The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

In issue 2 of the Scotland Epistles magazine I wrote an article about the wealth of Scottish talent in the English First Division as it was known in old money, just after Argentina ’78. Nowadays, there are very few Scots around in the EPL and even less as you get up to the rarefied air of the Top Four and Champions League qualification. I have divided the article into two parts, the first looking at the teams that made up the bottom half of the table this season and then in part two the Top Ten.With Watford, Bournemouth and Norwich all making it into the English Premiership, there are now five current Scotland in their squads. Watford have of course Anya Ikechi, Bournemouth Matt Ritchie and Norwich have Steven Whittaker, Russell Martin and recently added Graham Dorrans on a permanent move. It will be interesting to see how they get on.
Moving in the opposite direction are Queens Park Rangers, who had no Scots in their line up this year and you would have to go back to James Mackie in the Craig Levein lean years. Also going down was Burnley and although George Boyd and Scott Arfield were prominent players in their team neither has been capped while playing for Burnley. The last Burnley player capped was Chris ‘the miss’ Iwelumo. Stevens Fletcher and Caldwell recently were capped as Burnley plyers as was Graham Alexander.
Next up or rather down was Hull City, which sees three Scots be relegated Andrew Robertson, Allan McGregor and maybe the unluckiest of them all Robert Snodgrass. Sadly for Hull and Robert he only started one league game for Hull City dislocating his knee cap in the process which has kept him out for the full season and possibly into the next. Who knows how Hull would have done had he been fit. Prior to Robertson and McGregor you would have to go back to 1922 and Michael Gilhooley to find a Hull player capped for Scotland. Moving up the table, we come to Aston Villa and of course with Alan Hutton and previously Barry Bannan, there has been Scots representation at Villa Park recently. Current player Shaun Maloney also played at Villa in 2007-08.
Sunderland have of course Steven Fletcher and also recently Phil Bardsley. It’s a sad fact that if you google Phil Bardsley his wife may well be linked to first. Current players Craig Gordon and Alan Hutton also played there too as did Steven Caldwell.
And Steven Caldwell (again) is the name bandied about when it comes to Newcastle last Scotland player. Incidentally Steven has twelve caps in total whilst playing for 5 different clubs, Leeds and Wigan being the two we haven’t mention. Also capped at the same time as a Newcastle player was Brian Kerr. Leicester’s last capped Scot was Rab Douglas when he picked up a cap in 2005. Before that it was another one of the players haunted by the Curse of Berti Vogts (copyright Scotland Epistles, Bullshit & Thistles #2), one cap wonder Peter Canero. Paul Dickov was also capped as a Leicester player too, he was playing for Foxes at the time of the accompanying photo. (Is it possible in the photo he’s saying “I know you’re winning 4 nil Savage, but you’re still a fud.”?)
Above Leicester were West Brom, who in recent years have had a smattering of Scots with James Morrison, Graham Dorrans and now Darren Fletcher playing at the Hawthorns. West Ham haven’t had a Scots player since Christian Dailly in 2008, although he did earn 40 caps in his time with the Hammers. Don Hutchison was also capped as a West Ham player too. Everton rather surprisingly completed the bottom ten teams and of course, currently they have Steven Naismith playing for them, ironically they also have Aiden McGeady and James McCarthy with them too. That completes the bottom ten clubs and the picture gets worse as we go towards the top with one of the clubs has never had a player capped for Scotland!

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook June 10th, 2015

Our match on 13th June will be our seventh meeting in Dublin with the Republic of Ireland. Of the six played to date we have won two, drawn two and lost two.In May 1961 Scotland won a world cup qualifying tie 3-0 at Dalymount Park just four days after we had beaten them 4-1 at Hampden. Of our Dublin heroes only skipper Eric Caldow was in double figures cap-wise whilst our scorers were fellow Ranger Ralph Brand and sole anglo – Everton’s Alex Young – who got a double.

