The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

11. Yep, eleven as in that extremely funny sketch from Burnistoun. 11 copies to sell before breaking even on issue 4.
11 appearances for Scotland include players such as Russell Anderson (too few), George Burley (too many as a manager), Eamonn Bannon, Arthur Graham and Ian Ure.

11. Yep, eleven as in that extremely funny sketch from Burnistoun. 11 copies to sell before breaking even on issue 4.
11 appearances for Scotland include players such as Russell Anderson (too few), George Burley (too many as a manager), Eamonn Bannon, Arthur Graham and Ian Ure.
11 goals. There’s a few who scored 12 and a few who scored 10 but only one who scored 11 and four of them were at the World Cups in ’74, ’78 and ’82 and of course, the scorer of the goal that took to the ’74 World Cup. Step forward Joe Jordan.

Squad number 11’s at World Cups were; Peter Lorimer (1974), Willie Johnston (1978), John Robertson (1982), Paul McStay (1986), Gary Gillespie (1990 – had to be a duffer among them) and finally 1998 – John Collins.
One final eleven fact; Denis Law scored 11 goals in 1963 including 7 against Norway in two games and even though he scored a hat-trick in the first game he still managed to be on the losing side.

So remember pick up a copy of issue 4 on ebay today and Buy Buy Buy!
Bye.
11 goals. There’s a few who scored 12 and a few who scored 10 but only one who scored 11 and four of them were at the World Cups in ’74, ’78 and ’82 and of course, the scorer of the goal that took to the ’74 World Cup. Step forward Joe Jordan.
Squad number 11’s at World Cups were; Peter Lorimer (1974), Willie Johnston (1978), John Robertson (1982), Paul McStay (1986), Gary Gillespie (1990 – had to be a duffer among them) and finally 1998 – John Collins.
One final eleven fact; Denis Law scored 11 goals in 1963 including 7 against Norway in two games and even though he scored a hat-trick in the first game he still managed to be on the losing side.
So remember pick up a copy of issue 4 on ebay today and Buy Buy Buy!
Bye.

First posted on Facebook, June 15th, 2016

Alan Brazil will turn 57 today. Alan, of course started out at Ipswich Town in the same side with George Burley and John Wark under Bobby Robson in the late 70’s. He would win 13 caps altogether and like many a Scottish International striker around that time would prove a failure on the International front.
His first caps came on a European two game tour in late May 1980. He was given 45 minutes in Poznan, Poland coming on for Joe Jordan. Scotland would lose 1-0 with the great Zbigniew Boniek scoring the only goal. Full back Ally Dawson of Rangers gained his first cap that day too coming on for George Burley in the last ten minutes. As for Alan, he was given a starting berth by Jock Stein three days later in Budapest, however he would come off at half-time and be replaced by Gordon Strachan. Scotland lost 3-1 with Steve Archibald netting for the Scots.
It would be February 1982 before Alan was back in the team as Scotland played host nation Spain in a pre-World Cup match in Valencia. Scotland would lose 3-0 but Brazil would be on the winning side in the next game. Scotland beat Netherlands 2-1 at Hampden in March ’82 with first half goals from Frank Gray and Kenny Dalglish. Brazil would replace Dalglish at half time and making their debuts that night would be Jim Bett of Rangers and Allan Evans of Aston Villa.
Stein must have been impressed by Alan’s efforts that night as he would play the full ninety minutes in each of the Home Internationals that year. Club teammate John Wark would score for Scotland in the first game at Windsor Park, Belfast before Sammy McIlroy would equalise for the Irish to gain the draw.
Next up a 1-0 victory over Wales at Hampden with Asa Hartford scoring the last of his five Scotland goals in the 7th minute with Brazil providing the through ball. The final game of the series against England was a dour affair with Paul Mariner providing the only goal of the game for the visitors at Hampden.
Alan would be given a starting place in Scotland’s opening game of the World Cup lining up alongside Kenny Dalglish in attack against New Zealand. Dalglish would open the scoring and once more John Wark would get among the goals with a brace all coming in the first half. Slackness in the Scotland defence saw their lead reduced to one soon after half time. John Robertson, then Steve Archibald who had come on for Brazil in the 53rd minute finished the scoring.
Archibald was then given the nod ahead of Brazil for the Brazil game and indeed Alan perhaps, ironically would not feature against his namesake team at all but would return to the side as a late substitute as Scotland looked for a winner against the USSR, to no avail.
After the World Cup, he played in the opening two games of the 1984 Euro Qualifiers; a 2-0 defeat of East Germany with Wark and Paul Sturrock scoring and also a 2-0 defeat to Switzerland in Berne.
Alan would only feature twice more for Scotland and both would be in the 1983 Home Internationals. He would score his only International goal down at Ninian Park, Cardiff as Scotland won 2-0 with Andy Gray scoring the other goal. By this time Brazil was a Tottenham Hotspur player.

