The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

Denis Law ; A legend among legends.

Here is Denis and the team for his first and last ever Scotland games.

18th October, 1958. Wales v Scotland, Ninian Park, Cardiff
Jackie Henderson, Willie Toner, Bill Brown, John Grant, Eric Caldow, Tommy Docherty.
Graham Leggat, Bobby Collins, Dave MacKay, Denis Law and David Herd
Score; Wales 0 Scotland 3 (Leggat 30, Law 70, Collins 82)

On February 24th, it was Denis Law’s birthday and on our Facebook we posted a lot of images of Denis. Here are just some of them.

One of my favourite football cards sets is the Anglo Confectionery Set of 1968/69, which has players from big clubs such as Denis Law, Willie Morgan of Manchester United, Eddie McCreadie from Chelsea and others; it also has two players each from the Old Firm; Billy McNeill and Ronnie Simpson of Celtic and John Greig and Colin Stein. This is as far as I know the only Colin Stein football card in his Rangers strip that you would buy out of a packet; there is a Hornet Comic one too though.
As if that’s not enough, this set also has going for it; there’s only 84 cards in the set and they are still generally easy to collect but the really great thing is; it has players from really unfashionable teams such as Chester, Port Vale, Southport and Peterborough United and it is here there are some gems of Scotland players in perhaps what could be called the twilight of their careers.
Card #27 is of Alex Young, who I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. Alex played for Hearts and Everton, winning championships with both; after leaving Everton in 1968 he headed to Stockport where he would only play 23 times. Alex was capped by Scotland on 8 occasions scoring 5 goals.
Next up is card #29, which is of Bobby Collins. Bobby played for Celtic, Everton, Leeds among others and was capped by Scotland 31 times in a fifteen year period from 1950 – 1965, scoring ten goals in the process. For this set of cards, Bobby is with Bury but he would go on to play for Morton playing beyond his 40th birthday and he also makes it into the 1971/72 ABC purple back while playing for Morton.
Card #56 is Ralph Brand well known as a Rangers striker from the early 50’s to early 60’s winning the Scottish Championship six times. Brand would go on to play for Manchester City and then Sunderland where this card is from. Brand won 8 Scotland caps, scoring 8 goals.
Finally David Herd, card #62 in his Stoke City days. David had played coincidentally at Stockport before going on to Arsenal and then Manchester United. At Old Trafford he won the First Division twice and also the FA Cup in 1962-63 where he scored two goals in the Final. Herd played for Stoke for a couple of seasons and won 5 Scotland caps scoring 3 goals.
In terms of Scotland games they have amassed a total of 52 and scored 26 goals between them, which works out 1 goal in every two games. If only we had one player who could do that. One final fact, Herd and Collins played for Scotland on the day that Denis Law made his debut on 18th October, 1958 as the Scots beat Wales 3-0 in Cardiff with Law and Collins among the scorers.

One of the things that proliferated football magazines and newspapers in the 60’s and 70’s was pictures of players with their International Caps whether they were schoolboy, Under 23 or 21 as years went past or full caps. It was always very contrived and normally they stood there proudly with this stupid looking schoolboy cap with a tassle on their head.
Nowadays there doesn’t seem as many or is it that magazines don’t have Scottish players in them anymore (except ours of course). Wearing his proudly in one of the pictures of Bobby Moncur for season 69-70 and in the other Mr. Dalglish is presented with a statuette of one, for the honour of winning his hundredth cap.
Of course up until the 1970’s caps were only given for the Home International Matches only. This meant that a lot of Scotland players never received the caps they were due until a campaign was started by broadcaster Gary Imlach in 2005, whose father Stewart played in 1958 World Cup, asking for caps to be given retrospectively for Scotland. The SFA bowed to popular opinion and awarded these caps in 2006.

One of the things I liked about the Shoot Focus On series was that it caught a player at a particular point in their career and for Roy here, he talks about his International Honours that entails 3 Under 21 caps, which makes this around 1978. In total Roy would win 16 caps for the Under 21’s a lot of which came as the overage player, even long after he had gained his first Full cap.
His first full cap came in 1979 and he was generally a bit player for the next few years until 1985 and right through ‘til 1990 World Cup when he was an essential part of the team, captaining his country on 27 occasions. That first game was against Peru in September, 1979 in a friendly at Hampden. Roy came on as a second half substitute for John Wark. Also, gaining his first cap that night was Davie Cooper. Asa Hartford scored the Scotland goal in the 4th minute but the Peruvians equalised with five minutes to go and it finished one each.
His first start came in a 2-0 defeat to Belgium (who else?) in Brussels (where else?) in a Euro qualifier, this was followed a month later in late December in a 3-1 defeat to Belgium (who else?) at Hampden (where else?) in of course a Euro Qualifier. Roy would also play in the Home International Series of 1980 where Scotland did not do too well, two defeats and a solitary win against Wales through a Willie Miller goal (I kid you not!).
He would gain no caps in 1981 at all and would only be a bit player for seasons ’82 to ’84, however it all changed when in May 1985 he was back in the team for the Rous Cup game against England which Scotland won 1-0. After that, he became a permanent fixture for a while, playing in the vital Qualifiers in Iceland, Wales and both legs of the Australian adventure. Roy also played in all the games of the 1986 World Cup.
It was Andy Roxburgh in October, 1986 who first named Roy as his Captain in 0-0 draw with Republic of Ireland in our poor 1988 Euro campaign. However, Roy would continue to captain Scotland through to Italia ’90 reaching 50 caps on the night Scotland qualified for the World Cup in November 1989 where a last minute equalising goal for Norway made an anxious few moments before the final whistle celebrations. This would be Roy’s last cap as a Celt as he would soon move to Newcastle United.
Once more, Roy played in all the World Cup games in Italy continuing to captain the team. A final swansong came in October ’91 when he was given twenty minutes in Bucharest coming on for one cap wonder Mike Galloway of Celtic. Although, Scotland lost this game one nil, they would still qualify for the 1992 Euro Finals. This last cap of Roy’s was won as a St. Mirren player.
Back to the Focus On article, Roy’s favourite player is team mate Danny McGrain, well who’s going to argue with that one then? Biggest thrill was scoring two goals against Rangers; biggest disappointment losing to Aberdeen in the League Cup Final. His Personal ambition was to win a Full Cap and to do well with Celtic in Europe the following season. 1 out 2 isn’t bad.
As for favourite food he went for the classic Steak; miscellaneous likes Movies and Discos (Saturday Night Fever would have satisfied that one then.). Bear in mind that Roy was round about twenty at this time it’s very sad that among his favourite singers were . . . . wait for it Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey. Favourite Actors were Clint Eastwood and Jerry Lewis; which means there will be no gratuitous picture of some hot female from the 70’s (Damn you Roy) and rather sadly who would he most like to meet ; the Fonz. Oh well Happy days indeed for Roy.
(Remember to click on our page to see what else has been recently posted).

David Stuart

( This article was first posted on Facebook on 20th February, 2016)

David Speedie will be 56 today. David was a small but tenacious, hardworking striker who was well loved at both Chelsea and Coventry City in the 1980’s, he would also have stints at Liverpool, Blackburn, West Brom , West Ham and Leicester City among others.
It was Jock Stein who first picked Speedie for the National side throwing him in at the deep end against England in May ’85, in the first ever Rous Cup game starting up front alongside Steve Archibald. Richard Gough would score the only goal in the second half to give Scotland the cup.
Although, he would not play in the World Cup Qualifier against Iceland a few days later, he would start against Wales on that fateful night where Scotland qualified for the World Cup in ’86 but would sadly lose Jock Stein, starting up front with Graeme Sharp. Scotland drew one each, equalising from a penalty by Davie Cooper; it was given after Speedie had flicked the ball on and it struck the Welsh defender in the hand for the penalty award.
Alex Ferguson used Speedie as a sub in his first game in charge a 0-0 draw in a friendly with East Germany at Hampden coming on in the second half for Maurice Johnston. David also played in the second leg of the play-off in Australia as Scotland slogged out a 0-0 draw, following the 2-0 win in the first leg in December 1985.
For his fifth cap, David was once more given the nod to play against England in a Rous Cup match which Scotland lost 2-1 at Wembley in April, ’86.
Despite playing in this game, as the Scots headed to Mexico a month or so later he was not on the plane with the likes of Charlie Nicholas, Steve Archibald, Paul Sturrock, Frank McAvennie and Graeme Sharp getting the nod in front of him. Although, he did make the Panini Sticker set.
It would be two years later when David returned to the team under Andy Roxburgh, no longer with Chelsea but with Coventry City. David came on as a sub in a World Cup Qualifier in 1988 against Yugoslavia in October at Hampden. Mo Johnston had scored early in the game but Yugoslavia had equalised through Katanec before half time. The game finished 1-1.
David would also make a three minute appearance a couple of months later, three days before Christmas as Scotland played in Italy in Perugia in a friendly; which Italy won 2-0.
He would play in Scotland’s next game, in Limassol as Scotland toiled to beat Cyprus 3-2 with Richard Gough scoring the winner 6 minutes into injury time. This was really a vital goal as group rivals France could only manage a draw in Cyprus and effectively the one point difference allowed us to progress to Italia ’90 as runners up. Speedie had been replaced by Alan McInally in the 78th minute.
Another subs appearance at Hampden in April ’89 coming on as a sub for Gordon Durie in the home match v Cyprus followed; a game Scotland won 2-1 with goals from Mo Jo and Ally McCoist.
Rous Cup action would be David’s tenth and final game for Scotland but this time not against England but Chile as Roxburgh tried out a little and large strike force with McInally and Speedie. Rambo would score Scotland’s opener in 4 minutes, which was followed by a second half strike from Murdo MacLeod as Scotland ran out 2-0 winners.
That was it for David as Scotland progressed towards Italia ’90, he was seen as surplus to requirement although he would move from Coventry to Liverpool in January 1991 under Kenny Dalglish; his time at Liverpool was not that successful and another Scotland legend, Graeme Souness would soon move him on to Blackburn.
Happy Birthday David and all the best.

David Stuart

PS  Further to this article I came across a piece that mentioned Speedie’s absence from the squad for Mexico. According to Speedie, Alex Ferguson told him he was going but then Kenny Dalglish made himself available and Speedie was left out. Fair enough but of course Dalglish dropped out and Steve Archibald was given his place even though he only manged 16 games for Barcelona all that season. Wonder if David still holds a grudge?

(This article was first posted on Facebook on 19th February, 2016)

Happy Birthday to Jim McInally who will 52 today. Jim had a rather successful period with Dundee United from the mid-80’s onwards and this was rewarded with Scotland manager Andy Roxburgh giving Jim his first cap in April ’87.
Of course, if a Scotland boss is going to say “right son I’m starting you in midfield tonight”, maybe turn him down if it’s against Belgium, in Brussels (almost a good name for a film that) and in a Euro Qualifier. Scotland got humped 4-1 with Paul McStay scoring for Scotland. Sadly for Jim, this was not the worst result in his Scotland career.
A month later and Jim was given a starting berth for the Rous Cup game against Brazil at Hampden. Scotland lost two nil to a very ordinary Brazil side. I only say that not because I was there but because looking at the list of players in the Brazilian team I struggle to remember any except maybe Josimar and Edu.
A subs appearance a year later in March ’88, coming on for Gary Mackay in a friendly against Malta in Valetta that ended 1-1 was his next game. When Jim looks back on his life, he will be able to cast his mind back to this glorious day when he saw Graeme Sharp score for Scotland. Not many can say that. Winning the first of his two caps that day was Open All Mics favourite Derek Ferguson.
Italia ’90 came and went without Jim’s presence in the Qualifiers or even the Finals itself. It was Euro qualifying business that Jim was next on, playing in both qualifiers home and away to Bulgaria both of which ended 1-1.
Scotland qualified for the 1992 European Championships and Jim played in a couple of warm up games; a 1-0 victory over the USA in Denver in the Mile High Stadium (no doubt altitude training for the Championships in Sweden) in which Pat Nevin scored the only goal and 0-0 draw with Norway in Oslo.
Jim made the squad of twenty for the 1992 European Championships and came on in Scotland’s last game as they beat CIS (Russia, blah blah blah) 3-0 in Norrkoping in June of ‘92.
March ’93 saw Jim play in his penultimate game for Scotland, which also featured Dundee United teammate David Bowman; a 1-0 friendly defeat to Germany at Ibrox.
Cap ten and Jim’s final appearance and that of Rangers duo Richard Gough and Dave McPherson was a lamentable 5-0 defeat to Portugal in Lisbon in our failed 1994 World Cup Qualifying campaign.
And so for Jim that was it, but he would play for several years after that and is still involved in football today as the Manager of Peterhead.
So Happy Birthday Jim, forget the lows of defeats in Brussels and Lisbon after all you did see a Graeme Sharp Scotland goal and all the best.

(This article was first published on Facebook on 19th February, 2016)

Pat Crerand will be 77 today. It would be fair to say that Pat is a rather abrasive character and well known for saying what he thinks, which made him such a great TV pundit in the early 70’s. He was also seen as a man who has been known to throw a punch or two or as Denis Law once said about him, “If he starts, the best thing to do is put out the lights and lie on the floor.”
However, Pat was also a fine footballer and in the 60’s, the saying among Manchester United fans was “If Pat Crerand plays well, United play well.” Given the amount of talent in the United period of the time that is a compliment of the highest order.
Pat started off his career at Celtic and it is rather surprising that of his 16 Scotland caps, only 5 came when he was part of the Old Trafford set up. His first cap came in May 1961, a fortnight after Scotland had been mauled by England 9-3 at Wembley. Pat had come in to start in place of Dave Mackay and would keep Mackay out the team for 11 games in a row. It is perhaps ironic that a man with such deep seated Irish roots as Crerand, that he faced the Republic of Ireland on his debut at Hampden. This was the first of a double header against the Irish in a four day spell which was the start of the World Cup 1962 campaign. Ralph Brand of Rangers and David Herd of Arsenal scored a double each as Scotland won 4-1. Four days later and the Scots ran out 3-0 winners at Dalymount Park in Dublin with Alex Young of Everton scoring two early goals before Brand added a third in the last few minutes.
A week later and things did not go well for Pat and his teammates as they lost 4-0 to group rivals Czechoslovakia in Bratislava. However, as goal difference did not count in those days; a victory over the Czechs in September would see Scotland at the very least go into a play-off with the Czechs for a place in Chile.
Hopes could not have been too high that night as only a then, paltry crowd of 51,590 turned up to cheer Scotland on. Twice Scotland went behind and twice they pulled it back through goals by Ian St. John and Denis Law. It would be Law who was playing for Torino at the time, who would have the last word scoring the winner with seven minutes to go.
Pat then played in the first two games of the Home International Series of 1961-62, against Northern Ireland and Wales, which were traditionally played in the winter. Scotland beat N. Ireland at Windsor Park, Belfast 6-1 with the goals being shared by Rangers trio Davie Wilson, Ralph Brand with 2 and a hat-trick from Alex Scott. A month later in November, the Scots beat Wales 2-0 with an Ian St. John double.
With Czechoslovakia having despatched the Republic Ireland 3-1 and 7-1 away and at home respectively, a play-off was scheduled for November 29th, 1961. The Scotland side was somewhat depleted as goalkeeper Eddie Connachan of Dunfermline and Hugh Robertson of Dundee made their international debuts; two more Dundee players Alex Hamilton and Ian Ure were only playing their second Internationals. It started quite well in the Heysel Stadium, Brussels with St. John giving Scotland a first half lead. The Czechs pulled it back in the 70th minute but St. John, a minute later put the Scots ahead again. However, Scotland could not hold out and parity was restored in the 82nd minute with a Czech equaliser. The game headed to extra time and it was the Czechs, no doubt boosted by that late equaliser who went on to score two more as Scotland’s World Cup dream fell apart.
Consolation was on its way as Scotland beat England 2-0 at Hampden to win the British Championships in April ’62 with goals from Davie Wilson and a late penalty from Eric Caldow. A 3-2 home defeat to Uruguay a few weeks ended Scotland’s season.
Next up, was a narrow 3-2 win at Ninian Park, Cardiff in October, with goals from Caldow again, Denis Law and making his debut Willie Henderson. Cap 11 came at Hampden Park in November ’62 as the Scots routed Northern Ireland 5-1. Well, really it was the Denis Law show as he hit four that day with Henderson chipping in another.
By the time, the England game rolled around in April ’63, Pat was missing from the line up and Dave Mackay had been reinstated. Pat had by this point joined Manchester United two months beforehand. Scotland went on to win 2-1 in a famous Wembley win and retain the Championship.
After this, Pat would be capped a further five times; in October ’63 he lined up alongside Dave Mackay against Northern Ireland in Belfast but the Scot were to lose 2-1.
Then came a flurry of caps in 1965 as he firstly lined up against England at Wembley as Scotland narrowly failed to beat England for four games in a row, settling for 2-2 draw with goals from Law and St. John. He was then involved in three of our World Cup Qualifiers for the ’66 World Cup. Scotland began with two credible away results; a 1-1 draw with Poland in Chorzow with Law again being on target in late May ’65. Four days later a good start to the campaign was cemented with a 2-1 in Helsinki v Finland with Davie Wilson and John Greig providing the goals.
Pat’s final appearance in a Scotland shirt ended in disaster as two late, late goals by Poland saw the Scots lose 2-1 at home in a vital World Cup Qualifier, which ultimately scuppered Scotland’s chances of going to England in ’66.
For Scotland’s next game Bobby Murdoch was brought in and Crerand would only be involved as a reserve beyond this point until he eventually called it a day as did many a player in the 60’s frustrated by the lack of playing time given to them.
His career at Manchester United would hit higher heights as he would win the English First Division twice and then went on to lift the European Cup with them in 1968. Pat continues to be involved with all things Man United and is part of MUTV. His book ‘Never Turn the Other Cheek’ is well worth a read as he was and is a very interesting character.
Happy Birthday Pat and all the best.

David Stuart

They say a picture paints a thousand words and probably some of you will be glad I’m only going to write a few hundred and then let the picture speak for the rest.
The picture is of course from the 1992 European Championships in Sweden on June 12th and sees Ruud Gullit in the dark blue of Scotland celebrating with the crowd after the Dutch have beaten Scotland one nil and four forlorn shirtless Scotsmen trundling away. By the looks of it, my best guess is McCoist . . . maybe, who seems have gotten Gullit’s jersey with Dave McPherson, Gordon Durie and Captain Richard Gough.
This was Scotland’s first ever European Championship Finals game, which they had qualified for, coming out top in a group with Switzerland, Romania, Bulgaria and San Marino. It should be remembered that only eight teams took part in the Euros that year and that the team that won it didn’t even qualify! Denmark replaced Yugoslavia, where war had broken out and eventually we would see teams like Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina appear.
Back to that day in 1992, where Scotland lost by one goal to nil with Dennis Bergkamp scoring in the 77th minute. If truth be told Scotland were second best and perhaps lucky to hold out for so long. The Dutch were rarely troubled; it’s not one of those games where you can point to a moment and say if only we had scored that one, there were a few tasty tackles throughout though.
Scotland would go on to play Germany and lose 2-0 before the final game and a win against CIS (no, not the Insurance group but the name the remnants of the USSR had taken up as the Commonwealth of Independent States) in Norrkoping where Scotland won 3-0 with goals from Paul McStay, Brian McClair and Gary McAllister.
The team that lined up for Scotland’s first ever Euro Finals game was as follows: Andy Goram, Stewart McKimmie, Maurice Malpas, Dave McPherson, Richard Gough, Gary McAllister, Paul McStay, Stuart McCall, Brian McClair, Gordon Durie and Ally McCoist with sub appearances by Kevin Gallacher and Duncan Ferguson.
The Dutch were a little better with Ronald Koeman, Frank Rijkaard, Ruud Gullit, Denis Bergkamp and Marco Van Basten among their numbers.