The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

First posted on Facebook, August 26th, 2016

Happy Birthday to Don Masson who will be 70 today. I know, some of you are thinking, why are we saying Happy Birthday to that guy, after all he missed that penalty in Argentina. That’s fair enough but does that really tell the story of Don’s time with the Scotland team? It’s funny how we remember that one in Argentina and don’t recall the one he scored at Anfield against Wales to put us there. I think it’s unfair on Don Masson, if you look at his record prior to 1978, it’s as good as anybody’s.
Willie Ormond first picked Don for the start of the 1976 Home Internationals after he had impressed with Queen Park Rangers in the English First Division. His debut came against Wales at Hampden in a 3-1 win, followed by a 3-0 win v Northern Ireland at home as well. Don scored his first goal for Scotland in this match, which was quickly followed by another, an excellent header against England in the 2-1 win at Hampden to give Scotland a clean sweep that year.
A six nil win against Finland at home in September saw Don score his first goal from the penalty spot. Don had only become the penalty taker after Bruce Rioch missed one in the Irish match in May. So who knows how fate may have changed had Rioch converted against the Irish and continued as penalty taker?
Don would first taste defeat in Prague in a World Cup Qualifier against Czechoslovakia, which saw the Scots go down 2-0.
The following season saw wins against Northern Ireland and England at Wembley and a draw against Wales, allowing us to regain the British Championship under Ally MacLeod. This was followed by a summer tour of South America which saw us beat Chile 4-2, draw one each with Argentina with Don scoring from the penalty spot again and then a 2-0 defeat to Brazil.
Don played in two more World Cup Qualifiers at home to Czechoslovakia winning 3-1 and the supposedly away game to Wales at Anfield, where Don scored that famous penalty under immense pressure.
The interesting thing is that, this was Don’s last appearance as a QPR player. He then moved on to Derby County under Tommy Docherty. Tommy’s a great manager if he likes you, if he doesn’t then he can be quite ruthless and make your life a misery. Don would only play 23 times for Derby before being punted to Notts County in the summer of ’78.
It makes you wonder if he turned up for 1978 Home Internationals lacking confidence and zip, which seemed to effect the whole team for that Championship, which saw Scotland draw with the Irish and Welsh and then get beat by England in a lacklustre performance. . . . and then came Peru.
So Don played 17 games for Scotland, which we won 9, scoring 5 goals, which is pretty good going. Happy Birthday Don and all the best, you deserve it.
David Stuart

First posted on Facebook, August 24th, 2016

Happy Birthday to Barry Nicholson who turned 38 today. Barry only won three Scotland caps, which all came during his period with Dunfermline. His first two caps came at the tail end of Craig Brown’s time in charge. He made his debut against Poland in April, 2001. Also making their debut that night and for quite a few playing in their only game for Scotland were John O’Neill of Hibernian, Charlie Miller of Dundee United, Gavin Rae of Dundee. Among the subs making their debut were Andy McLaren of Kilmarnock, Steven Caldwell of Newcastle and Kenny Miller of Rangers. As usual there were quite a lot of changes during the game but Barry would play the whole 90 minutes. Scotland would draw 1-1 thanks to a penalty from Scott Booth.
It would be a few months and games later that Barry would gain his second cap in what was to be Craig Brown’s last game. Scotland beat Latvia 2-1 at Hampden but despite this win they had failed to qualify for the World Cup.
Barry’s third and final cap would not come for another three years and remarkably in an era where Berti Vogts gave Scotland caps out like Sweeties in his 32 game reign, Barry was overlooked at every turn. However, Tommy Burns in his only game in charge brought Barry back into the Scotland fold and played him in the game against Sweden in November, 2004. Unfortunately for both Barry and Tommy, the game was a disaster as Scotland lost 4-1 at Easter Road.
Barry would go on to play for Aberdeen, Preston North End, Fleetwood and Kilmarnock before hanging up his boots but would not play again for Scotland. Currently Barry is the Development coach at Fleetwood.
Happy Birthday Barry and all the best.