He would come on as a sub for Eamonn Bannon in the second half as Scotland toiled to a 2-0 defeat to England at Wembley and that would be his final appearance.
His time at Tottenham was not a particular successful one and he moved on to Manchester United where a recurring back injury hampered his progress and as his injury worsened he had stints in Australia and Switzerland before retiring. Alan does feature in our Scotland Players abroad section on the website as in his early days at Ipswich, he was loaned out to NASL club Detroit Express to gain some experience. Of course, Alan continues to work on Talksport where he is more than happy to give his opinion on anything and everything.
Happy Birthday Alan and all the best.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook, June 14th, 2106

So we’re edging closer to breaking even on issue 4. We only need to sell 14. So come on an d buy it please!!
14 is the number of goals Mo Johnston scored for Scotland.

14 is the number of caps won by Arthur Albiston, Derek Johnstone, Nigel Quashie, Gavin Rae and John Spencer among others.

14 was the World Cup squad number for Martin Buchan (1974), Tom Forsyth (1978), David Narey (1982 & ’86), Alan McInally (1990) and Paul Lambert (1998).
So look it up on ebay and buy buy buy.
Bye

First posted on Facebook, 13th June, 2016

Alan Hansen will be 61 today. Despite his years as Liverpool captain and over 600 appearances for the club, Alan only gained 26 caps in total. Truth be told, his club form never really transmitted to the International stage.
Having moved from Partick Thistle for £100,000 in 1977, Alan established himself as part of the Liverpool team fairly quickly. In May 1979, Jock Stein gave him his first start down at Ninian Park, Cardiff against Wales. Also getting their first caps were George Burley, John Wark and Paul Hegarty. Hansen and Hegarty had a torrid time and were torn apart by John Toshack, then playing for Swansea. Toshack hit a hat-trick with no reply from the Scots to give the Welsh a 3-0 win.
Hansen was the only one of the four new starts dropped with Gordon McQueen coming back into the team. Alan would return at the start of June when in the Hampden sunshine, Diego Maradona ripped Scotland apart with a dazzling display announcing himself on the world stage as a precocious 18 year old. World Champions Argentina won 3-1 with two goals from Leopoldo Luque and a third from Maradona.
Cap three, came in November as Scotland lost to Belgium (again) at Hampden, 2-0 in a Euro Qualifier. However, come March 1980 and finally Alan had that winning feeling in a Scotland shirt as Scotland routed Portugal 4-1 at Hampden in a Euro Qualifier. It would also be Alex McLeish’s debut for Scotland. Kenny Dalglish, Andy Gray, Steve Archibald and Archie Gemmill provided the goals.
Jock Stein in the first few yaers of his reign, always preferred to play with three centre halfs and over the next few months Hansen would lose out to Willie Miller, Alex McLeish and David Narey as his chosen three. However, come the start of the 1982 World Cup campaign, Hansen lined up with the Aberdeen duo in the opener against Sweden in Stockholm. Gordon Strachan would score the only goal to give Scotland a great start in their group.
Hansen also played in the draws with Portugal and Northern Ireland at home; wins against Israel and Sweden. By the time of their penultimate game in the group Scotland only needed a draw against Northern Ireland in Belfast. Stein reverted to a straight forward partnership and Alan played alongside Willie Miller in what was a tense match at Windsor Park. Both sides had chances to win the game but it would end 0-0 and Scotland had qualified for Spain.
By the start of 1982, Alan had 11 caps and by the end of it 20. It would be fair to say that Jock Stein was unsure of his best pairing. As Scotland prepared for the World Cup in two friendlies (Spain 0-3, Netherlands 2-1) and the three Home Internationals; Northern Ireland 1-1, Wales 1-0 and a 1-0 defeat to England, Stein changed his line up each time. He started with Hansen and McLeish, then Aston Villa’s Allan Evans and Willie Miller followed by Evans, McLeish; Hansen and Narey and finally against England, Hansen and Evans. It would be the latter two that would start against New Zealand in Malaga in Scotland opening World Cup game.
