Last Thursday whilst Scotland were doing the business in Prague I was at the Georgis Karaiskakis stadium in Piraeus,Athens to see Greece beat Montenegro 2-1 in another friendly international. It was all to do with having a son who is more interested in Minotaurs and Gorgons than the likes of Scott Brown and Robert Snodgrass.
Anyway, time for some comparisons with Scotland. Greece were of course European Champions as recently as 2004 and at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil they reached the last 16 where they lost on penalties to Costa Rica. The Euro 2016 qualifying campaign was an out and out disaster however for the Sons of Zeus [and St. Andrew]. Greece finished bottom of Group F [that was won by Northern Ireland] and lost both home and away to the Faroe Islands with the first defeat resulting in the sacking of Head Coach Claudio Ranieri. Apparently the thoroughly embarrassed Greeks wanted Ranieri sent to Coventry but he ended up at Leicester instead. Boom! Boom!
Greek supporters [unlike Scotland supporters] don’t appear to be very good at dealing with failure with crowds disappearing faster than Golden Fleeces at the Barras so for the friendly against Montenegro tickets were priced at 5 and 10 Euros. In order to purchase a ticket I had to produce photographic ID before a bespoke ticket was printed with my name on it. There were no programmes on sale but then again what would have been the point as it would have been all Greek [and Montenegran] to me. Sorry….
Despite the low priced tickets the attendance appeared to be less than 10,000. Only two sides of the 33,000 capacity stadium were open with the stands behind the goals closed-off. I do seem to recall however that certain Scotland games at Hampden have seen stands closed due to expected low crowds eg versus Lithuania in an October 1999 Euro qualifier when the official attendance was 22,059. Scotland won 3-0 and then went on to meet England in the play-offs.
Back to Piraeus and I managed to get a beer [well, Amstel Lager] inside the stadium which although 5-starred in UEFA’s eyes is only middle-sized in terms of capacity. Ironically, it is the kind of middle-sized stadium that Scotland is short of.
The game was like most friendlies – played at a tempo just above ‘training ground level’ but it was entertaining as were the two rival drummers who did their best to encourage some chanting and singing from the small crowd. One drummer was also able to call upon the ‘assistance’ of a trumpeter. Louis Armstrong, he wasn’t!
Scotland last played Greece in August 1995 in a Euro qualifier at Hampden which we won 1-0 thanks to a goal from Ally McCoist. Gary McAllister of Leeds United was the skipper that day whilst Celtic’s Tosh McKinlay made his debut.
Scotland have yet to meet the former Yugoslav republic of Montenegro [aka The Brave Falcons] who play in those most revered of colours – red and yellow. Full membership of UEFA was only granted in January 2007 following the independence of Montenegro from Serbia & Montenegro. Independence? Now I wonder what that feels like.
Ronnie will turn 65 today. If there’s a time to make your debut for Scotland, maybe it’s best it’s not the Managers last game in charge; just ask Bobby Watson, Joe Craig and similarly Steven Hammell, Murray Davidson, Liam Kelly and Andrew Shinnie; although in the case of the last few, it was the Manager’s first and last game in charge (Tommy Burns and Billy Stark).
This fate was also visited upon Ronnie Glavin. Ronnie was the last of five players from Partick Thistle’s 1971 League Cup winning side to be capped but would do so as a Celtic player.
It would be Willie Ormond who picked Ronnie for his one and only cap in April, 1977.
Scotland took on Sweden in a friendly at Hampden and Ronnie played the first 50 minutes before being replaced by Sandy Jardine. Scotland would win 3-1 with goals from Asa Hartford, Kenny Dalglish and scoring with his first touch and in his last game for Scotland; Joe Craig of Celtic. There was good news for one debutant that night as David Narey would win 35 caps although none would be won under Ally MacLeod, the incoming manager.
So that was it for Ronnie who would soon move to Barnsley and earn legendary status at Oakwell. Only one cap but a legend for two teams, Thistle and Barnsley, so not too shabby at all as not too many players get their own T-shirt.
Ian Wilson will turn 58 today. Midfielder Ian was capped five times by Andy Roxburgh in the late 80’s. Unusually, Ian played the full ninety minutes in each of his games and was also part of a Scotland team that beat Belgium only to disappear from the International scene altogether.
Ian first came to prominence as part of a decent Leicester City team in the eighties. He was thrown in at the deep end in his first game as he was picked to start against England at Hampden on May 23rd, 1987. Scotland lined up with Wilson, Roy Aitken, Paul McStay and Aberdeen player Neil Simpson winning one of his five caps in midfield. The teams played a non-score total bore draw.
