he was given 45 minutes in the Stade De France in Berti’s first game in charge. Although it was the second half, in which we only lost the one goal, it’s just a pity about the four in the first half.
He must have made a great impression on Hans Hubert as he wasn’t picked for another two years until April 2004 when he started in a friendly against Denmark in Copenhagen. 16 minutes later and he was off injured and replaced by a guy who had even worse luck Peter ‘One Cap’ Canero. Scotland got beat 1-0 which for a Vogts friendly is none too shabby.
However come late May whilst the elite of Europe were preparing for the 2004 Euros we had friendlies against Estonia in Tallinn and at home to Trinidad & Tobago in Edinburgh. Remarkably, we won both games. James McFadden scored the only goal in Estonia and Gary played the full ninety minutes.
There certainly was Sunshine on Leith on May 30th as Scotland beat Trinidad & Tobago as the Scots ran riot in the first half scoring four goals with Gary being quite brave in scoring his second from a diving header and getting clouted by the goalkeeper in the process. Sadly no goals followed in the second half except for Trinidad to make it 4-1, however as Robert Marshall once said we should be proud that we managed to beat not one but two teams, both Trinidad and Tobago. As for Gary he only got 54 minutes of this one. (Lookout on the page for footage of this one.)

For cap number 7, Gary was played at right back for some reason as Scotland reverted back to Berti type and were hammered in a friendly going down 3-0 to Hungary at Hampden in August 2004.
Gary started the first three games of our 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign as for some reason Berti was still in charge. He played in the last 31 minutes of opening games against Serbia which ended in a 0-0 draw. He would then play the first eighty minutes a month later in October ’04 as Scotland lost to Norway 1-0 also at Hampden with Steven Thompson coming on to try and rescue a point.
His final Scotland appearance came in Chisinau, Moldova as Scotland toiled to 1-1 draw with the aforementioned Thomson scoring. That was it for Gary and also for Mr. Vogts as he resigned a couple of weeks later. Gary would go on to play for the likes of Nottingham Forest and Wycombe and for a guy from the army, he carved out a good career for himself in football and is currently a coach at Norwich.
As for the other ‘army’ player Justin Whittle, he too did reasonably well playing for Stoke, Hull City for six years where he was Captain at one point and made over 200 appearances and played over 130 games at Grimsby.
Anyway, Happy Birthday Gary and all the best.
David Stuar

Okay, so I couldn’t find any Scotland birthday today but there is an anniversary of this game from 8th March, 1989. Yep, only a mere 27 years ago and a month after our narrow escape in Cyprus where we won 3-2 with Richard Gough scoring the winner in the 96th minute. The Cyprus win was very important as the French had already been there and could only manage a draw.
Scotland knew if they could beat France at Hampden it would give them a three point advantage. Yugoslavia were also in the group and had already been to Hampden and achieved a 1-1 draw; so the pressure was on Scotland to win.
It had been a difficult week for the citizens of Glasgow as the Bellgrove rail crash had occurred two days before the match with two people killed. I’m sure that many fans thought of this as they travelled by train to Mount Florida that night.
Mo Johnston had started the group matches with three goals in the three games Scotland had played thus far and would make an even bigger contribution on this night. The French were going through a transition stage and there is only a few recognisable players to me in the team; Patrick Battiston, Laurent Blanc, Frank Sauzee and Jean-Pierre Papin. Others such as Eric Cantona and Didier Deschamps would play in the game in France six months later, which Scotland lost 3-0 but qualifying had already been more or less assured by then.
The Scotland team would line up as Jim Leighton (Manchester United), Richard Gough (Rangers), Maurice Malpas (Dundee United), Gary Gillespie (Liverpool), Alex McLeish (Aberdeen), Stevie Nicol (Liverpool), Paul McStay (Celtic), Roy Aitken (Celtic), Ian Ferguson (Rangers), Ally McCoist (Rangers), Mo Johnston (Nantes).
Ian Ferguson would not feature again for Scotland for another four years after this game. He came off in 56 minutes for Gordon Strachan as he was carrying an injury. Brian McClair replaced Ally McCoist in the 69th minute. However, the game had already been won by then.
Mo Johnston had scored the first in the 28th minute. A Scotland free kick had been flighted into a packed French penalty area and headed out but only as far as McCoist; Ally tried to shoot from the edge of the box but it only got as far as Mo and almost seemed to be stuck under him in the mud but he was able to turn and shoot to open the scoring.
McCoist was also involved in the second goal in the 52nd minute, chasing what seemed a lost cause and getting hold of the ball on the right wing outside the area and passing it back to an onrushing Stevie Nicol who hits a cross first time; Mo doesn’t get the cleanest strike on the header but with a wet pitch the ball squirms away from goalkeeper Bats and into the net.
The game would finish 2-0 and a win against Cyprus a month later and a draw against Norway at home was enough to see Scotland through as runners up to Yugoslavia. The French were the top seeds in the group with Scotland second, but it does show, that what you need to succeed in a qualifying group is a striker on fire and Mo certainly was for the 1990 World Cup campaign.
There was one consolation for the French as three days later the Scotland rugby team would play France at the Parc De Princes, Paris and a 19-3 victory gave the French the Five Nations title with Scotland finishing only a point behind them.
I will post some footage of the game on the Facebook page and look out for one or two hefty tackles form the French. Also, please remember to keep checking out the Facebook page as there’s always more on view than Facebook sends to you.

