The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

As far as I am aware one of the last Scottish Football magazines to appear in paper format [before the Famous Tartan Army Magazine fought a rearguard action] was one entitled Pride of Scottish Football.

Issue 10 dates from April 2004 and now represents a classic piece of early 21st century nostalgia with cult hero James McFadden adorning the front cover alongside the heading ‘Great Expectations’ and the suggestion that he may be the ‘Next big thing.’Well here we now are in 2015, McFadden is aged 32 and he hasn’t played for Scotland for five years. Most frustratingly he is stuck on the 48 cap mark- just two short of the half-century necessary for inclusion in the S.F.A. Roll of Honour. His 15 international goals has him 7th equal overall but with a better goals per game ratio that Kenny Dalglish, Ally McCoist and Kenny Miller who are all above him in the Scotland scorers league. Sadly, McFadden reminds me of former England star Michael Owen in that he too appears to have lost his ‘Mojo’ way too early.

Former Scotland and Hearts midfielder or inside right in old money, Jimmy Murray passed away on July 10th at the age of 82. Jimmy’s claim to fame is that he was the scorer of Scotland’s first ever World Cup Finals goal.
Overall, Jimmy only played five times for the National team, all five of his games took place between April and June 1958 as would Stewart Imlach who played four games over this period and never again played for Scotland too.
His first Scotland cap came against England on April 19th, 1958 in front of a staggering crowd of 127,874. I had mentioned this game the other day in the Jamie Forrest article as Jim Forrest of Motherwell also made his debut that day. England won 4-0 with Bobby Charlton among the goalscorers.

Unlike Jim Forrest, Jimmy Murray’s Scotland career did not finish with that game. Jimmy also played in two World Cup warm up games; against Hungary at home in a 1-1 draw where Imlach made his debut and then a 2-1 victory against Poland in Warsaw with Bobby Collins scoring both goals.

Then onto Vasteras in Sweden for the World Cup opener against Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia went into an early lead before Jimmy scored his record book entry goal in the 51st minute for the game to finish one all.

Both Murray and Imlach missed the next game, a 3-2 defeat to Paraguay but returned for the final group match against France. Hearts team mate Dave Mackay would also feature in the line up that day gaining his second cap, a year after his first. The Scots were narrowly defeated 2-1 by a French team that ended up third in the competition.

For Murray that was it, with no recall to the National side although Murray had already won a League Championship with Hearts and would indeed repeat that feat the following season. It is again an indication of the West of Scotland bias that was prevalent at that time, that saw very few Hearts players of this period gain more than a handful of caps.Of the 1958 squad with the passing of Jimmy, Dave Mackay and also John Hewie this year, there are only a few of them still alive. Tommy Docherty who travelled but was not chosen to play; apparently due to a fall out with a SFA official and Doug Cowie are both still alive and were also members of the 1954 squad too. Also surviving from ‘58 are Eric Caldow, Graham Leggat and John Coyle. Also surviving from 1954 travelling squad are Johnny MacKenzie and Jock Aird. Jock also went on to play for New Zealand as well.As to World Cup goalscorers, they’re a rare breed too with only nineteen in total and even one of them is Iranian Andranik Eskandarian who scored for us in 1978.

For the record top of the list is Joe Jordan with 4 in three World Cups (’74, ’78 and ’82), then comes Kenny Dalglish with 2 in ’78 and ’82, also on two are Archie Gemmill (’78) and John Wark (’82). The others in chronological order are; Jimmy Murray, Jackie Mudie, Bobby Collins and Sammy Baird all 1958. Peter Lorimer in 1974 and in 1982 a veritable feast with John Robertson, Stevie Archibald, David Narey and Graeme Souness adding to the list. Gordon Strachan was the solitary scorer in Mexico ’86.1990 brought goals from Stuart McCall and Mo Johnston and in our final Finals appearance a John Collins penalty and a Craig Burley complete the list.
So here’s to Jimmy Murray, the first of a few and may we remember him for years to come.

David Stuart

(The photo is taken from Richard Keir’s excellent book Scotland the Complete International Football Record and is apparently just after Jimmy Murray has scored that legendary goal. I assume Jimmy is the player on the ground)

First posted on Facebook 12th July, 2015

So the fashion photos have been up for seven hours and no likes. I get the feeling too many of you guys really wanted to like them but would be worried if you were seen to like the bare chested Souness or Nicholas photos.

Okay so Simon Le Don, is more East 17 than Duran Duran in this one but sometimes it’s hard to come up with e new title for each little article. It’s funny, as I almost didn’t want to include this one from Dodgy Football Fashions as I instantly dismissed Simon as a Scotland player. Under -21’s no doubt but full caps? Nah, don’t remember that and yet Simon gained ten caps altogether and was even included in 1998 World Cup Squad.
Similar to Jamie Forrest, Simon actually played against ten different teams altogether but here’s the thing; for caps 1-9 he played 129 minutes of football, then in cap ten he played the whole game and then he was gone.
Here’s breakdown of his games, most of which were friendlies. First cap was against Wales in 27th May, 1997, came on for 10 minutes, v Malta 6 mins, v Latvia (WCQ) 6 mins, v France 7 mins, v Denmark 16 mins, v Finland 14 mins, v Colombia 29 mins, v USA 8 mins, v Estonia (ECQ) 33 mins and finally against the Faroes (ECQ) the full 90 minutes.
So there you go, the short Scotland career of Simon Donnelly. I can’t help but wondering is there someone out there who has played 11 times against 11 different opponents. Mind you, I don’t want to think on it too much as that’s the kind of stuff that keeps you researching into the wee wee hours.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook July 10th, 2015

Yep, it’s that time again when I show the latest book what I have purchased from a charity shop and for a mere 50p this gem was mine. There’s many a fashion faux pas in this book, “Dodgy Football Fashion”. It came out about five years ago and some of you may have got it for Christmas that year. There’s plenty of photos of Scotland’s brightest and best and we will be posting some of them over the next few days. Here’s the cover and of course Champagne Charlie. (Yes, that is Souness on the front).