Next up, was Brazil a few days later, which Scotland lost 2-0 with goals from Rai and Valdo.
October, 1987 and it was Euro Qualifier action against Belgium at Hampden, which for a change Scotland actually won. Goal heroes that night were Ally McCoist and Paul McStay. By this time Ian had become an Everton player.
Scotland had a poor start to their campaign and were already out of the reckoning by the time Gary MacKay popped up to score the winner in Sofia, Bulgaria to send the Republic of Ireland to their first ever Tournament Finals and Gary into Irish folklore.
Ian’s last game came in an extremely poor Scotland performance as they played out a nil nil draw in Luxembourg but then again Graeme Sharp was played up front.
So that was it for Ian; five caps and then no more. It would seem his club form began to suffer and indeed he is not remembered too fondly by Everton fans who thought he was rank. Ian would then move on to Besiktas for a successful season, winning the Turkish League and Cup with them before moving on to Derby, Bury, Wigan and finishing up at Peterhead, whom he would manage on three separate occasions.
Ian now runs soccer camps in the Aberdeen area. Happy Birthday Ian and all the best.
(As to the photo not sure why Orbis felt to include him in their sticker set for Italia ’90, the sticker is taken from our Cards & Sticker section on the Scotland Epistles website)
This picture I bought at the same time as the Under-23 one from the other day. This is the full squad for a game a couple of months later against Peru at Hampden in April, 1972. The biggest talking point was the return of Denis Law after years out in the International Wilderness returning to the Scotland side at the age of 32. According to the Evening Times, Denis ran the show, not only with his skill but with his enthusiasm and drive, encouraging more out of the Scottish players than they thought possible. Scotland won 2-0 with Denis scoring the second goal and John O’Hare providing the first.
As to Peru, they apparently had some good players among those highlighted by Malcolm Munro in the Evening Times was one Juan Munante and also Teofilo Cubillas. Cubillas has enthralled the crowd with his ball skills; “ he had the crowd going when at top speed he raced upfield, juggling the ball with his knees – not because he particularly wanted to but because that was the way the ball was bouncing”. One to look out for that guy and as well as the two mentioned Hector Chumpitaz also played at Hampden in 1972 that night. All three played in Argentina but Chumpitaz would also return to Hampden in September, 1979 as the teams played out a 1-1 draw.
Remarkably Asa Hartford was given his Scotland debut that night and he too would face the Peruvians three times. Also, playing their first games were Killie goalkeeper Ally Hunter and Willie Donachie. The unlucky ones, in this photo are once more Ian Phillip and Firhill legend Denis McQuade as they were the only two never to be capped by Scotland at full International level.
The Scotland team that night were; Ally Hunter, John Brownlie, Willie Donachie, Willie Carr, Eddie Colquhoun, Bobby Moncur, Willie Morgan, Asa Hartford, John O’Hare, Denis Law and Archie Gemmill. Unusually there were no subs used by Scotland.
As for Gemmill and O’Hare’s club team Derby County; they played the second leg of their Texaco Cup Final against Airdrie that night too. Derby won 2-1 but there was some controversy; apparently Derby goalkeeper Boulton clearly punched Drew Jarvie and was actually spoken to by the referee and still allowed to play on, further to that there was a dodgy penalty decision. Scotland League Secretary Tommy Maule was demanding that in future the referees for the finals be neutral. Despite these comments the referee Mr. Jack Taylor would go on to be one of the most famous refs in history for giving Holland a penalty in the first minute of the 1974 World Cup Final.
Happy Birthday to Archie Gemmill who will be 69 today. Archie is of course forever in our hearts for transcending the mire that was the 1978 World Cup campaign with a moment of glory that most of us can relive in our heads verbatim, imagining every twist and turn as he weaves his way through the Dutch defence and curls the ball past Jongbloed. If that was not enough, he then remembers he’s a wee man from Paisley and not a World Superstar and so raises his arm defiantly with no excessive show, whereas the rest of us would have ran for at least half an hour with our taps aff proclaiming ourselves a Demigod. Not Archie, he knew there was a job to do, so no fuss let’s get on with it. Unfortunately, it didn’t pan out that way.
Archie was actually first capped in 1971 under Bobby Brown and would go on to play for Tommy Docherty, Willie Ormond, Ally Macleod and Jock Stein gaining 43 caps in the process in a ten year Scotland career, scoring eight goals.