First posted on Facebook, August 24th, 2016

Happy Birthday to Iain Munro who turns 65 today. Iain was capped seven times for Scotland, over a two year period from 1979 to 1980. All seven of his caps came during his second spell with St. Mirren having already played for Hibernian and Rangers (briefly), before returning to Love St.
Following the World Cup in 1978, Frank Gray had taken over as left full back from Willie Donachie, however Jock Stein gave Iain his chance to stake his claim for the position following a disappointing Home International Series in May, 1979. Iain’s first game was to be against Argentina at Hampden in June 1979. Scotland were well beaten 3-1 by the World Champions and in particular by a reputation building performance by Diego Maradona.
Five days after this, Scotland played a Euro Qualifier in Oslo with Munro retaining his place. The Norwegians were soundly beaten 4-0 with goals from Joe Jordan, Kenny Dalglish, John Robertson and Gordon McQueen.
With the start of the ’79 – ’80 season, Munro held onto the left back slot and played in a friendly with Peru at Hampden which ended 1-1 with Asa Hartford netting the Scots opener in the 4th minute. Next up was the Euro Qualifier action with a 1-1 draw with Austria at Hampden with Hans Krankl opening the scoring before a second half equaliser from Archie Gemmill.
If it’s Belgium away, then it must be a defeat. Scotland lost to Belgium in November, 1979. Iain had played with Sandy Jardine as his full back partner for the last three games and perhaps with Danny McGrain returning from injury, it was perhaps no surprise that the Jardine and McGrain partnership was resurrected at Iain’s expense for the next game; a 3-0 defeat to Belgium at Hampden. This would be Jardine’s final game for Scotland.
Following this, McGrain would flit from right to left back and Iain would gain his final two caps in the 1980 Home International Series starting with a win against Wales, with that midfield dynamo Willie Miller scoring the only goal of the game at Hampden. This was followed by a poor team performance against England at Hampden a few days later as the Scots went down 2-0.
And that was to be it for Iain as Frank Gray would soon return to the team and make the position his for the next few years. Iain would of course continue to play for St. Mirren before moving to Stoke City, Sunderland, Dundee United and then Hibs once more before having stints in management. Iain stills works in football over in the USA.
Playing for Scotland is not his only claim to fame as apparently he taught P.E. to not but two of the Scotland Epistles finest at Cadder Primary school in Glasgow. If he could have seen the way Robert Marshall and Alan Nelson look now he may well have given it all up there and then. Happy Birthday Iain and all the best.

Sometimes it’s hard collecting Panini stickers and the like waiting for Scotland to reach the World Cup / Euros or just to be featured in a set. So I decided to go back a wee bit to the Mitcham Foods set of 1956. There was a few Scots in the set including these ones;
#4 Willie Bauld of Hearts & Scotland (3 caps and 2 goals)
#5 Bobby Evans of Celtic & Scotland ( 48 caps)
#21 George Young (Rangers & Scotland) ( 54 caps)
#24 Tommy Ring of Clyde & Scotland (12 caps and 2 goals)

First posted on Facebook, August 21st, 2016

Also, having a birthday on August 21st is Paul Ritchie, who will turn 41. Like David Hopkin, Paul Ritchie only played seven times for Scotland and although their careers overlapped, they never played in the same team.
If you have read Scott Cockburn’s excellent ‘Club and Country’ article in the first Scotland Epistles, Paul Ritchie is one of the players mentioned in it. The gist of the article is about Scott’s ambivalence in supporting Scotland because as a Hearts fan over the last twenty years or so, he’s had to endure many a Jam Tart making the grade as an Internationalist for Scotland and then leaving Hearts, primarily for Rangers. If you think about it there’s Ritchie, Dave McPherson, Alan McLaren, Andy Webster, David Weir, Neil McCann, Allan Johnston and even Lee Wallace who all ended up at Ibrox even if via other clubs.
As for Ritchie, although he only played seven times; he managed to play in games against Germany, England, France and the Netherlands, which not too many have on their résumé. Paul’s first appearance was in a friendly with Germany in Bremen, which rather surprisingly the Scots won 1-0 with a goal from Don Hutchison. Paul had come on as a sub for Colin Hendry in the 66th minute just after Don scored. Also making his debut that night was club teammate Colin Cameron who won 11 of his 28 caps as a Hearts player.
Paul’s next game saw him line up alongside Colin Calderwood in defence for Scotland against the Czech Republic in Prague in June 1999. This was to be a night of ecstasy and agony for the Scots and Ritchie. It all started well with Paul heading a goal in the 30th minute, which was then added to by former Hearts player Allan Johnston who was with Sunderland at the time, 62 minutes into the game.

