The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

First posted on Facebook on October 27th, 2016

Born on this day in 1922 was Scotland and Rangers legend George Young. George played for Scotland from 1946 to 1957 and was Captain an incredible 48 times in his 54 cap career. In terms of the World Cup, George is perhaps one of the really unlucky Scotland players. In 1950 despite actually qualifying he was denied along with his teammates a place in Brazil 1950 as in a bout of hubris the SFA had declared they would only go as the Home International Champions; a defeat to England would see the Scots placed runners up which would have been good enough to qualify but the SFA would have none of it; so ‘Corky’ and the rest of the team stayed at home.
1954 and Scotland Qualified. Whoo-hoo! However his club Rangers, refused to release him and others to travel and so George embarked on a North American tour with his club side whilst his National side were playing in Switzerland.
He would play in the opening two games of the 1958 qualifying; two victories against Spain at Hampden and Switzerland in Basle where he played his last Scotland game.
George passed away in 1997 at the age of 74. To this day he still holds the record for most games as Scotland captain. The top ten are as follows;
George Young (48)
Billy Bremner (39)
Gary McAllister (32)
Darren Fletcher (30)
Barry Ferguson (28)
Graeme Souness and Roy Aitken (both on 27)
Archie Gemmill (23)
Colin Hendry (22)
and finally Scott Brown with (21).
Of course, the shortest Captaincy is the unofficial 3 seconds or so of John Collins in the game that never was in Estonia.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook on October 27th, 2016

Happy Birthday also to Stewart McKimmie who will turn 54 today. Stewart was a great attacking full back who played for Scotland from 1989 to 1996. Stewart won 40 caps in total, all during his time with Aberdeen. His first cap came in a 2-0 defeat to England at Hampden in the Rous Cup of 1989; his last cap would come seven years on, in a 2-0 defeat to England at Wembley in the 1996 Euros Finals. In between Stewart played in two games in Italia ’90 making a subs appearance against Costa Rica and playing the full ninety against Brazil.
He would also play in all three games of the 1992 Euros in Sweden; his Scotland swansong would be the two opening games of the ’96 Euros.
However, there is one moment we all remember Stewart for and it was his stunning goal to give Scotland victory against Argentina in March, 1990.
Happy Birthday Stewart and all the best.

First posted on Facebook on October 27th, 2016

Happy Birthday to Frank Gray who will turn 62 today. Frank gained 32 caps with Scotland and is the younger brother of Leeds favourite Eddie. Despite his brother being the more talented player he would only accrue 12 caps in total. Frank won 25 caps during two spells with Leeds United with a further seven in the intervening years at Nottingham Forest with whom he won the European Cup.
Frank was first capped by Willie Ormond in 1976 but would not be selected again until Jock Stein took over as Manager with Willie Donachie generally holding the left back position during Ally MacLeod’s reign.
Frank would play a big part in the qualifying for the 1982 World Cup and indeed would play in all three games in Spain. His final game would be in the three game tour of Canada in 1983 playing in the second game. Arthur Albiston would soon make his bid for the left back position before Maurice Malpas came in to claim it as his own.
Frank did manage a goal from the penalty spot for Scotland in a 2-1 friendly win over the Netherlands in March, 1982 at Hampden.
Frank would continue to play with Leeds for another few seasons before turning out for Sunderland for four seasons and finishing up with a three year spell at Darlington.
Happy Birthday Frank and all the best.

First posted on Facebook on October 22nd, 2016

Happy Birthday to Scotland legend Alan Gilzean who will turn 78 today. Alan first came to prominence as part of the great Dundee side that won the 1961-62 Championship and reached the semi finals of the European Cup the following season. Alan also achieved the feat of scoring 4 goals at Ibrox as the Dundee side crushed Rangers in thick fog in a historic 5-1 victory.
Alan gained twenty two caps altogether for Scotland scoring twelve goals. His first goal came against England at Hampden giving Scotland a one nil win in April, 1964.
Alan’s first five caps came as a Dundee player with the other 17 coming during his time at Tottenham Hotspur.
I would recommend the book ‘In Search of Alan Gilzean: The Lost Legacy of a Dundee and Tottenham Legend’ by James Morgan, if you want to read more about this great player.
Happy Birthday Alan and all the best.

David Stuart

Another programme from our Match Programme Home section commemorating Scotland playing Finland on this day in 1964 in a World Cup Qualifier. This was the first match in the group made up of Italy, Poland, Finland and Scotland.
The Scotland side managed by Ian McColl lined up at Hampden as follows; Campbell Forsyth (Kilmarnock), Alex Hamilton (Dundee), Jim Kennedy (Celtic), John Greig (Rangers), Jackie McGrory (of Kilmarnock winning the first of his three caps), Jim Baxter (Rangers), Jimmy Johnstone (Celtic), David Gibson (Leicester City), Stevie Chalmers (Celtic), Denis Law (Manchester United) and Alex Scott (Everton).
Scotland got their campaign off to the best of starts with Denis Law netting in the second minute. Stevie Chalmers and Gibson would add another two before half time. However, the 54,442 crowd were probably a bit disappointed in the second half as the only goal came from Peltonen of Finland in the 78th minute.
By the time of their next World Cup Qualifier in May 1965, McColl had been replaced by Jock Stein in a caretaker role. Scotland would fail to reach the World Cup due in the main to a loss to Poland at Hampden. One thing of note about the campaign is that the Finland game was the only one that Jimmy Johnstone took part in; with Willie Henderson being the preferred choice by Stein.

David Stuart

60 years to the day Scotland drew 2-2 with Wales at Ninian Park, Cardiff in the Home International Series. The Scotland line up was Tommy Younger (Liverpool), Alex Parker (Falkirk), John Hewie (Charlton Athletic), Ian McColl , George Young (both Rangers), Doug Cowie (Dundee), Graham Leggat (Fulham), Jackie Mudie (Blackpool), Lawrie Reilly (Hibs), Bobby Collins and Willie Fernie (both Celtic). Fernie and Reilly scored for Scotland.

On this day in 1958, Scotland played their first post World Cup game against Wales at Ninian Park, Cardiff. The line-up included several players making their debuts; John Grant of Hibs and Willie Toner of Kilmarnock, both of whom would only win two caps. David Herd of Arsenal who passed away a few weeks ago and one Denis Law, then of Huddersfield. Herd and Law would play together for Manchester United in the sixties.
Scotland would win 3-0 with goals from Fulham’s Graham Leggat, Bobby Collins of Everton and Denis Law. One of the more experienced players in the team was Tommy Docherty who would recall Law to the Scotland side after a three year absence in 1972. I don’t have any highlights of the match to post but I do have the Match Programme from our website to post.

First posted on Facebook on October 17th, 2016

Francis turned 68 today and only ever gained one cap for Scotland in a World Cup Qualifier against Austria in November, 1969. Francis was a left back who was part of the Manchester United side of the 1960’s and although he played six of the matches in the run up to United’s European Cup triumph, he never played in the final.
The game against Austria was effectively a dead rubber as by then both teams had failed to qualify with West Germany going through to Mexico. Scotland had also been caught out with a lot of late call offs and so Burns was given his chance. Hugh Curran of Wolves was also to start his first Scotland game too.
On the day before the match Gair Henderson of the Evening Times wrote; “Almost every man can be guaranteed to give 100 percent effort for ninety minutes, so there certainly shouldn’t be any ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude on the field.
Scotland lost 2-0 and Mr. Henderson wrote the headline on the 6th “Oh Scotland! – Where was Your Pride? In the match report, the reporter goes through each player individually giving his verdict on whether they failed Scotland or not;
Billy Bremner – Guilty of failing to come up with any inspiration and skill as Captain.
John Greig – Guilty of a number of tackles that were suspect and guilty of allowing his immediate opponent to score the goals that beat Scotland.
Goalkeeper Ernie McGarr – Guilty of failing to stop two shots that should have been saved.
Hugh Curran – Guilty. But with this plea in mitigation – he did not get a chance from the men who were supposed to be helping him from behind.
Francis Burns – A promising boy but obviously on football probation for the next year.
Bobby Murdoch – Not the sparkling Bobby of his recent performances for Celtic. (This would be Murdoch’s last Scotland game).
Charlie Cooke – (Substituted by Colin Stein in the second half) – No darling this time.
Alan Gilzean – His least effective International for a long time.
Eddie Gray – As indifferent as he was brilliant against West Germany.
Ronnie McKinnon and Pat Stanton – Completely cleared of all blame. They fought from start to finish for a Scotland victory but had little support from men on whom they were counting on for assistance.
Further to this he goes on to say about Greig; “On John Greig I can only say from the start to the finish of the match he tried to cut down Redl and failed. Doesn’t sound like a John Greig to me!
It is interesting to note that in Scotland’s next game only Gilzean and McKinnon played.
And so for Francis that was it. He would play 121 League games for Manchester United before going on to play for Southampton for short period and then moving on to play over 300 games for Preston North End.
Happy Birthday Francis and all the best.