It didn’t start too well among the mud of Flanders Field, Belgium or rather the mudbath of Stade Sclessin, Liege in February, 1971 on a pitch that was more a swamp than anything. Scotland lost 3-0 in the second game of their Euro Qualifiers. Brown would pick a lot of players in his last few months as manager but as for Archie, he was left out until Docherty’s first game in charge v Portugal in October ’71. Scotland won 2-1 with goals from Derby teammate John O’Hare and Archie himself.
His next game was a friendly against the Netherlands or Holland as we would have called them back then. Scotland got beat 2-1 in Amsterdam. It was the only time that the late Johan Cryuff played against Scotland and he scored the opening goal after 5 minutes.
Archie played a few more games for Docherty including 1-0 defeat to England at Hampden in ’71 but Brian Clough’s reluctance to let him travel to Brazil for the Independence Cup meant he was temporarily shelved for a few years. The World Cup ’74 came and went without him but Archie had at least, won two English League Championships with Derby in the meantime.
October, 1975 saw him back in the team lining up in midfield with his Derby teammate Bruce Rioch as Scotland beat Denmark 3-1 in a Euro Qualifier.
Archie was named as Captain by Willie Ormond for the 1976 Home Internationals, the position had been vacated by Billy Bremner following his ban in late ’75 after the Copenhagen farce. Scotland had a Grand Slam that year beating Wales (3-1), Northern Ireland (3-0) and England (2-1) all at Hampden with Archie getting among the goals in the Irish game. This was a purple patch for Scotland with Archie, Rioch and Don Masson firing on all guns.
Ally MacLeod would come in and Archie would once more find himself sidelined with Rioch being given the Captaincy and Asa Hartford regularly being chosen ahead of him. By the start of 1978, he was a Nottingham Forest player and although he captained the side on occasion it was only in Rioch’s absence. Archie would win the 1977-’78 English First Division and indeed would score the Match of the Day goal that season too.
Argentina ’78 and Archie was left out of the opening game against Peru, however with things having gone pear-shaped with Peru firing into a 2-1 lead, Masson and Rioch were hoisted off and Arche and Lou Macari brought on.
Archie was made captain for the Iran game but even his drive and desire could not raise the Scots game after the shock of defeat to Peru. It is always worth remembering that Scotland were the third seeds for our group that year but even with that, they were still expected to beat Iran. As we are taught in history in Tartan Army school we slumped to a 1-1 draw.
Rioch was back in for the last group game against the Netherlands to captain the side but Archie kept his place and immortality awaited him but before that he did have to hit a penalty to give the Scots a 2-1 lead just after half time and the rest as they say is history.
Jock Stein would make Gemmill his Captain and in his very first game he repaid Jock for this by calmly slotting away another penalty in the 87th minute as Scotland narrowly beat Norway 3-2 at Hampden in October 1978. Results under Jock Stein were generally quite inconsistent with defeats outnumbering the wins and by October ’79 Archie was now playing with Birmingham City
Scotland finished their 1980 Euro campaign with a 1-1 draw with Austria at Hampden with Archie scoring the only goal, followed by two defeats to Belgium and then a 4-1 defeat of Portugal at home with Archie once more hitting a penalty. Archie continued to be part of Jock Stein’s plans for the World Cup Qualifying campaign towards Spain in 1982. He would play in the opening campaign win in Stockholm, Sweden with Gordon Strachan playing a one two with Archie to net the only goal.
Archie would also play in the 0-0 game with Portugal at Hampden, then the 1-0 precious away victory over Israel in Tel Aviv.
His final game for Scotland would be the 1-1 draw with Northern Ireland in the World Cup campaign in front of a 78,444 crowd in March 1981.
Archie would play for another few years including stints at Wigan and the Jacksonville Tea Men before returning to Derby for a final spell.
His son Scot would play for Scotland too and indeed would be a non-playing squad member at the Euros ’96 and World Cup ’98.
Archie would coach the Scotland Under-19 team to second place in the 2006 Under 20 European Championships and with that qualification for the Under-20 World Cup in Canada in 2007.
So Happy Birthday Archie and all the best.
This is a cracking photo of Tommy Docherty’s Under 23 squad before a game against Wales at Pittodrie in January 1972. Many of squad would go on to full Internationals honours with the likes of Dalglish, Brownlie, Jardine, Buchan and Hansen all capped before this. Indeed, Alex Cropley’s full International career was already over, having won his only two caps in the months before.
It is also noticeable that this is only three months after Partick Thistle beat Celtic 4-1 in the League Cup Final as four Thistle players are present; Alan Rough, John Hansen, Jimmy Bone and Denis McQuade. Only McQuade would fail to represent Scotland at Full International level of those three but of the others Iain Phillip of Dundee, Ally Brown of Leicester and soon to be West Brom and John McGovern, then of Derby but in years to come a man who lifted the European Cup twice also never made to the higher level.
