The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

This is a Sunday morning one. Brazil v Scotland from the Brazilian Independence tournament of 1972. The commentary is all in Portuguese but there is 50 minutes of highlights. The Scots look quite comfortable throughout the game but are undone by a flying header from Jairzinho. The line up is Bobby Clark of Aberdeen, Alex Forsyth of Partick Thistle wearing no. 14, Willie Donachie of Man City, Martin Buchan of Man U., Eddie Colquhoun of Sheffield United, Willie Morgan of Man U,, Billy Bremner of Leeds, George Graham of Arsenal, Asa Hartford of West Brom,, wearing 18 Lou Macari of Celtic and Denis Law of Man United.
It is quite fascinating and if you get all the way through it, let us know what you think

A little oddity from Goal Magazine, December 6th, 1969. Two things are worth thinking about (a) Do we recount Kenny Dalglish’s goals for Scotland? (b) Did Alex Miller organise the defence.

“BUT SCOTLAND’S OUTSTANDING PLAYER WAS GOALKEEPER —– ——-, WHO WAS IMMACULATE, IN FACT, IT WAS THE MOST CONFIDENT DISPLAY I’VE SEEN FROM A SCOTLAND GOALKEEPER IN THE PAST TEN YEARS”
Thus wrote, Jim Blair, the well renowned Evening Times reporter on September 8th, 1977, having just watched Ally MacLeod’s Scotland lose 1-0 to East Germany in East Berlin but who did he write it about?
It was one, Davie Stewart of Leeds United, playing in what was to be his only Scotland game. In the very next paragraph Jim goes on to explain how Stewart also saved a penalty. It seems a bit unfair that Stewart never played again if indeed his display was that good, after all Jim Blair had written that section in block capitals to emphasise how good he was.
I suppose one of Ally MacLeod’s weaknesses, could be he was too loyal to players and perhaps this was his downfall in Argentina, sticking with the likes of Don Masson, who had not had a great season with Derby County under Tommy Docherty and who performed badly at the Home Internationals and others.
But back to Davie Stewart and why he was given his chance to play for Scotland. It is perhaps unbelievable but Partick Thistle manager Bertie Auld had done the unthinkable and dropped Big Roughie for his “attitude”. I think this means, he was a lazy fat B. in training, which I find hard to believe . . . not.
Future Scotland goalie Billy Thomson, had taken over between the sticks at Firhill for a couple of games and so perhaps Ally felt he couldn’t rightly play Rough for a friendly when he couldn’t even get a game for his club. Mind you, it never stopped WGS playing Alan Hutton.
Rough was soon back as first choice for the Jags and indeed at the very next home game, a chant of “ If you hate Davie Stewart clap your hands “ was given a rendition or two. Needless to say I didn’t join in, self-loathing would come later in my teens but my friends were very vociferous shall we say. He was also back for Scotland’s next two games; two vital World Cup Qualifiers, the 3-1 home win against Czechoslovakia and the 2-0 defeat of Wales at Anfield where Rough performed heroics, in particular denying John Toshack late in the game.
As for Davie Stewart, I suppose it’s a bit strange that I talked about loyalty and Ally MacLeod after all, who was the first choice goalkeeper at Ayr United in the years that Ally led them; none other than the aforementioned Mr. Stewart playing over 200 games for them. Scotland qualified for Argentina but in his search for another goalkeeper, Ally chose to play Coventry’s Jim Blyth a couple of times in some games, rather than give Davie another chance and when it came to a third choice goalie, it was to veteran Bobby Clark of Aberdeen he plucked for his squad in South America.
Also, in the Evening Times that day, there was a piece on Martin Buchan refusing the Scotland captaincy, apparently Buchan did not want the publicity that would come with such a task. It also goes on to say that Buchan had fallen out with Willie Ormond after the 5-1 defeat to England in 1975, refusing to travel to Romania a week or so later. One can only assume it was because Frank Munro of Wolves had been chosen ahead of him.
There is also a report on the Under 23’s win against Switzerland at Tynecastle, with goals from Ian Wallace (2) and Davie Cooper and apparently a missed penalty by David Narey, perhaps he should have toepoked it!
Finally, the photo is of course the programme from the East Germany game with the letters emblazoned DDR, which of course meant Deutsche Demokratische Republik but perhaps for Ally it just meant Don’t Drop Rough!