Here’s the third and for the time being the last in the series of away strips. This strip was used from 1991-93. This is a football card from US Upper Deck cards printed before the 1994 World Cup. The initial set was World Cup Contenders and there were a few Scots in the set including this one of Eoin Jess listed as a future star. Of course by the time of World Cup 1994 we weren’t in the set released then but then again neither were England, Netherlands, France and Denmark. As for Eoin Jess, his Scotland career never really got off the ground. By the time of his full Scotland debut in November 1992, he had made 15 Under 21 appearances. The qualifying for USA 1994 had already begun in a strong group. We had already lost 3-1 to Switzerland in Berne, drawn 0-0 with Portugal at Hampden before Jess was called up for the home game against Italy. Malta and Estonia were the minnows in the group.
Only 33,029 turned up to see Scotland play Italy at Ibrox and typically with Italian involvement the game ended nil nil, Eoin had come on for Gordon Durie in the 71st minute. Jess would start our next game against Malta at Ibrox, which for some reason the Scottish public decided to turn out in higher numbers with 35,490 turning up. Scotland coasted to a three nil win with two goals from Ally McCoist and one from Pat Nevin. Due to a leg break Jess, missed Scotland’s next few games which included a five nil humping in Portugal, he would return against Switzerland in September 1993 at Pittodrie, although this would only be a sub to fellow Dons player Scott Booth. The final score was one all with John Collins providing the Scotland goal. He would start the next game in Rome against Italy which saw Scotland defeated three – one.
Caps 5,6,7, saw Jess start one match in friendlies against Austria and come on as sub against Netherlands home and away.
Jess made another substitute appearance in opening game of Scotland’s successful Euro campaign towards England ’96, this was against Finland in September ’94 in Helsinki, a game we won 2 nil with Duncan Shearer and John Collins scoring.
Another substitute appearance a year later in a losing friendly in Sweden was next, followed by a starting position against Malta in a Euro qualifier. Jess would open the scoring at Hampden in a game against the mighty San Marino, which saw Scotland score five goals to no reply. Again the pattern of missing games continued with Jess coming back in for a game against the USA and then a substitute appearance versus Colombia in Scotland’s warm up US tour prior to the Euro’s ’96. These were his first two games as a Coventry City player.
Eoin only played 6 minutes in the tournament, coming on for Gordon Durie at Wembley as Scotland were 2 nil down to England.
By the time of cap 14, Jess had returned to Aberdeen and appeared as a substitute in a 1998 World Cup warm up against Denmark which saw Scotland get beat one nil at Ibrox. The World Cup would come and go before Jess returned to the Scotland line up in 2-1 defeat to the Czech Republic at Celtic Park. Jess would score Scotland’s goal in a game which is probably remembered more for the booing of Gary McAllister. Benched again for the following fixture, a surprising one nil victory of Germany in April 1999 with Don Hutchison scoring the only goal. His final two caps also saw him as a sub again in a despairing one all draw with the Faroes, when he came on in the 89th minute and saw Scotland lose a goal in the 90th.
His final appearance was in the Czech Republic, coming on, in the 70th minute for Iain Durrant as Scotland were two one up, with goals from Paul Ritchie and Allan Johnston putting us in the lead. Unfortunately, for Jess and Scotland we lost a further two goals to see us go down 3-2.
So there you go, all that potential that never saw fruition but in fairness to Eoin he was never really given a run in the team with only 6 starts in 18 games and none of them consecutively.