Unfortunately, for Scotland the Czechs got one back almost immediately and followed this up with an equaliser ten minutes later. More misery was added on, as that carthorse of a player Jan Koller, scored with a header with three minutes to go.
Cap number three came in the final game of our Euro 2000 group in October 1999 with Paul lining up alongside Brian O’Neill, then of Wolfsburg at the centre of defence. Scotland beat Lithuania 3 nil at Hampden with goals from Hutchison and Gary McSwegan and Colin Cameron both of Hearts. Their place as runners up was well assured prior to this and so it was off to the play-offs against . . . England.
Paul played in the first leg, a month later at Hampden which as most of us know Scotland lost 2-0 with a Paul Scholes double doing the damage. Paul missed out on the return leg with Mr. Hutchison once again finding the net for the solitary goal on a night we pummelled England but failed to get that second goal to take it into extra time.
Although we never made it to the finals we were in demand as opposition for those going to the finals as games against France at Hampden and Netherlands at Arnhem in March and April 2000 respectively were arranged. Paul was to play in both these games but was no longer a Hearts player having fallen out with the club over the refusal to sign a new contract and so was shipped to Bolton on loan. Scotland lost to France 2-0 and drew nil nil with the Netherlands. Although, Paul finally got the move to Rangers, he apparently desired in the summer of 2000, he never kicked a ball for them and was shipped off to Man City for £500,000 a few months later. As for Scotland caps, Paul was to receive another in 2004 during Berti Vogts’ tenure as the Scotland manager whilst playing for Walsall. Sadly for Paul, this came on the night Robbie Earnshaw ran riot for Wales scoring a hat trick in a four nil mauling. Happy Birthday Paul and all the best.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook August 21st, 2016

David Hopkin will be 46 on August 21st. If you’ve read Scotland Epistles #3 you will know that being included in a World Cup card or sticker set does not mean you are going to the World Cup, such a fate befell Mr. Hopkin too. Of course given the photo they used, perhaps David who has been known to make the list of ugliest Premiership players ever, would have preferred to have been omitted.
And yet it looked good at one point, David had gotten himself into the Scotland team just at the right time. He was due to play for Scotland against Wales in late May 1997 but having scored the play off winner for Crystal Palace against Sheffield United at Wembley a couple of days before he called off for the game. However, Craig Brown did not hold it against him and a few days later on June 1st he made his debut in a friendly against Malta in Valetta. Scotland won 3-2 with two goals from Darren Jackson after an early goal for Christian Dailly. David would be substituted early in the second half with Scot Gemmill replacing him, this scenario would be repeated a week later in Minsk, Belarus, as Scotland scraped a one nil win with a Gary McAllister penalty to keep their World Cup hopes alive.

In the summer of 1997, David moved to Leeds United for £3.25million. He would also be named as team Captain under George Graham at Elland Road. David would win his third cap up at Pittodrie against as Scotland cruised to a 4-1 win with Hopkin coming on as a substitute in the 50th minute and making an instant impact with a goal four minutes later. His second and Scotland’s fourth was a great individual effort, which made it seem as though David was going to be an important player for Scotland in years to come.
Alas, it was not to be as David had an indifferent start to his Leeds career, with injuries, suspension and regularly being substituted, all hindering his impact at Elland Road. He would only play one more game prior to the ’98 World Cup, making a one minute appearance against France in November, 1997. The 2-1 defeat would be the start of Scotland going on their longest run without a win, in a run of 9 games that unfortunately included the whole of the World Cup in France. David would return 18 months later in March 1999, starting the infamous game against the Czech Republic at Parkhead, where Gary McAllister was booed by some sections of the Scotland support. Scotland would lose this Euro Championship qualifier 2-1 and McAllister announced his retirement shortly after.
Cap number six would come against Bosnia in Sarajevo in September ‘99 as a makeshift left back. Scotland won 2-1 with goals from Don Hutchison and Billy Dodds. His seventh and final cap came a month later, also against Bosnia at Ibrox, in his more recognised position in midfield as Scotland won one nil with a John Collins penalty.
And that was it for David, if only his Scotland career had progressed the way we hoped it would that night at Pittodrie, but it was not to be. Happy Birthday David Hopkin and thanks for those brief glittering moments all those years ago.