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook July 10th 2015

Yep, it’s another of those in depth Shoot interviews where we find out a bit about a players hopes, dreams, ambitions and philosophies of life but mostly some trivia. This time it’s Paul Hegarty of Dundee United. It’s fair to say that Paul didn’t have the greatest of Scotland careers, playing a total of eight games and losing four of those including two defeats to England. However, it would also be fair to say that the start of Jock Stein’s reign as Scotland manager was pretty poor too and perhaps had it been a lesser person he may well have been given the heave – ho.
Paul’s first cap came on May 19th, 1979 against Wales in Cardiff. There were quite a few players making their debut that day too. George Burley and John Wark of Ipswich as well as Liverpool’s Alan Hansen started that day. It be fair to say that only Wark is probably remembered all that fondly by Scotland supporters.
It was an ex- Liverpool player who made the most impact that day though, as John Toshack scored a hat-trick in a 3-0 thumping.
With Hansen dropped Paul, lined up alongside Gordon McQueen for the midweek game against Northern Ireland with Arthur Graham scoring the only goal to give the Scots victory at Hampden. On the following Saturday, this defensive line-up was retained but 100,000 people crammed into Wembley saw the Scots go down 3-1 despite taking an early lead through Wark.
A week later and it’s Argentina with a young Maradona’s turn to put three past Scotland, Hegarty is paired with Hansen and Dundee United teammate David Narey was also given a starting berth. Arthur Graham scores a late consolation but the day is all about Maradona.
Hegarty makes a sub appearance at half time in our next game five days later a Euro Qualifier against Norway in Oslo, which the Scots coasted 4 nil.
It’s not ‘til the following years’ Home Internationals that Hegarty is chosen again, lining up versus Wales at Hampden. Aberdeen’s Willie Miller and Alex McLeish are also in the line-up with Miller given a more forward role that enabled him to score the only goal and indeed his only goal for Scotland as we all know. Come the Saturday and things don’t work out so well for Hegarty and Scotland as they go down 2-0 to England at Hampden. Fast forward three years to Paul’s final cap in which three other Dundee United players are playing. It’s against Northern Ireland on May 24th, 1983 and Scotland play out a dull nil nil draw. Incidentally the only Aberdeen player on show at the start of the game, is Neil Simpson making his debut; it’s not surprising as they have won the Scottish Cup three days prior and the European Cup Winners Cup only a fortnight before. On this last occasion Paul was made captain of the team.
So for Paul, that was it on the International front.Now to focus on his focus on. His favourite player is Ruud Krol of Holland, most difficult opponent was not Maradona but teammate Leopoldo Luque. Most memorable match is the game at Wembley to England, Biggest Disappointment – getting beat the aforementioned match.
Quelle Surprise his favourite food is Steak! Among his singers Andy Williams and eh . . . Barry Manilow (my God man what were you thinking). Favourite Actors / Actress – Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman, Clint Eastwood and (Whoo-hoo Photo time) Britt Ekland. At first I thought a strange choice but she was in some cult films; Get Carter, Wicker Man and of course the Man with the Golden Gun.

Finally, it was good to see someone whose professional ambition has been realised as Paul wanted to stay in Football for as long as possible and given that he has recently signed a two year contract as manager of Montrose I would say he is doing pretty well by my reckoning. Well done Paul.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook July 9th, 2015

Another ‘Dragonfly’ Scottish Football magazine was ‘The Punter’ from Scotrun Publications Ltd of Kelvingrove Street, Glasgow. The first issue came out in 1989 and cost £1.00 for 48 pages. The following year the cover price increased to £1.30 .

First and foremost, ‘The Punter’ championed the research of former Wing Commander Charles Reep and his ‘Performance Analysis’ which suggested that the route to success lies in simple, direct football. ‘The Punter’ then argued that if a team like Wimbledon can win the F.A. Cup then Scotland could win the World Cup and as such there was no better time to throw off the self-imposed shackles of possession football and utilise Reep’s research in harness with the Scottish strengths of fast football and determined tackling.

I recently made a return visit to Area 51 [aka the back of my garage] to go in search of those ‘dragonflies’ of the literary world – magazines dedicated to football in Scotland.

First out the C&A poly bag was the June 1990 edition of ‘Scottish Football Today’ [a scan of page 17 is attached]. SFT was published by Business Information Publications of Woodlands Terrace, Glasgow on a monthly basis and cost £1.30 for 52 pages.The June 90 edition was an Italy World Cup Finals special with articles on our very own Gok Wan [ie manager Andy Roxburgh]; an interview with our Assistant Manager – the shy, retiring Craig Brown; plus a look at possible squad members with ‘unsuccessful nominations’ of Stuart Munro, Steve Nicol, Brian McClair, Pat Nevin and Hearts’ John Robertson all being touted. Personally speaking, I would have included Robbo and Nevin before Rambo and Fleck but then again, for me a trip to Largs meant an ice-cream at Nardini’s not an SFA coaching course.

Gary Gillespie will be 55 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 played in three of the World Cup warm ups in May 1990 but was not chosen to start in any of the games but 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.