David Stuart

First posted 8th June, 2015

Colin Jackson, Rangers legend has passed away following a long fight with Leukaemia. ‘Bomber’ was one of the mainstays of the Rangers team in the seventies along with Peter McCloy, John Greig and Tom Forsyth although Colin was to miss out on the European Cup Winner Cup triumph in 1972.
He will never be classed as a Scotland legend as he only ever played in eight games, all of which he was unbeaten in. A record that Gordon Greer equalled on Friday night against Qatar.
Colin made his debut in a friendly against Sweden in Gothenburg on April 16th, 1975. Also making their debut that night was fellow Ranger Stewart Kennedy and Ted MacDougall of Norwich City. Billy Hughes of Sunderland would also come on for his only appearance in the second half. Colin played alongside of Frank Munro of Wolves in defence. Sweden opened the scoring through Sjoberg in 44 minutes and MacDougall scored the equaliser with 4 minutes to go, perhaps the closest Colin came to defeat in a Scotland shirt.
A month later, Colin made way for Martin Buchan and Gordon McQueen coming back into the side but replaced Buchan after 27 minutes in a one nil friendly win over Portugal. In his third game, Colin started alongside McQueen against Wales at Ninian Park. Scotland would go two down within 35 minutes with Toshack and Flynn scoring. However, in the second half Colin provided the springboard for the comeback with his only goal for Scotland in 54 minutes. Bruce Rioch completed the scoring eight minutes later.
Jackson would miss a few games after this but would return in October ’75 for a Euro Qualifier game against Denmark at Hampden. John Greig, fellow Rangers legend returned to the side after a four year break for a final cap to play alongside Jackson in defence. Goals from Dalglish, Rioch and MacDougall saw Scotland win 3 – 1. Colin kept his place in the side for another qualifier against Romania at home, which saw Scotland slip to a one all draw with Rioch scoring again. Colin would play in all three 1976 Home International games alongside Rangers teammate Tom Forsyth. Scotland won the Championship in a whitewash that year with firstly a 3 -1 win over Wales with Willie Pettigrew, Bruce Rioch (again) and Eddie Gray scoring. Next up was Northern Ireland and a resounding 3 nil win with this time with Archie Gemmill, Don Masson and Kenny Dalglish scoring.
The final match of the three saw Scotland triumph 2-1 over England with Don Masson equalising Mike Channon’s early goal and Kenny Dalglish’s lethal finish through Clemence’s legs giving Scotland the win.

And there it ended, Jackson would never play again for Scotland despite the triumph of 1976 Home Internationals, come September he was replaced by Martin Buchan but it would be the defensive partnership of Tom Forsyth and Gordon McQueen that would keep Colin out of the national side.
All our thoughts at Scotland Epistles go to Colin’s family at this sad time.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook 8th June, 2015

It’s not often that a team gets presented with a trophy at the end of a training exercise – but Scotland managed it, so three cheers for us! Unfortunately I missed the trophy presentation because my mate [and driver] insisted that we depart the stadium right on the full-time whistle so we could go in search of a chip shop! I’ll tell you this right now, come July next year, I don’t care if Jennifer Aniston, Kelly Brook and Judith Ralston are all waiting for me at the front door of the Stade de France with a sackful of free chicken pakora, I’m staying on to see Scott Brown lift the Henri Delaunay Cup! And relax…..

A lot of people commented how old and unwell Ian St. John looked at the funeral of the late Dave Mackay however I suppose most of us hadn’t seen him since the Saint and Greavsie programme came off air in 1992 so it’s not that surprising. Ian will be 77 on June 7th and has also had to fight cancer in recent years too.

Ian was first picked for Scotland in May 6th, 1959 for a friendly against West Germany which saw Scotland victorious by 3 goals to 2 in front of a crowd of 103,415. Ian was playing for Motherwell at the time and made his debut alongside two other Fir Park players, Bert McCann and Andy Weir.

Also making his debut that day was John White of Falkirk. John would score within a minute to open the scoring for Scotland. Is this the fastest debut goal for Scotland player? John was of course to go on to become part of the famous Tottenham double winning team of 1960-61, as was Dave Mackay who was making his second appearance for Scotland that day too. Sadly John White was killed by lightning in July 1964.

Andy Weir would also score six minutes into his debut but would play a further 534 minutes for Scotland without scoring. As for Ian he would have to wait ‘til 4th May 1960 to score his first goal for Scotland in his 4th International in a 2-3 friendly defeat to Poland at Hampden.

Overall, Ian would score nine goals in 21 Internationals. He would face England five times and only suffer defeat once but since that was at Wembley in 1961 maybe we should gloss over that. He did manage to score against England in a 2 all draw at Wembley in 1965 which would be his final cap.

Ian’s first seven caps came as a Motherwell player, whom he had scored a remarkable 80 goals in 113 League games. He would make his debut as a Liverpool player against Czechoslovakia in September 1961. Ian scored and along with a Denis Law brace that saw us beat the Czechs in a World Cup Qualifier. This would set Scotland up for a play-off match against the Czechs in Brussels that we lost 4-2 in extra time. Ian had scored both the goals that night but it was not enough to see us through to Chile ’62.

The Scotland team of that time was full of great players who as a team never really reached their potential but all too often were erratic in the results they produced. Friendlies in 1963 probably sum it up best. Having won the Home Internationals in a whitewash that season, we went on a small tour of Europe which saw us get beat 4-3 in Norway with Law getting a hat-trick, then over to Dublin for a one nil defeat to the Republic of Ireland and finally a 6-2 drubbing of Spain in the Bernabeu, in which St. John was one of six scorers.