Scotland would win but two shipped goals may have given Stein food for thought and Miller was back in place alongside Hansen for the next game against Brazil. It was a bit of a shock to us all when David Narey opened up the scoring with a thunderbolt in 14 minutes. Of course, the Brazilians took this in their stride and they cruised to a 4-1 win.
Once more, a final game in the group would be the decider in Scotland’s progress to the next round; for the game against the U.S.S.R. read C.O.C.K.U.P. as Miller and Hansen managed to collide and leave the ball to Shengelia and give the Soviets the lead with only six minutes remaining. Graeme Souness would grab an equaliser but once more it was too little, too late.
Credit to Jock Stein, he never dropped either of them and in Scotland’s first four games after the World Cup they were the middle pairing for three of them. Scotland started off their campaign for the Euro Finals in 1984 with a 2-0 win against East Germany at Hampden in October ’82. However, a month later and they would suffer the reverse score being well beaten by the Swiss in Berne. Scotland’s next game saw McLeish partner Hansen at the back but saw us lose 3-2 to Belgium in Brussels despite two stunning goals from Kenny Dalglish.
March ’83 would see Scotland draw 2-2 in a game that is famous for Charlie Nicholas’ debut wonder strike but Scotland had lost two goals to the Swiss all too easily. Hansen would lose his place in the team for almost two years, before making a return in March ’85‘as a sub against Wales in a World Cup Qualifier. Alan came on in the 57th minute replacing Arthur Albiston but by then the Welsh had taken the lead and would leave Hampden with both points in the bag.
After the death of Jock Stein, Alex Ferguson brought Alan back into the team for a friendly against Romania but once again this was only a substitute appearance as Scotland coasted to a 3-0 win. Ferguson would, in some quarters controversially leave Hansen out of his squad for the Mexico ’86; to others it was not a surprise as Hansen did not fit well with the Scottish style in some ways and produce his best football.
After the World Cup, Andy Roxburgh tried to fit Hansen back into the team and he played in the three games of the Euro ’88 qualifiers, Republic of Ireland, away where a 0-0 draw was achieved, an expected 3-0 home win over Luxembourg and then in February 1987 a defeat to the Republic at Hampden by one goal to nil.
That was it for Hansen and for many it is quite puzzling as to why he never gained more caps particularly those that followed the game down South. It is hard to pinpoint; allegedly he didn’t like to take part in friendlies but maybe it’s just because he never had a commanding game for the team or a string of great performances and with the likes of Miller, McLeish, Narey and Hegarty all being available, the competition was strong enough to merit his exclusion at times.
To be honest I don’t know the answer, however I am at this point going to get on my High Horse. Alan Hansen is included in the images that emblazon Hampden Park at the moment. I am not too sure, how you can justify that when the likes of McQueen, Hendry, McFadden and others are noticeable by their absence. Hansen played at Hampden 13 times for Scotland playing in a winning side seven times, losing four and drawing the other two. Does he deserve to be recognised in this way?
Anyway, Happy Birthday Alan despite my grumbling and all the best.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook on 11th June, 2016

Probably the most annoying thing about Scotland’s two recent friendly internationals against Italy and France was the absence of a shot on target over the entire 180 minutes or so. As a Dark Blue Anorak however, the second most annoying thing for me was the absence of official programmes which were on sale to the general public. Don’t they realise who we are?

For the game against Italy in Malta, a small [12 page] unofficial programme was produced by Scotland fans for Scotland fans. I think it was Graeme McGinty and friends who came to the rescue to compile an excellent ‘Less is more’ publication with all profits going to the Tartan Army Sunshine Appeal. [Similar ‘programmes’ were produced in recent years for away games in Cyprus, Slovenia, USA, and Luxembourg]. Well done you Guys – take a bow.

Posted on Facebook, June 7th, 2017

Kevin Kyle will turn 36 today. For many of us the fact that Kevin reached 10 caps for Scotland is a bit profound when you consider he won the same amount as the likes of Bobby Lennox. It is a reminder of those dark days under Berti Vogts when players could actually have played more for the national side than their club team. If you were a young player in an English Premiership club; then you seemed to get a free pass to the International scene and although Darren Fletcher eventually flourished there were the likes of Brain Kerr, Michael Stewart and Warren Cummings who never really cut it at the top English Premier level.
Kevin’s first cap came as a Sunderland player against South Korea in the Asiad Main Stadium, Busan in May 2002. Scotland lost 4-1 with West Brom’s Scott Dobie hitting Scotland’s consolation goal. Kevin came on in the 66th minute for Allan Johnston. He would play the first 80 odd minutes against South Africa, a few days later in the so called Reunification Cup as Scotland lost 2-0 in Hong Kong. This was followed up with a game against the hosts or rather a Honk Kong League XI who Scotland magnificently despatched 4-0 with Kevin scoring his one and only Scotland goal.
That’s as good as it got for Kevin in some ways for Scotland, he would win his fifth cap against the Faroes in Toftir in September, 2002 in a Euro Qualifier. Scotland were rather inept that day and lost two goals early and took a long time to get back into the game eventually equalising in the 83rd minute through Barry Ferguson. Kevin had rarely troubled the Faroes despite his height and physique.
He would play four more games for Berti but only in friendlies although his stock had begun to rise at Sunderland as he began to make the first team more often and indeed as ended up as their second top goalscorer in season 2003-04 with 16 goals in the championship.
However, he began to be blighted with hip injuries and these would plague him for the rest of his career. A poor period at Coventry eventually saw him come move north of the border to play for Kilmarnock. Kevin was recognised for his improved form and deservedly earned another cap for Scotland against Wales coming on in the second half for Steven Naismith. Unfortunately for Kevin this was to be manager’s George Burley last game in charge as Scotland were well beaten 3-0 in Cardiff.
Kevin would move to Hearts before spells with Rangers and Ayr United but his fitness levels were always hampered by injury and so he retired in 2014. He was in the news shortly after as he was discovered to be working as a cleaner with P&O Ferries to provide for his family.
Last year he was again in the news but for something more cheery as he had entered the BDO Scottish Open Darts tournament and although he didn’t progress too far he did knock out the number 9 seed before going out himself. Wonder how he did this year?
Happy Birthday Kevin and all the best.

First posted on Facebook, 6th June, 2016
Apparently there is to be a referendum on 23 June with regard to whether or not we want to leave the EU. I thought Scotland had already left Europe having voted with our feet and not managed a single shot on target away to Georgia in September last year. No I won’t let it go……

Anyway, talking of propaganda exercises let’s go back to Wednesday 3rd January 1973 when to commemorate the entry of the U.K., Ireland and Denmark into what was then referred to as the European Economic Community there was played at Wembley Stadium a representative match between ‘The Three’ and ‘The Six’ – managed by Sir Alf Ramsey and Helmut Schoen respectively. ‘The Three’ were the aforementioned newcomers to the E.E.C. whilst ‘The Six’ were the original members- West Germany , Belgium , Netherlands , Luxembourg , France and Italy .

The match programme which was headed ‘Common Market Football Match’ mistakenly refers to the U.K. as Great Britain which is ironic given that the squad included Northern Ireland ’s Pat Rice and Alan Hunter. The squad listed also included Bobby Moore and Bobby Charlton from England plus Johnny Giles and Steve Heighway of the Republic of Ireland . The opposition squad was pretty impressive too – Dino Zoff and Luigi Riva [ Italy ]; Paul Van Himst [ Belgium ]; Ruud Krol [ Netherlands ]; and Beckenbauer, Vogts and Netzer [ West Germany ].

Page two of the programme contains a message from the then Prime Minister, Edward Heath together with an overly large head and shoulders portrait of the man –although it looks suspiciously like Mike Yarwood [Google him if you must].The message is then repeated in French, German and Italian. Even the programme of music had a European flavour to it with the selections including ‘Ballet Parisienne’, ‘Copenhagen’ plus a medley from [ahem] ‘Cabaret!’

Goals from Denmark’s Henning Jensen and Colin Stein of Coventry City and Scotland gave The Three a 2-0 victory in front of a crowd of 36,500. The other Scot to play that evening was Peter Lorimer of Leeds United whose clubmate Billy Bremner was also listed in the programme but didn’t appear.

On 5th June 1975 Harold Wilson’s UK Government presided over our first in/out EU Referendum. The result was 67% voted to remain and 33% to leave. In Scotland the result was closer – 58% to 42%. Four days earlier the Scotland football team did their best to remain within Europe [or at least the Euro Championships] with a creditable 1-1 draw away to Romania with Gordon McQueen grabbing the equaliser one minute from time. Alas a home defeat to Spain six months previous would ultimately prevent us from reaching the last eight.

Leaving politics to the side, I’m a big fan of representative matches, so in 2023 when the SFA celebrates its 150th anniversary I’m looking forward to Scotland taking on a ‘Rest of the World’ select. Hopefully by then, we will be someone again. As ever [with most of this nonsense] remember that you read it here first….

Robert Marshall

Unlike Ferris Bueller, I’ve decided to forego June 5th as a day off to bring you some birthday greetings. Like May 23rd, June 5th is perhaps not the best day to be born if you’re hoping to have a good Scotland career, however, there is perhaps a silver lining on its way.
First of all Happy Birthday to Jim Brogan, ex-Celtic full back Jim will be 72 today. Jim played four times for Scotland and was never on a winning side. All of his appearances came in the final months of Bobby Brown’s tenure as Scotland Manager.
His first cap came in April 1971 in Scotland’s second game of the 1972 Euro Nations Qualifiers. By this point Scotland had already lost to Belgium away (go figure) and now faced Portugal in Lisbon. Brown was struggling at times to field a full strength side due to the reluctance of the big English teams to release players; so increasingly his sides featured more and more home based players. Brogan made his debut at left back replacing his Celtic teammate Tommy Gemmell but with Celt David Hay at right back. Also making their debuts that night were David Robb of Aberdeen and from the subs bench Drew Jarvie of Airdrie would make an appearance. Scotland lost 2-0 through a Pat Stanton own goal and one from the legendary Eusebio.
Jim retained his place for the May Home Internationals, even with the return of players from Leeds United, Derby County and Arsenal, that started with a 0-0 draw down at Ninian Park , Cardiff against Wales. This was followed by a one nil defeat to Northern Ireland with John Greig scoring the only goal at the wrong end. Jim’s final game was against England at Wembley with John Greig partnering him on the right. A poor Scotland side lost 3-1 with Hugh Curran of Wolves providing the only bright spot for Scotland.
That was it for Jim as the likes of John Brownlie of Hibs and Sandy Jardine of Rangers began to make their mark in the team. Jim would of course play for Celtic for a few more years and then move on to Coventry City and briefly Ayr United. Interestingly, in an old issue of Shoot magazine form the early 1970’s they did a feature on things people don’t know about football players or something along those lines. For Jim, it was the fact he was reckoned to be a millionaire due to some wise investments in the hotel business. Happy Birthday Jim.

Also celebrating today is Andy McLaren who will be 43 today, a man with his demons but who has fought back from issues of abuse, drugs and alcohol and has now earned the respect of us all for his charity work A&M Scotland that uses football and coaching as a way of diverting young people from involvement in gangs and violence. Andy only ever gained one cap for Scotland and it came as a Kilmarnock player under Craig Brown in a 1-1 friendly draw away in Poland. Charlie Miller once said that he and Andy only really have one cap between them as Charlie played for the first 55 minutes of that game and Andy had come on at half time and would only play 45 minutes in total for his country.
Here’s to Andy; all the best and keep up the good work.

Mark Wilson is another one with a brief moment in the Scotland limelight and he will be celebrating his 32nd birthday today. Mark is one of those players that represented Scotland at all the Youth Levels gaining 19 caps at under 21 level and captaining the team as well and failed to progress to full International successfully. Fifteen of those caps came with Dundee United and the other four with Celtic. He would gain one cap in 2011 coming on in the 57th minute for Phil Bardsley in a Nations Cup game (remember that) in which Scotland were winning 3-0 thanks to goals from Kenny Miller, James MacArthur and Kris Commons against Northern Ireland. The final score would remain 3-0 in the Aviva Stadium, Dublin.
After leaving Celtic in May 2012, Mark has more or less drifted out the game and was seen playing for Dumbarton in 2015 before eventually announcing his retirement. Happy Birthday Mark.

So, overall June 5th not a great day for Scottish players to be born on, however there is one more player who will turn 19 today and will hopefully have a better Scotland career than those of the others put together. Kieran Tierney is the player in question and although he only has the one cap which involved a 45 minute run out against Denmark in the recent International; his displays last season with Celtic gives us all hope that in he will be a future Scotland star. If only he was a right back, instead of left where we seem to have a surfeit of good players.
Happy Birthday Kieran and all the best.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook, 4th June