Here’s how Tommy rated his squad;
As to the game, the line-up was as follows: Ally Hunter (Kilmarnock), John Brownlie (Hibs), Willie Donnachie (Manchester City), Sandy Jardine (Rangers), Willie Young (Aberdeen), Martin Buchan (Aberdeen), John McGovern (Derby County), Lou Macari (Celtic), Jimmy Bone (Partick Thistle), Kenny Dalglish (Celtic) and Alex Cropley (Hibs). Denis McQuade would replace McGovern in the second half.
Scotland would win 2-0 with Sandy Jardine scoring the first and the second is officially credited to Denis McQuade scoring from an inswinging corner. However, rather bizarrely Welsh defender Terry Yorath claimed that Lou Macari had gotten a final touch to it with his hand. As if any Scotsmen would raise his arm in the area to hit the ball!
As a side note, looking up the Evening Times from the day after, there was also a report on Airdrie’s Texaco Cup match with Derby County at Broomfield, which ended goalless despite an excellent display by one Archie Gemmill.
Finally there is a report on the new World Cup, which will be ready for World Cup in 1974 at a total cost of . . . £7690 or $20,000.
Okay, when I first posted this on Facebook I guessed some of the players wrong but hey I’m not perfect and I wasn’t born then.
From April ’62 after Scotland beat England 2-0 in front of a crowd of 132,431 at Hampden. Left to right; Pat Crerand, Eric Caldow (maybe), Alex Hamilton, Billy McNeill, Alex Scott, Denis Law and Ian St. John.
Of course, it wasn’t Caldow and it wasn’t Denis Law but then again I never had this view (thanks to Douglas Kenney for the photos below). If I did I would have known it was John White (in White) and Davie Wilson between Scott and St. John.
Five years ago on March 27th, 2011 Scotland faced Brazil in a friendly at the Emirates Stadium with Craig Levein in charge. Oh how things have changed since then. In the starting line-up Scotland had seven players who played regularly in the English Premier League, one who played in Turkey, two from Rangers and a lone Celt. Starting that day were; Allan McGregor (Rangers), Alan Hutton (Tottenham Hotspur), Stephen Crainey (Blackpool), Christophe Berra (Wolves), Gary Caldwell (Wigan), Steven Whittaker (Rangers), Charlie Adam (Blackpool), Scott Brown (Celtic), Kenny Miller (Bursapor . . . God, I had forgotten that one.), James Morrison (West Brom) and James McArthur (Wigan).
Despite this, Scotland were never really in contention during the game and always seemed one or two steps behind the Brazilians. Brazilian teenage sensation Neymar would score both goals but there would be some after match controversy over him.
During the game Neymar was rounded on by Scots fans for his playacting each time a Scottish player went near him. There was also a banana thrown on to the field. This led to claims that the Scottish had been racist and led to a few of the Brazilian players speaking out. The truth of the matter was that Neymar had infuriated the fans with his antics and deserved to be booed at; as for the banana; this was thrown by a German tourist in the home fans end i.e. from the Brazilian fan area.
Given this was a friendly Scotland used six subs during the course of the game with among them Robert Snodgrass of Leeds United making his second appearance for Scotland and making his debut from the Mighty Peterborough United, Craig Mackail-Smith. Craig at the time was freely scoring for the Posh to deserve his inclusion. However, like James Mackie, he never really shone enough to suggest he had the class to become an International striker but he was quite a bustling hard working striker and never gave the opposition a moment’s rest. He does deserve recognition for one thing; Liechtenstein 0 Scotland 1. Can you imagine the embarrassment had he never scored?
Ten Years Ago . . .
Ten Years Ago on March 1st, 2006 Walter Smith was in charge of the Scotland team as we played a friendly against Switzerland at Hampden. Did we get beat? Of course, we did, 3-1. I don’t know about you but for the last twenty years all the friendlies at Hampden seem to have merged into one with Scotland continuously getting stuffed. I know there were some victories but a lot of them seemed to happen away from the National Stadium at places like Easter Road and Pittodrie and even though Strachan’s record in these types of games isn’t too bad it still doesn’t comfort as you contemplate heading up to Hampden next Tuesday night. Of course, if you head up you might be able to purchase a copy of the latest Epistles mag; if you can spot me and Robert selling them in some sheltered part of the Hampden approaches but that’s another story for another time.