In November of that year Scotland would get their revenge on Norway with a six one win at Hampden with Law scoring 4, however significantly for St. John, Alan Gilzean made his debut alongside Denis that night.

Ian would be recalled for that draw against England in ’65 and that was it for him although he would continue to be a pivotal part of Liverpool’s rise to greatness under Bill Shankly until the start of the 70’s. He tried his hand at management returning to his native Motherwell in 1973 for a year before moving to Portsmouth for a few seasons. However, the Saint was not done, as he became quite successful as a football pundit and eventually co-hosting the Saint and Greavsie show in the late 80’s ‘til 1992.

Happy Birthday Ian and Happy Birthday to Lou Macari who will be 66 on June 7th too.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook June 7th, 2015

Okay so I’ve used this photo before but every time Alan kept posting it on here it was shown in mini me size and no one could see it ‘til eventually it disappeared altogether. It is of course Joe ‘Jaws’ Jordan from the 1974 World Cup in the final game against Yugoslavia and a favourite strip of mine, which at the start of the game was accessorised with a matching white sweat band.
Two things about Joe Jordan though. His goalscoring record was 11 goals in 52 appearances but Joe was not one to score in meaningless games, only one would come in a friendly. Among his other ten were four goals in World Cups; against Zaire and Yugoslavia in 1974, against Peru in 1978 and his last one being against the Soviet Union in Spain 1982.
His most famous goal was of course his first against Czechoslovakia in 1973 to send us to the World Cup in 1974. He also scored again against the Czechs in the qualifying for ’78 and I believe he had a hand in our penalty award against Wales at Anfield in the same campaign. His other World Cup Qualifying goal came against Sweden for the successful ’82 campaign. Two other goals in Euro qualifiers didn’t see us get through to the group stages as our Euro record was pitiful around that time.
Finally his last goal was in a 2 nil win against England in the Home Internationals of 1974 prior to heading to Germany, although the goal was deflected in by an England defender.
The other thing I always seem to remember is an interview by Scotsport or the BBC with Peru players prior to Argentina and asked who they feared in the Scotland team and the reply came ‘Hoe Hordan’, oh how we laughed . . . until we cried!

I thought I would dig out some pictures of a few of our away strips. For the first one, here’s Graeme Souness with the away strip from 1980-82 and quite a fetching wee number it is too. As far as I can tell this was the only time the strip was worn with red socks as generally it was a white sock.
As for the game, it was our first match ever against Israel, which took place in Tel Aviv on 25th February 1981. Kevin Donnelly in the second issue of the Epistles magazine tells a tale of the match in his excellent Shalom ’81 piece and mentions the very strong Scotland team fielded that day. It was a very experienced team that ground out a one nil win and would see us through to Spain 1982.
The line-up was Alan Rough, Danny McGrain, Frank Gray, Kenny Burns, Alex McLeish, John Wark, Graeme Souness, Archie Gemmill, John Robertson, Kenny Dalglish and Steve Archibald. Jock Stein must have been worried about losing a goal to Israel as he brought on Willie Miller for John Wark at the start of the second half. Kenny Dalglish scored the only goal in 54 minutes and was replaced by Andy Gray in 69 minutes.
At the time of the match, the combined total caps won by the 13 players on show was 312. By the time they had finished their Scotland careers it was a whopping 612.At the back of this cutting there is a small note on Walter Smith as he has just announced he is retiring from playing, a strange coincidence given how much Souness and Scotland would become involved in his life in the years to come.

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, 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.
As to his Focus On choices as his Most Memorable Match he has went for his Scotland debut, which probably means this interview took place before January 1973. Hearts fans won’t need reminding of that date! Most difficult opponent is David Wagstaffe of Wolves, which suggests a recent Texaco Cup Clash. Great answer to best country visited as our John has put Scotland! Fvaourite food is of course Steak. What else did footballers eat in the 70’s? However, sadly John was in his early twenties at the time and has put Dean Martin as one of his favourite singers.
His biggest Drag in Soccer was missing games through injury, which unfortunately for John is going have a great impact on him as already explained. His Professional Ambition was to be in a winning Scotland side at Wembley. Sadly John never achieved this.