Lou will be 67 today. Lou started out as a Celtic player and was one of the so called ‘Quality Street Gang’ along with the likes of Kenny Dalglish, Danny McGrain and George Connelly. Lou would only play 58 League games with Celtic, winning six caps for Scotland during this time before going on to play for Manchester United and gaining another 18 caps for a total of 24.
His caps would come in stages from between 1972 to 1978. His first cap came under Tommy Docherty at Hampden, May 1972 against Wales coming on as a sub for Derby County’s John O’Hare in 56 minutes. Peter Lorimer would hit the game’s only goal sixteen minutes later.
Macari would keep his place for the England game a few days later which Scotland would lose one nil at Wembley. Following this in June, he played in all three games of the Brazilian independence Cup. Lou scored both Scotland’s goals in the opening match with Yugoslavia that ended in a 2-2 draw. Scotland would then go on to draw 0-0 with Czechoslovakia before losing 1-0 to hosts Brazil in their last match of the tournament.
Lou would play in the Scotland’s World Cup qualifying opener in Copenhagen in October ’72 and would score his third goal in six games after only 17 minutes; the perfect start to Scotland’s 1974 World Cup campaign. He was also vital in the third goal, back heeling the ball to allow Joe Harper to score. Scotland won 4-1.
It would be February 1973 before he would play again and circumstances had changed somewhat. Lou was now a Manchester United player with Tommy Docherty as his manager. Willie Ormond was now in charge of the Scotland team and gave Lou a starting berth in his first game in charge. Unlike a few from that first game Lou was not dropped by Ormond following the 5-0 mauling by England and played in Willie’s first four games in charge. The 1973 Home internationals were quite poor for Scotland with only a victory over Wales followed by narrow defeats to both Northern Ireland and England.
The 1974 World Cup would come and go without Lou’s inclusion and indeed it would be April 1975 before he was back in the team for a friendly against Sweden in Gothenburg. Lou would play the first 54 minutes before being replaced by Derek Johnstone of Rangers. The game would end 1-1 with Ted MacDougall of Norwich City bagging Scotland’s goal in the 86th minute.
Lou would then be involved for the next five games which would see Scotland play five games in a spell of 20 days; two wins, two draws and a goddamn awful defeat would be the net result starting with a 1-0 victory over Portugal at Hampden on May 13th in a needless friendly. The 17th and the 20th would see a 2-2 draw with Wales followed by a resounding 3-0 win over Northern Ireland. May 24th proved to be Stewart Kennedy’s last game in goals for Scotland and if you don’t why; google it!
The final game of the quintet was a European Championship Qualifier against Romania on June 1st. Thanks to a late Gordon McQueen goal Scotland came away with a credible 1-1 draw but by then any chance of qualifying was over.
Once more Lou was exiled to the International Wilderness but would return for Ally MacLeod’s second game in charge as a 69th minute sub for Joe Jordan as Scotland took on Northern Ireland at home. Scotland would win rather convincingly 3-0 and then it was onto Wembley ’77.
Although, Lou would not start he would come on for an injured Joe Jordan moments after Scotland had went into the lead through Gordon McQueen at the end of the first half. Lou would have a part to play in the second goal as his mistimed flick allowed the ball to slip through to Dalglish who would scrape the ball into the net. Scotland would win 2-1 and bedlam would follow as the fans invaded the pitch.
With Jordan out, Lou then found himself as part of Ally MacLeod’s team for the 1977 tour of South America. Once more Lou would hit a brace in the opening game on that continent, as Scotland beat Chile 4-2, a 1-1 draw with Argentina and 2-0 defeat to Brazil in the Maracana would follow.
Lou would not feature in the 3-1 World Cup Qualifier win over Czechoslovakia but would do so for the game at Anfield in October against Wales which saw Scotland win 2-0 and qualify for Argentina.
Lou did not feature in Scotland’s poor 1978 Home internationals but would return for the first game of the Scotland’s World Cup in Cordoba, Argentina, coming on for Bruce Rioch as part of a double substitution with Archie Gemmill replacing Don Masson as Scotland were struggling to get to grip with the skill of Peru having just lost a second goal.
Lou’s last Scotland game would be a few days later as they floundered to a 1-1 draw with Iran.
There has been a lot written about Scotland’s failure in the World Cup and Macari has often been quoted as one of the bad guys as he was doing some of the complaining about the SFA’s and MacLeod’s lack of preparedness going into the World Cup and also some of the rumblings over financial payments for players. The thing is; a lot of his statements were fact. Scotland’s living arrangements were a farce despite having been in Argentina the year before; MacLeod did not check out Peru or indeed Iran before the World Cup, so had no real idea of their play and as to the finances; the 1974 World Cup was also blighted by this and the SFA still hadn’t learnt four years later.
Lou would of course go on to play just over 400 games for Manchester United before leaving in 1984 and moving on to Swindon Town where he would eventually take his first step into management.
Happy Birthday Lou and all the best.

David Stuart