Anyway back to the Swiss game. Scotland fielded quite an experienced side with Nigel Quashie being the least experienced with only twelve caps to his name. The team was as follows; Craig Gordon (Hearts), Christian Dailly (West Ham), Graham Alexander (Preston North End), David Weir (Everton), Andy Webster (Hearts), Barry Ferguson (Rangers), Darren Fletcher (Manchester United), Gary Caldwell (Hibs), Kenny Miller (Wolves), Quashie (West Brom) and James McFadden (Everton). Eight of these players would play in the famous win against France at Hampden in October that year.
However, on this night it was the Swiss who took the lead with first half goals from Barnetta and Gygax. Smith would make his only changes at half time, which given how ridiculous some friendlies can be with substitutions, has to be applauded with Neil Alexander of Cardiff and Gary Teale of Wigan coming on for their debuts, as well as Stephen Caldwell then of Sunderland making an appearance.
Kenny Miller would pull one back in the 54th minute but a goal fourteen minutes later from Cabanas would seal for the Swiss.
Here’s hoping next year or whenever it is, UEFA brings in their plans for friendlies to be part of a UEFA League of Nations we start to see better games and performances form a Scotland team.
Neil Alexander Of Cardiff City
Fifteen Years Ago . . .
Well if you thought five and ten years ago were miserable, it was worse than that fifteen years ago particularly at 16.50hrs on March 24th as Scotland lost a 92nd minute goal to feckin’ Belgium!! It had all started so well in Scotland’s 4th game of the 2002 World Cup Qualifying campaign.
Scotland had already picked up away points with two wins in Latvia and San Marino and a credible draw in Croatia. A crowd of 37,480 turned up to watch Scotland play the first home game of the campaign and most were barely seated when Billy Dodds put Scotland into the lead with only two minutes on the clock.
Things were to get better in the 29th minute as Dodds doubled the lead from the penalty spot after Deflandre handled on the goal line but 13 minutes after the restart Wilmots brought the Belgians back into it and worse was to follows in the 92nd minute Van Buyten equalised. Croatia would go on to win the group but it was Belgium who progressed through to the play offs and this game would pivotal to that with Belgium finishing two points ahead of Scotland.
The team that broke our hearts that day were Neil Sullivan (Tottenham Hotspur), David` Weir (Everton), Matt Elliott (Leicester City), Colin Hendry (Bolton Wanderers), Tom Boyd (Celtic), Craig Burley (Derby County), Barry Ferguson (Rangers), Paul Lambert (Celtic), Dominic Matteo (Leeds United), Don Hutchison (Sunderland) and Billy Dodds (Rangers).
A few days later on March, 28th Scotland beat San Marino 4-0 with almost the same team. Colin Hendry would score two goals but a retrospective six game ban for elbowing an opponent would end his Scotland career prematurely. Dodds and Colin Cameron of Hearts scored the other two.
Of course, worse was to follow as Craig Brown quit after the failure to qualify and left us in the mire of the Vogts years.
Twenty Years Ago . . .
And a victory at last as Scotland beat Australia 1-0 at Hampden in a friendly. Scotland had qualified for the Euros 96 to be held in England and were beginning their regime of friendlies to get them ready for the competition. However, does it seem strange to anyone else that to get us ready to face the best teams in Europe, Scotland would play Australia, USA and Colombia?
Craig Brown would dish out one new cap on March, 27th 1996 to Celtic’s Brian O’Neill. Brian would only gain seven caps in his time and the last one would come under Walter Smith in 2005 as a Preston North End player; the five in between would be as a Wolfsburg player.
20,608 fans turned up to see Scotland line up as; Jim Leighton (Hibernian), Brian O’Neill (Celtic), Colin Hendry (Blackburn Rovers), Tom Boyd (Celtic), Craig Burley (Chelsea), Gary McAllister (Leeds United), Paul McStay (Celtic), Billy McKinlay (Blackburn Rovers), John Collins (Celtic), John Spencer (Chelsea) and winning his fiftieth cap and captain for the night; Ally McCoist of Rangers.
Given it was Super Ally, is it any surprise that it was he that scored the only goal of the game in the 53rd minute. Ally would be replaced in the 80th minute by Pat Nevin who would be making his 28th and final appearance in a Scotland jersey. Pat was a Tranmere Rovers player at the time and it surprised me when I looked it up that 14 of his caps came as a Rovers player with 8 and 6 coming as an Everton and Chelsea player respectively.
As for the other warm ups; Scotland got beat by Denmark 2-0 in Copenhagen; 2-1 in New Britain to the US and 1-0 by Colombia in Miami. Not the pre-tournament confidence builders them.
The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine 