The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

First posted on Facebook on April 23rd, 2016

Happy Birthday to Andy Webster who will be 34 today.
Andy began his career at Arbroath and from there he moved to Hearts for £75,000 in 2001 and became an important player for the Jambos in the following years so much so that Berti Vogts gave him his International debut on April 3rd, 2003. Of course at this point Berti would give debuts to a lot of players, even if they were ballboys for the likes of Newcastle, Chelsea and others.
With it being a home friendly under Berti, Scotland got beat 2-0 at Hampden by Austria. However, Andy would win his third cap playing against Germany in a Euro Qualifier at Hampden a few months later in early June. On a glorious sunny day, Scotland gave a good account of themselves with the game ending in a 1-1 with Kenny Miller scoring.
This draw was achieved despite the handicap of playing with the likes of Rab Douglas in goal, Maurice Ross in defence and other ordinary players like Paul Devlin and Stevie Crawford in the mix. He would then go on to play the next two games a nil nil draw with Norway in a friendly in and a 3-1 win over the Faroes. However, he would then miss a few games and returned to the side after the mauling in the Netherlands in the Euro play-offs.
By the time of Berti’s long overdue departure as manager Andy had earned 13 caps in total. Walter Smith would continue to use him and Andy gained 22 caps by 2006. In November, 2005 Andy scored his only Scotland goal in a 1-1 draw with the USA at Hampden.
However, at this point he wanted a move from Hearts despite there being a year still to go on his four year contract. After, a protracted period of dispute, he did eventually get a move to Wigan and here the story takes a turn for the worse as he only ever played four times for Wigan before moving on loan to Rangers within months. Again, this move was disputed by Hearts; again this was overruled. Many Hearts fans and officials really believe the move was always on and that the move to Wigan was a ploy to get him to Rangers. However, this is where the curse of Berti comes in. I have often stated that it is remarkable the number of players first capped by Berti, whose career’s have went down the toilet mainly due to injury (Lee Wilkie, John Kennedy, Peter Canero etc.), even sometimes on a temporary basis (Craig Gordon, Darren Fletcher etc.) and indeed Andy would be one of those. In his years with Rangers due to injury he only ever played a couple of games and had loan spells at Bristol City and Dundee United before returning to Hearts again.
Craig Levein would bring Andy back into the Scotland fold when he was with Dundee United in March 2010 playing in his first game in charge; a 1-0 friendly victory over the Czech Republic. However, cap 24 came as a Hearts player and would come in the embarrassing 5-1 defeat to the USA in Florida. He would gain his 28th and final cap against Estonia in Gordon’s Strachan’s first game in charge in February, 2013.
Andy currently plays at St. Mirren and we wish him all the best on his birthday.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook on April 22nd, 2016

Ex-Dundee United and Blackburn player Billy will 47 today. Billy earned his first cap for Scotland in 1993 against Malta, one of only three players who have been capped for Scotland while playing in the First Division that was. His fellow Dundee United player David Bowman will be another and I suspect Alan Rough could be the third but I could be wrong.
Anyway, Billy scored within fifteen minutes of starting in his debut game against Malta in the Ta’Qali Stadium in Valletta in November, 1993. Colin Hendry scored late in the second half to give Scotland one of their very few wins in the 1994 World Cup campaign.
Rather bizarrely, Billy’s other three goals would be accompanied by John McGinlay of Bolton also scoring in the same game. There first double was in a friendly in Vienna which Scotland beat Austria 2-1 with McGinlay and then McKinlay bagging goals either side of half time.
Then in October, 1994 in a game against the Faroes as Scotland won 5-1 in a Euro Qualifier. Scott Booth and John Collins with a double, were the other scorers that night at Hampden. Their final double came against the Faroes in Toftir in June 1995 as they hit a first half double inside the first thirty minutes to win the tie. Billy would win 15 caps as a Blackburn Rovers player and 14 as a Dundee United one but never scored as a Rovers player.
Billy is also quite unique in having come on as sub in our opening games of Euro ’96 v Netherlands and then France ’98 v Brasil and not featured again in either of the tournaments. Sadly Billy also succumbed to that dye your hair peroxide blonde fad in ’98. Who can forget Craig Burley scoring against Norway in France, only to think he was a superstar by getting his hair dyed blonde for the Morocco game and to play like a complete fud? Although in fairness to Craig he wasn’t the only one.
Happy Birthday Billy and I hope it’s not too cold in Norway at the moment where you are the manager of Stabaek. All the best.

First posted on Facebook on April 20th, 2016

Happy Birthday to Lee Wilkie who will be 36 today. It’s always rather sad to be wishing Happy Birthday to someone who should with all things being equal still be playing football but Lee retired as he was just hitting the age of thirty.
He may not have been the greatest Centre Half that ever played for Scotland but during those dark days of insipidity that Berti reigned over Scotland, you always got the feeling that here was a fan that got lucky, someone who gave his all for the dark blue of Scotland.
Lee would gain eleven Scotland caps and all would come under Berti Vogts and as a Dundee player. He was first capped during a tour of the Far East, no not Leith or even Prestonpans but the actual Far East i.e. Hong Kong. Lee came on as a sub in a game against World Cup bound South Africa in May 2002 in the Happy Valley district of Hong Kong in the Reunification Cup. Scotland lost 2-0. However, Lee played the full game against a Hong Kong League Select a few days later as the Scots romped home 4-0. Yep, Jackie Chan, Hong Kong Phooey and several other people we gave your boys a hell of a beating.
He would then go on to play against Iceland in the second of our 2004 Euro Qualifiers in October, 2002 with fellow defenders Christian Dailly and Gary Naysmith scoring the goals in a 2-0 win for Scotland.
A couple of friendlies ensued including one in Portugal in an absolute downpour which perhaps should’ve been abandoned and saw a drenched Scotland lose 2-0 in Lisbon.
Lee scored his only Scotland goal when winning his sixth cap against Iceland in March, 2003 and a winning goal it proved to be as he popped up in the Icelandic penalty to header a Christian Dailly cross in to give Scotland a 2-1 lead. (Check the page as I will post it soon after posting this).
A Euro Qualifier defeat followed to Lithuania in Kaunas and a home friendly defeat to Austria followed a month or so later. Lee would also play on the home victory over the Faroes at the start of season 2003-’04.
Lee’s final two Scotland games are the epitome of the greatest highs of supporting Scotland and the lowest of lows. To be honest we had struggled through our qualifying group for Euro 2004 but we were seeded second and that’s where we ended up. What we wouldn’t have given to have Iceland, Lithuania and the Faroes in our group last year alongside Germany.
And so we made the play-offs and only the Netherlands stood in our way. The excitement that first game gave to the nation and the injection of hope as Darren Fletcher and James McFadden engineered that goal that gave us a one nil lead in the tie almost bordered on euphoric.
The come down from the humiliating defeat a few days still permeates the air every time we play a ‘big team’ it seems. The 6-0 defeat was to be Lee’s last game for Scotland as he and a whole bunch of others were found wanting to say the least.
Lee would suffer from injuries over the next few years which would hamper any return to Scotland duty, even though it looked at one point as a Dundee United player he might be given the chance.
So Happy Birthday to Big Lee and all the best.

David Stuart

When Ikechi Anya and Matt Ritchie scored their goals in Scotland’s recent friendlies it elevated them from something like 115th equal top goalscorer for Scotland from 155th give or take a digit or two.
With two goals they shared company with the likes of Aberdeen foursome Joe Harper, Duncan Shearer, Mark McGhee and Eoin Jess and Motherwell legend Willie Pettigrew. A couple of gingers with prime doubles; Chris Burke in the Kirin Cup game against Bulgaria and David Hopkin a fine double against Belarus up at Pittodrie.
Then there was former Manager Willie Ormond, Big Jim Holton and Off the Ball legend Tommy Ring of Clyde. Derek Johnstone who also only scored two goals, although both just before the World Cup in Argentina, one each against Wales and Northern Ireland in the Home Internationals. Brian McClair scored two as long as you don’t count his deflected effort against C.I.S. in the 1992 Euros as an own goal.
Finally in the current squad Ross McCormack and Charlie Mulgrew have two each. Of course there’s a whole wad of others but we can only list so many.
So now they are both up to three and there is some exalted company up on those heady heights. I must mention Henry Morris of East Fife who scored a hat-trick in his only game in the dark blue of Scotland in 1949 and was never picked again. Then, there is three Lisbon Lions among those with three; Stevie Chalmers, Bobby Lennox and Billy McNeill. From the other side of the Old Firm, Jim Baxter, John Greig and Barry Ferguson. That big diddy Alan McInally hit three as well and unfortunately two were right before our opening tie in the Italia ’90 World Cup which prompted Andy Roxburgh to pick him. Leeds legend Eddie Gray and absolute Leeds and Scotland legend Billy Bremner too. Another fearless captain Colin Hendry also hit three in his time.
The tragic John White also scored three as well as Arsenal’s George Graham, Man. United’s David Herd, Paul Sturrock of the Tangerines and Craig Burley too.
Current players Jordan Rhodes, Robert Snodgrass and Chrstophe Berra also have three goals.
Here’s hoping Ikechi and Matt soon join the rarefied air of four goals and into the top one hundred to sit alongside Souness, McAllister, Hartford, Lorimer, Scott Brown and others.

First posted on Facebook on 18th April, 2016

Eamonn Bannon will be 58 today. Eamonn was a skilful midfielder who played for Hearts (twice), Chelsea and Dundee United and gained all his caps whilst at Tannidice. His Scotland career spanned 7 years but only amounted to eleven caps in three separate blocks.
Eamonn was first capped by Jock Stein in December, 1979 playing in a Euro Championship Qualifier against Belgium in 1979. Scotland had already lost a few games in the qualifiers and were already well out of contention by this time. The Bloody Belgians had routed Scotland (as always it seems) with three goals in the first half before John Robertson of Notts Forest had scored a second half consolation goal, however, by half time Eamonn had been replaced by Davie Provan of Celtic.
It would be just under four years before Eamonn was chosen again by Jock. Season 1983-’84 saw Dundee United win the Scottish Premier League for the only time in their history and Eamonn had played a very big part in that and he would line up against Northern Ireland at Hampden in May ’83 with three of his triumphant teammates; Richard Gough, David Narey and Paul Hegarty who was captaining the side that day. The game ended in a nil nil draw but Eamonn was retained for the following game against Wales at Ninian Park a few days later. Scotland won 2-0 with goals from Andy Gray and Ally Brazil.
However, Wembley beckoned on the 1st June and saw Scotland perform poorly and lose 2-0 to England with Eamonn being replaced by Brazil in the second half.
This was followed by a tour of Canada which would see Scotland play the hosts three times in the space of a week. Eamonn would only feature in the first game which Scotland won 2-0 with goals from Gordon Strachan and Mark McGhee.
Bannon returned to the side in November 1983 at the Kurt Wabbel Stadion, Halle in East Germany, once again on Euro Qualifying duty. Scotland lost two first half goals which Billy Thomson should have perhaps done better with before Eamonn grabbed his only Scotland goal volleying in from a Frank McGarvey of Celtic cross.

Once more Eamonn was left out in the cold as such and it would be Alex Ferguson who would give him 7th cap with a starting berth against Israel in Tel Aviv in a pre-World Cup friendly in January 1986. Scotland won 1-0 thanks to a Paul McStay goal. Two months later and Bannon played once more; against Romania, which Scotland won 3-0 at Hampden with Strachan, Gough and Roy Aitken scoring the goals. By now Bannon was beginning to play his way into Ferguson’s plans for the World Cup and faced England once more at Wembley in April, 1986 and was once more to taste defeat as the Scots lost 2-1 with Souness scoring in the second half from the penalty spot.
World Cup 1986 in Mexico and although he wouldn’t start in the opening game against Denmark, Bannon would replace Strachan in the 74th minute as Scotland were chasing an equaliser after Elkjaer-Larsen’s goal in the 57th minute. Alas, it was not to be but Eamonn would be given a starting place in the next game as Scotland faced West Germany. Despite Gordon Strachan’s opening goal in the 18th minute and the pretend hoard jumping that followed Scotland would eventually lose 2-1 but Bannon would hit a wonderful free kick in the first half that Schumacher had to be smart to save. Davie Cooper would replace Eamonn in the 74th minute and this would be the last piece of action Eamonn would have, not only in the World Cup but as a Scotland player.
He would continue to play for United for a couple of more years before moving back to Hearts where he played a further five years. Eamonn was a great player who just seemed to stroll through games rather gracefully often bypassing opponents before they knew it and was also an excellent finisher.
Happy Birthday Eamonn and all the best

This summer of course marks the 50th anniversary of a truly great event – by that I mean the release of the album ‘Revolver’ by the Beatles. The Tay Road Bridge also opened that summer as did Glasgow’s Abbotsinch Airport. Oh all right then, and our best chums England won the FIFA World Cup by beating the former British, French and American sectors of a divided Germany by THREE goals to two.

The fiftieth anniversary [and associated celebrations] of England’s triumph now loom large on the horizon, however as I was but seven years old when they won the World Cup I don’t remember a thing about it. My earliest football match memories came ten months later in May 1967 when Celtic and Rangers played in the finals of the European Champions’ Clubs Cup and the European Cup Winners Cup. Sadly, I therefore have no recollection either of Scotland beating England 3-2 at Wembley in April 1967 and declaring ourselves unofficial World Champions.

Looking back at 1966 with a little help from my programme collection and it is interesting to see that on 2nd April that year Scotland ‘did their bit’ to help England prepare by ‘allowing’ the visitors to win 4-3 win at Hampden in the British Championship decider in front of an incredible crowd of 123,052. Celtic defender Tommy Gemmell made his international debut that day whilst clubmate Jinky Johnstone scored two of his four Scotland goals. The Lawman got the other one.

The match programme for the ‘British Final’ lists the pre-match entertainment which comprised massed Pipes and Drums, the Ayr Majorettes, a display by the Glasgow Keep-fit Movement and two track events- which included a one mile invitation race featuring Lachie Stewart and Ian McCafferty who would go on to win Gold and Silver medals for Scotland at the 1970 Commonwealth Games [10,000 and 5,000 metres] in Edinburgh. We don’t really need that perimeter track at Hampden now though, do we?
Scotland ’s usual tormentor, Jimmy Greaves, was not listed although Manchester United winger John Connelly played, both against Scotland and in the opening match of the World Cup Finals against Uruquay – his 20th and final game for England . Connelly was one of four England players to play in the tournament but not in the final itself. Connelly, along with all other squad players would eventually receive a World Cup winners medal in 2009 from the then Prime Minister [and Raith Rovers supporter] Gordon Brown.

In June 1966, Scotland then ‘helped-out’ two other World Cup hopefuls in the shape of games against Portugal and Brazil on two consecutive Saturday evenings [kick-off 7.30pm ]. Portugal would ultimately lose to England in the Semi-finals before beating the USSR to take third place. Defending Champions Brazil would fail to get beyond the group stages however, for although they defeated Bulgaria at Goodison Park, Liverpool they also lost to both Hungary and Portugal at the same stadium.
With regards to the Portugal game only 23,321 were in attendance to witness Eusebio and co win the game thanks to a goal from Jose Torres whilst Scotland gave debut caps to Willie Bell of Leeds United and Leicester City’s John Sinclair. According to the programme, the pre-match entertainment was to include the latter stages of the SFA Youth Final and both finalists’ starting elevens were duly listed and included Hamish McAlpine who would go on to attain cult status at Tannadice as well as 5 Scotland under-21 caps.

For the programme against Brazil there were no player pen-pics but some photographs, of Rildo, Dudu, Belini and Gerson plus one of Pele strumming an acoustic guitar!I thought the SFA President’s notes a tad disappointing. On the one hand he bemoans that ‘‘Teams very much inferior to Scotland have reached the World Cup Finals’’ whilst on the other hand he cowers ‘‘It is too much to hope that Scotland will win against Brazil .’’Arrogance AND an inferiority complex – that’s a neat trick.

As for the actual game – the first-ever meeting between the two sides- 74,933 saw Celtic’s Stevie Chalmers give Scotland the lead in the FIRST minute before a goal by Servilio in the 16th minute ensured that honours finished even. Celtic’s John Clark and Peter Cormack of Hibs made their Scotland debuts that evening.

Returning to the programme and again the twenty-two players who would contest the SFA Youth Final were listed along with an explanation that the previous week the match had been postponed due to heavy rain and the desire to have the pitch in good order for the international match itself. It may have been a lovely evening the night the World Champions came to town but I’m not convinced that subjecting the playing surface to a Youth Cup Final just before a match involving illustrious guests such as Portugal or Brazil was such a good idea in the first place. I’d love to know what the Groundsman’s thoughts on the matter were!

Anyway, both Brazil and Portugal subsequently headed south to Lancashire apparently none the worse for their visits to Hampden Park, and the 1966 World Cup finals duly kicked-off on Monday 11th July. The rest, as many of us north of the border would say, is both history and purgatory.
Robert Marshall

PS Spare a thought for people like Kevin Donnelly and Scott Kelly who live and work ‘behind enemy lines’ so to speak and who will get the full media brunt of Euro-overload and the 50th anniversary hoo-ha. Share the pain if it helps, comrades – we’re here for you

Good article Robert. Two things of note John Sinclair was generally known as Jackie Sinclair rather than John. John McHugh of Clyde on the back of his 1971/72 A&BC card is listed as “holding a degree as a Bachelor of Science and works in Edinburgh as a computer planner”. Can’t too many football players who can say that; a computer planner in 1971!

David Herd will be 82 today and perhaps is one of the forgotten men of Scottish football. David came from a footballing family as his father played for Manchester City and his Uncle Sandy was capped once for Scotland as Hearts player in the thirties. David gained five caps for Scotland from 1958 to 1961, whilst playing for Arsenal. His debut cap came in Scotland’s first game after the 1958 World Cup against Wales at Ninian Park. Scotland fielded four new caps that day in November, ’58 with John Grant of Hibs and Willie Toner of Kilmarnock making the first of both their two caps. The lad chosen to play upfront with Herd was none other than 18 year old Denis Law. Scotland won 3-0 with Denis bagging his first International goal with Graham Leggat and Bobby Collins supplying the other.
However, David would open his goals account in the next game as he scored the first v Northern Ireland in a 2-2 draw at Hampden in November with Bobby Collins supplying the other goal. He would play in the final game of the Home Internationals as Scotland lost 1-0 to England at Wembley in April, 1959.
David was left out of the Scotland set-up for two years and returned to the line-up after the disastrous 9-3 defeat at Wembley. David lined up alongside Ralph Brand of Rangers upfront against the Republic of Ireland at Hampden on World Cup duty in May 1961. Scotland won 4-1 with Brand hitting a first half double and Herd a second half one.
David would miss the second of a double header against the Irish 4 days later as the Scots won 3-0 with Brand scoring one and Everton’s Alex Young hitting a double. However, a week later he was back in the line-up as Scotland lost 4-0 to Czechoslovakia in their third World Cup tie in Bratislava. This would prove to be David’s last game for Scotland.
He would leave Arsenal in July 1961 having scored 107 goals for them in a seven year period and currently lies 15th in their all-time goal scorer list. So did David’s career take a nose-dive after leaving the Gunners; thus why he never gained another cap? It certainly did not.
Arsenal were not a particularly successful team in this period and David moved to Old Trafford. This is where David could be seen as the forgotten man of Scottish football. Scotland teams were generally built around Denis Law at this time and often the question would be who would play up front alongside of him. It does seem surprising that his Man. Utd, teammate was never chosen again.
David continued to score a lot of goals during his time at United. He scored two goals in the 1962-63 FA Cup final with Denis scoring the other as United won 3-1 over Leicester City. He would also be a big part of the Championship winning teams of 1964-65 and 1966-67. David would break a leg in March ’67 and like a lot of players from this era did not really recover from this. He would not feature in United’s European success and soon moved on to Stoke City. David scored a remarkable 145 goals in 265 games for Manchester United and is currently 13th on their all-time goal scoring list.
So Happy Birthday David and all the best.

David Stuart

Eddie McCreadie will celebrate his 76th birthday today. I suppose as a card collector it’s no surprise Eddie was one of my early heroes, as he was one of the Anglo cards in all the early cards series I collected. Although in saying that, so was Tommy Craig and he was never a hero for me.
Chelsea were one of the cool clubs at the tail end of the swingin’ sixties and Eddie along with Charlie Cooke made them one of my favourite teams at the time. The thing was Eddie always looked so mean in his pictures, never one to smile, he was more of a scowler.
Eddie played over 350 games for Chelsea and was signed by Tommy Docherty in 1962 for £5000 from East Stirling.
Eddie was first capped by Ian McColl in April 1965 against England at Wembley. The game was played in front of a crowd of 98,199 (Couldn’t possibly have been 98,200 then for God’s sake!). Scotland went two down in the first half but Denis Law scored just before half time and Ian St. John equalised just before the hour mark and that was how it remained. Having beaten England three times on the trot I imagine some in the Scotland camp were quite disappointed at this result.
Eddie would play in the next five games with Jock Stein taking over the reins a month later after McColl quit to manage Sunderland. The first three World Cup qualifiers came in this period; the first two away with a one each draw with Poland being followed with a 2-1 victory in Helsinki over Finland. Then came two defeats a 3-2 loss to Northern Ireland in the Home Internationals in Belfast followed by the disastrous 2-1 defeat to Poland at Hampden. Billy McNeill had given Scotland an early lead but two goals in the 84th and 86th minute saw Scotland’s hopes of qualifying for England 1966 crumble.
Eddie would miss the last gasp victory over Italy at Hampden but played in the 3-0 loss away to Italy in Naples. Stein would quit his caretaker role and Scotland had two managers in quick succession; John Prentice and Malcolm MacDonald. Prentice would bring in Tommy Gemmell for the left back spot and games became more limited for him until on Eddie’s 27th birthday new Manager Bobby Brown moved Gemmell to the right side and played them both. Eddie was 27 on 15th April, 1967 and Scotland beat England 3-2 in that match that will forever be embedded in Scottish football folklore.
McCreadie would play at Hampden the following year in the game against England that was the decider for Euro Nations Cup qualification, which Scotland drew 1-1 and thus failed to progress to the quarter finals.
McCreadie started in Scotland’s first four games for Qualification for Mexico 1970. They started well with a 2-1 victory over Austria at Hampden with Denis Law and Billy Bremner scoring for Scotland. This was followed by the 5-0 crushing of Cyprus in Nicosia with Alan Gilzean and Colin Stein grabbing doubles and Bobby Murdoch getting the other.
If Scotland had any real chance to progress they had to overcome World Cup Finalists West Germany and faced them at Hampden in April 1969. However, it was too big an ask and a Gerd Muller goal in 39th minute made it near impossible. Bobby Murdoch would pull one back in the final two minutes but it was not to be.
Scotland and Eddie had mixed fortunes for the Home International Series of 1969 with a 5-3 win over Wales in Cardiff, followed by a 1-1 draw with the Irish at Hampden and finally a crashing 4-1 defeat to England at Wembley.
Colin Stein the scorer of Scotland’s solitary goal that day was in the middle of a 5 game consecutive scoring run which is still a record for Scotland. Mo Johnston would do similar for Scotland in consecutive World Cup qualifiers in 1988 – ’89 but his failure to score in a friendly against Italy in late ’88 counts against him in terms of the record.
Of course, Colin would score four in the one game against Cyprus as Scotland cruised to an 8-0 victory at Hampden but for Eddie this would be his last Scotland game. He would continue to play for Chelsea for another four years before going into management at Stamford Bridge and then in America.
Happy 76th birthday Eddie and all the best.

David Stuart

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