David Stuart

First posted On Facebook, August 20th, 2016

Happy Birthday also to Leigh Griffiths who turns 26 today. Leigh has been capped seven times for Scotland but it would be fair to say that he has not had any real run in the team. Surely his time must be now? He scored a barrowload of goals last season and has started this season in the same rich vein.
Happy Birthday Leigh and here’s hoping this year brings a lot of success your way in the dark blue or shocking pink of the Scotland National side

First posted on Facebook 20th August, 2016

Ronnie McKinnon celebrates his 76th birthday today. Rangers player Ronnie was capped 28 times for Scotland from 1965 to 1971. His first cap came in front of a crowd of 100,393 as he was pitched into a World Cup Qualifier against Italy at Hampden in November, 1965. Celtic captain Billy McNeill was injured at the time, who would unable to wrest his place back from McKinnon for the majority of the Scotland games in the latter part of the 60’s.
Scotland won their game against an Italy side containing the likes of Mazzola and Rivera but left it late with John Greig hitting the only goal in the 88th minute. After playing in a 4-1 win over Wales at Hampden in November, McKinnon and Scotland then faced Italy away in Naples. The Scots were hampered by call offs and indeed manager Jock Stein resorted to listing Ron Yeats as his centre forward. Scotland lost 3-0 and their World Cup hopes were sunk.
1966 was in many ways a miserable one for the Scots with 3 home defeats in a row all with McKinnon playing. England beat the Scots 4-3 with Jimmy Johnstone hitting a double. This was followed by a 3-0 defeat to the Netherlands where Scotland manager John Prentice in his brief stint as manager fielded a side with no Anglos or Celtic players.
Scotland played two games late in June with Eusebio and Portugal winning 1-0 before Pele and his Brazil team rolled up on June, 1966. Stevie Chalmers gave Scotland early lead before Servilio equalised shortly after to give the Brazil the draw.
The 1966 / ’67 and ’67 / ’68 Home Internationals Series would double up as Euro Qualifiers. Scotland started with a draw at Ninian Park, Cardiff in October ’66, with Denis Law scoring an equaliser four minutes from time. This was followed by a 2-1 win over Northern Ireland at Hampden a month later.
Manager Malcom MacDonald had come and went by the time Scotland would get to Wembley ’67. Bobby Brown in his first game in charge would continue with McKinnon in the centre alongside John Greig at Wembley. Scotland of course, went on to win 3-2 as we all know and were holding the upper hand in the Qualifying group.
However, the wheels would fa’ aff the barra at this point as they headed to Belfast to play Northern Ireland. Although Scotland would only be beaten 1-0 to a goal by Dave Clements; this game is well known for George Best being at his imperious best and running the show throughout. A month later though they did get back to winning ways against Wales at Hampden despite going down 2-1 at one point. Scotland fought back with Alan Gilzean hitting his second and then Ronnie scoring his only Scotland goal for the winner in the 78th minute.
Scotland still had a chance to qualify but would need to defeat England at Hampden. Ronnie lined up in defence and for the first time with Billy McNeil partnering him. Alas, it was not to be, Martin Peters put England ahead after twenty minutes and although John Hughes of Celtic would score in the 39th minute, Scotland could not get the winner they sought and their qualification petered out with England topping the group.
Winter, 1968 would bring World Cup action and once more Ronnie kept his position at the centre of defence to face Austria at Hampden in November. Scotland would lose an early goal in two minutes but Denis Law would score within five minutes to level the score. Billy Bremner would score his first Scotland goal in the 75th minute to send the 80,856 crowd home happy.
A month later and in front of a lowly crowd of 5,895 in Nicosia, Scotland won 5-0 against Cyprus with doubles from Alan Gilzean and Colin Stein with Bobby Murdoch grabbing the other.
April, 1969 would bring West Germany to Hampden for the vital World Cup Qualifier, the wily Gerd Muller would grab the opener in the 38th minute and for so long it looked like Scotland would face defeat until Bobby Murdoch scored in the 88th minute to equalise and keep Scotland’s qualifying hopes alive.
McKinnon would miss Scotland’s next few games probably due to injury, to be replaced by McNeill, which included a 4-1 defeat at Wembley to England. He would however return for the last two games of the campaign away to Germany and Austria. Jimmy Johnstone would give Scotland an early lead after 3 minutes gone and the Scots held out until an equaliser came in the 38th minute. Gerd Muller would score in 60th minute to give the Germans the lead but this would only last a few minutes as Alan Gilzean replied for Scotland almost immediately after. Reports do suggest that Scotland were well worth the draw but alas it was not to be as Libuda scored in the 81st minute. The relief of the German crowd was quite apparent as a mini-pitch invasion followed. Tommy Gemmell would be sent off with a minute remaining, for kicking out an opponent in retaliation to compound the misery for the Scots.
Who knows what would have happened had Scotland held out for the draw. Would they have went to Vienna with a different mind-set a month later and with a stronger team? Like most what if, maybe’s; it doesn’t really matter as history books show that Scotland lost 2-0.
That game was Ronnie’s 20th and he would play another eight times for the National side but 1970 and ’71 were poor ones for Scotland and Ronnie’s Scotland career would peter out like that of Manager’s Bobby Brown, playing his last game in Moscow against the USSR in a meaningless friendly in June 1971 with a team that only had Ronnie and Colin Stein having caps in double figures such was the disinterest in playing the game. Scotland lost one nil.
Tommy Docherty would soon take over and Ronnie’s place would be given over to Eddie Colquhoun of Sheffield United. Ronnie would of course continue to play with Rangers for the next few years until a leg break in the quarter finals of the European Cup Winners Cup would see him denied a place in the final but also end his Rangers career. Ronnie would move to South Africa to play football and would live there for many years to come until moving back to Scotland and he now lives near Stornoway.
Happy Birthday to Ronnie’s twin brother Donnie who served Partick Thistle well for many a year as a player and coach. Donnie was also part of the Scotland set-up for a number of years too. Happy Birthday to you both and all the best.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook, August 18th, 2016