David Stuart

I only have three of these articles from Four Four two magazine and the players involved haven’t been particularly lucky. The other two were Garry O’Connor and Gareth Williams, both of their careers went down the tubes. One self-inflicted and one due to injury. Andy Webster is probably a hybrid of the two; he was plagued by terrible injuries at one point but if you are a Hearts fan; you may well have thought of the phrase “Careful what you wish for”, when his protracted and bitter move from Hearts came about in 2006.
Things had been going well with Andy when he moved from Arbroath to Hearts for £75,000 in 2001 and became an important player for the Jambos in the following years so much so that Berti Vogts gave him his International debut on April 3rd, 2003. Of course at this point Berti would give debuts to a lot of players, even if they were ballboys for the likes of Newcastle, Chelsea and others.
With it being a home friendly under Berti, Scotland got beat 2-0 at Hampden. However, Andy would win his third cap playing against Germany in a World Cup Qualifier at Hampden a few months later in early June. On a glorious sunny day, Scotland gave a good account of themselves with the game ending in a 1-1 with Kenny Miller scoring.
This win was achieved despite the handicap of playing with the likes of Rab Douglas in goal, Maurice Ross in defence and other ordinary players like Paul Devlin and Stevie Crawford.
Towards the end of Berti’s accursed reign Andy began to feature more and indeed Walter Smith would continue to use him and Andy gained 22 caps by 2006. However, at this point he wanted a move from Hearts despite there being a year still to go on his four year contract. After, a protracted period of dispute, he did eventually get a move to Wigan and here the story takes a turn for the worse as he only ever played four times for Wigan before moving on loan to Rangers within months. Again this move was disputed by Hearts; again this was overruled. Many Hearts fans and officials really believe the move was always on and that the move to Wigan was a ploy to get him to Rangers. However, this is where the curse of Berti comes in. I have often stated that it is remarkable the number of players first capped by Berti, whose career has went down the toilet even sometimes on a temporary basis and indeed Andy would be one of those. In his years with Rangers due to injury he only ever played a couple of games and had loan spells at Bristol City and then Dundee United before returning to Hearts again. Andy currently plays for St. Mirren.
Craig Levein would bring Andy back into the Scotland fold when he was with Dundee United and he would gain his 28th and final cap as a Hearts player in Gordon’s Strachan’s first game in charge.
However, back to the article and there’s not much to it, in terms of controversy or comedic value (He was obviously a dead boring guy). His biggest thrill was making his debut for Hearts at Celtic Park and playing for Scotland v Germany. Best player he has played with was Steven Pressley but excellent Finnish goalkeeper Antti Niemi is also given a mention.
Most difficult opponent was listed as Henrik Larsson; biggest influences Steven Pressley and Craig Levein. Biggest compliment came from Berti Vogts who said he was “one of the best young defenders in Europe”. (Cursed him right there and then, didn’t you Berti?)
Who would most like to be stuck in a lift with? – Kelly Brook. Maybe it’s just my age or something because I was thinking more down the lines of MacGyver.
The final question was “in five years’ time where will you be?” Andy’s answer was quite prophetic “Playing for Manchester United – or sitting in a pub somewhere. One of the two”. Wonder which pub he went to, as he was probably out with an injury at the time.

David Stuart

Originally posted on Facebook on March 6th, 2016

Martin Buchan will 67 today. Martin gained a total of 34 caps in a period stretching from 1972 to 1978, appearing in two World Cups for Scotland. At times though, Martin seemed not to be the first choice of Scotland managers, despite in many ways never letting the team down with solid performances in defence.
He was first capped as an Aberdeen player in October, 1971 in Tommy Docherty’s first game in charge coming on as a sub for Eddie Colquhoun of Sheffield United in the 60th minute against Portugal at Hampden. Scotland had just gone into a 2-1 lead with John O’Hare and Archie Gemmill netting and that is how it finished.
Martin started the next game up at Pittodrie, lining up alongside of Pat Stanton of Hibs in Scotland’s final Euro Qualifier against Belgium, a month later. John O’Hare would score the only goal.
He would move to Manchester United in February, 1972 for a fee of £120,000 and would be back in the Scotland line up as a left back for the injured Willie Donachie for the Home international against Wales in May ’72 which Scotland won 1-0 with Peter Lorimer scoring the goal.
Although Billy McNeill and Bobby Moncur of Newcastle had been utilised by Docherty as the central pairing during the Home Internationals; as Scotland embarked on a trip to Brazil to play in the Independence tournament, they were left behind and Martin alongside Eddie Colquhoun established themselves as the Doc’s first picks. They played together in all three games and also in Scotland‘s first two 1974 World Cup Qualifiers against Denmark away and at home, which Scotland won comfortably 4-1 and 2-0 respectively.
Both Martin and Colquhoun featured in Willie Ormond’s first game in charge; a 5-0 thumping by England at a snow covered Hampden. Colquhoun never played again for Scotland and Buchan dropped out of sight for a while too.
Martin made his return to the Scotland side in March ’74 to face West Germany in a friendly in Frankfurt. Scotland lost 2-1 but Martin did enough to convince Ormond to reinstate him to the team and so Martin faced Northern Ireland and Wales in the Home Internationals with clubmate Jim Holton as his defensive partner; Scotland losing out to the Irish 1-0 and then beating Wales 2-0 with goals from Dalglish and a Sandy Jardine penalty.
He was injured for the England game and John Blackley of Hibs, ably took his place as Scotland ran out 2-0 winners with Jimmy Johnstone putting in a memorable performance.
Holton and Buchan lined up together again in the last game before the World Cup with Scotland struggling to beat Norway 2-1 in Oslo with late goals from Kenny Dalglish and Joe Jordan. It was expected that Buchan and Holton would start against Zaire but injury to Martin meant his place once more went to John Blackley.
He would however, return for the draws against Brazil and Yugoslavia in the World Cup and would retain his place for the first game after this; a 3-0 friendly victory over East Germany at Hampden.
Injury must have kept him out the next game as Willie Ormond went with a defensive pairing of Kenny Burns and Gordon McQueen, who had three caps between at this point for an important Euro Qualifier against Spain at Hampden in November, ’74. Scotland lost 2-1 but with Buchan back in the team for the game in Valencia in February ’75 alongside McQueen, Scotland came away with a credible 1-1 draw in Spain. However, in terms of qualifying the damage had been done in that first game.
He would only gain one more cap in the ’74-’75 season, in a one nil friendly victory over Portugal in May at Hampden with the likes of Colin Jackson of Rangers and Frank Munro of Wolves being chosen ahead of him; a pattern of being in and out of the team was established and over the next season or so, he would see McQueen and Tom Forsyth of Rangers become first choice.
However, once more a tour of South America would bring him back into the fore as McQueen did not travel for 1977 tour and Buchan formed a partnership with Forsyth for the games against Chile, Argentina and Brazil. Buchan captained the side for the Argentina game in the absence of Bruce Rioch. He captained Scotland on only one other occasion, a home Euro Qualifier against Romania in December, 1975 which Scotland drew 1-1.
In his 27th cap Martin would make an important contribution as he was brought on as a sub for Sandy Jardine in October ’77 as Scotland were battling it out with Wales at Anfield for a place in the World Cup in Argentina. It would be a rare sight to see Buchan advance into the opposition half in a Scotland shirt but as the Welsh are pushing Scotland for an equaliser after Don Masson’s penalty, it is Buchan we see running up the right wing and he plays the perfect cross for Dalglish to head majestically into the net and it’s Argentina here we come!
Martin’s next two caps came, fitting in for Willie Donachie at left back, firstly in a Home International against Ireland and then the first game of the World Cup with Donachie suspended for the opening game. He was chosen to play there whilst Kenny Burns took up McQueen’s vacant central position as Gordon had been injured playing Wales at Hampden a month earlier. We all know what happened and for the game against Iran, Buchan is chosen to line up with Kenny Burns in defence. We will skip over that one too and in the final group game it is Buchan and Forsyth that make up the central pairing as the Scots defeat Netherlands 3-2.
Scotland’s first three games after the World Cup sees Buchan and McQueen line up as a pairing. Jock Stein having taken over the reins from Ally MacLeod after the first; a defeat in Vienna against Austria.
However, by the start of the 1979 Home Internationals, Jock began looking elsewhere and we start to see Alan Hansen and Paul Hegarty make their debuts and indeed Stein would go with Kenny Burns for a while too and so Martin’s Scotland career would come to end. However, he would make over 450 league appearances for Manchester United before ending his career at Oldham in 1985. Martin also has the distinction of being the only player to captain winning teams in the Scottish and FA Cup, a record we may never see broken.
Happy Birthday Martin and all the best.
(Remember to keep liking our stuff to keep receiving it).
David Stuart