Tom Boyd would go on to be capped 72 times for Scotland and is currently the fifth most capped Scottish player but where did it all begin for him. His first cap came as a Motherwell player where he would earn his first four, in 1990.
Scotland, up until this point seem to come out of World Cup Finals and suffer a malaise and no matter how they performed in the tournament; the transition into Euro Qualifiers with the expected change of players, seemed to catch them cold and we were quite quickly playing catch up in the our group.

Not so in the first game of the 1992 Qualifiers, which would also see Tom’s first involvement with Scotland. The Scots faced Romania at Hampden in September, 1990. The Romanians included players such as Dan Petrescu, Gheorghe Popescu, Matius Lacatus and the great Gheorge Hagi and with only 13 minutes on the board, they took the lead through Camatru and it looked like the usual start to the Qualifiers was about to be repeated.
However, it was to be a player making his debut who would make his mark in the 37th minute; John Robertson of Hearts stabbed in a McCoist knock down to equalise before Boyd was introduced in the 59th minute. Tom came on for Robert Connor of Aberdeen in what would be his last appearance for Scotland. In the 75th minute, Tom started a move with a positive run down the left hand side. Paul McStay would find Murdo MacLeod who fed the ball into the six yard box where McCoist was ready to pounce; 2-1 Scotland and that was how it finished.
Tom would play in midfield for Scotland in their next three games which included a win against Switzerland at Hampden and an away draw with Bulgaria; which meant Scotland had the ideal start to their campaign for the 1992 Euros which would see them through to the Finals in Sweden.
As for Tom, these were the last caps he would win as a Motherwell player and his next two would come during his brief stint with Chelsea; his other 66 would come as a Celtic player. He would feature in, only the victory over the CIS in the finals but would play in all the games of the 1996 Euros and of course the 1998 Finals, where he was unlucky to concede that bizarre own goal against Brazil.
His only goal for Scotland came in a World Cup Qualifier against Estonia at Rugby Park, where he does well to follow up his rebounded shot. An own goal by Janek Meet would give Scotland a 2-0 win which was vital in our Qualifying for the World Cup. I will post this today so look out for it.
Tom would captain Scotland five times and his final cap would come in September, 1981 as Scotland lost 2-0 in the Stade Roi Baudouin, Brussels to Belgium; a defeat that would see Scotland fail to reach the 2002 World Cup.