David (no relation) Stuart

Happy Birthday to Billy Dodds. Billy turned 47 on February 5th. It’s fair to say that in the pantheon of great Scotland forwards Billy Dodds will not be among them, for fans growing up in age of Denis Law, Kenny Dalglish and then latterly Mo Johnston and Ally McCoist, the likes of Dodds, Darren Jackson, Paul Dickov and others of that ilk will not be highly regarded. However, in fairness to Billy, there can’t be too many who worked as hard for the team as he did and he almost gave us the chance for a play-off to 2002 World Cup.
Billy had made his debut as an Aberdeen player in a 1998 World Cup Qualifier against Latvia in Riga in October ‘96 coming on as a sub for John Spencer of Chelsea. Scotland won 2-0 with two excellent goals from John Collins and Darren Jackson. Billy only remained a bit player in the Scotland set-up and was not picked in the squad for the finals in France.
However, in his return to the team in October ’98, Billy who was then playing for Dundee United would make an instant impact. Scotland had been toiling 0-1 to Estonia at Tynecastle and Billy replaced Ally McCoist in the 69th minute. This would Ally’s last cap for Scotland as well as Jim Leighton’s final game. By the 70th minute Dodds had his first touch and Scotland had equalised. However, Scottish fans joy was not to last long, as the Estonians took the lead once more six minutes later. Again, though with pressure from Dodds, defender Hohlov-Simson put the ball into his own net in the 79th minute from a Simon Donnelly cross for an equaliser. Scotland and Dodds were not finished there; as in the 85th minute a clever through ball from Allan Johnston of Hearts who was making his debut found Dodds in space to score the vital winner.

With this, Dodds began to be first choice striker for Craig Brown and repaid this in the very next game with a goal right on the stroke of half time at Pittodrie in October ’98 to give Scotland a 2-0 lead over the Faroe Islands. Craig Burley had opened the scoring but there were some nervous moments as the Faroes reduced the deficit to 1 goal with a penalty in the 86th minute, however Scotland hung on for the victory.
Scotland had some poor results in the rest of the qualifiers losing home and away to Czechoslovakia, although Dodds only played in the game in Prague in June of ’99; in which Scotland were two goals up with 30 minutes to play, only to lose 3-2. Billy also played in the 1-1 draw with the Faroes.
However, there was a better result in Bosnia-Herzegovina when Billy and Don Hutchison scored the goals to give Scotland a 2-1 victory in Sarajevo.
Despite some poor results Scotland still made the play-offs and caps 14 and 15 for Billy were won in the double header tie against England. Paul Scholes had given England a 2-0 lead in the first half and on a memorable night a Don Hutchison goal in the first half at Wembley saw the Scots push the English all the way for an equaliser that didn’t come. C’est La Vie.
By the time of pre-tournament friendlies with France, the Netherlands and the Republic of Ireland, Dodds had become a Rangers player. Scotland lost 2-0 to France, drew 0-0 with the Netherlands but beat Ireland with goals from Don Hutchison and Barry Ferguson in Dublin.
Scotland’s qualifying group for the Japan / South Korea 2002 World Cup was quite daunting with Croatia and Belgium both in their group but Scotland played well in the group and only missed a play-off place by two points to Belgium.
Scotland had a slow but steady start to the group beating Latvia and San Marino away from home although the nature of it, wasn’t spectacular as they won in Latvia 1-0 with a goal from Neil McCann in the 88th minute and beat San Marino 2-0 with goals from Hutchison and Matt Elliott.
Billy missed the away game to Croatia but Scotland came away with a point after surviving a tricky opening period, only going down, one nil to a Boksic goal in 15 minutes and then Kevin Gallacher equalised in the 24th minute, that seemed to take the wind of the Croatians sails and Scotland held on for a plucky draw.
24th March, 2001 was a day of the highest highs but ultimately the lowest of lows but hey we were playing Belgium, what did we expect? Scotland got off to a great start at Hampden that day with Billy Dodds scoring in the very first minute and this was added to in the 28th minute as Billy smashed a penalty into the net following a handball and the resultant sending off of Eric Deflandre of Belgium. Scotland should have been home free and a goal in 58 minutes from Wilmots should have warned them but alas in the 90th minute + 2, Van Buyten equalised to give the Belgians a point to shock the nation.
Billy would be among the scorers as Scotland beat San Marino 4-0 four days later with Colin Hendry scoring two and having a wee dig with his elbow too and Colin Cameron getting the other.
1st September and Croatia came to Hampden and Scotland fought out a tough nil nil draw but four days later defeat to Belgium in Brussels, two nil, sealed Scotland’s fate and indeed would be Billy’s last game for the national side.
Scotland won their final game against Latvia 2-1 at Hampden and indeed had played well in the qualifiers beating the minnows home and away, gained a great point in Croatia but ultimately the losing of that late goal against Belgium cost them a play-off place.
Happy Birthday Billy and all the best Billy, among other things, thanks for that 20 minute goal burst in the Estonia game and those first 28 minutes against Belgium. If only, if only, if only . . .

David Stuart

Happy Birthday Alex Forsyth, who turned 64 on February 5th. Like John Hansen, Alex Forsyth was part of the Partick Thistle 1971 League Cup winning side, slotting in at left back and like Hansen he was a skilful, overlapping type of full back and he too would be first capped under Tommy Docherty.
Alex gained his first cap in Belo Horizonte, Brazil starting Scotland’s opening game against Yugoslavia in late June 1972, although he would be replaced by fellow Jag John Hansen at half time. Alex would then play the full 90 minutes for each of the remaining games of the tournament.
Scotland drew 2-2 with the Slavs and then went on to play Czechoslovakia in Porto Alegre, where they would play out a nil each draw. Scotland’s final game would be in Maracana, in Rio against the host nation Brazil, in front of a crowd of 130,000. Among those playing for Brazil were World Cup winners Clodoaldo, Gerson, Tostao, Rivelino and Jairzinho. Scotland held their own but Jairzinho would score the game’s only goal in the 80th minute and so Scotland headed back home.
Forsyth would play at left back in Scotland’s next game, a World Cup Qualifier in Copenhagen against Denmark in October ‘72. Jimmy Bone who had made his Scotland debut on the same night as Forsyth was given his only other cap that night. Scotland would win 4-1 with goals from Celtic’s Lou Macari, Bone and his second half replacement making his debut; Aberdeen’s Joe Harper and finishing off the scoring, Willie Morgan of Manchester United.
Forsyth would miss the visit of Denmark to Hampden a month later with Willie Donachie coming back into the team. However, Willie Ormond chose him to start in his first game in charge at right back. Alex had moved to Manchester United from Thistle for a fee of £100,000 at this point; unfortunately, Forsyth would become one of the scapegoats for Scotland’s humiliating defeat against England in February 14th 1973, losing 5-0. He would be dropped as would goalkeeper Bobby Clark of Aberdeen and Eddie Colquhoun of Sheffield United. The latter two would never play for Scotland again, although Clark did travel to Argentina as part of the 1978 World Cup Squad.
Forsyth was replaced by Danny McGrain in his debut in Scotland’s next game and with his partnership with Sandy Jardine about to come in to fruition, it was a long time until Forsyth was considered again. Willie Ormond named a provisional squad of 40 players for the World Cup in 1974; Alex was so far down the totem pole that he was not named among the 18 standby players on this list which included players like Dundee United’s Jackie Copland and Aberdeen’s Jim Hermiston.
However, caps number 6 and 7 came in quick succession in the winter of 1974 as he replaced Danny McGrain playing alongside Jardine in a 3-0 win over East Germany in a friendly at Hampden. Graeme Souness, then of Middlesbrough and Celtic’s Dixie Deans made their debuts that night.

Next up was Scotland’s first Euro 1976 Qualifier against Spain at home. Scotland took an early lead through Billy Bremner and would be given a chance to go two in front from the penalty spot, unfortunately Tommy Hutchison failed to convert the kick and Scotland were left to rue this as Castro of Spain hit a double and the game finished 2-1.
May 1975 was Forsyth’s next Scotland appearance, albeit very brief as he came on in the 89th minute for Jardine against Northern Ireland at Hampden, as Scotland were coasting to a 3-0 win with goals from Ted MacDougall of Norwich, Kenny Dalglish and Rangers’ Derek Parlane.
Scotland were hammered 5-1 by England four days later and it would be Jardine’s turn to be left out in the cold. Forsyth slotted in at right back on June 1st against Romania in Bucharest in another Euro Qualifier. This game finished one each with Gordon McQueen scoring a last minute equaliser; making their debuts were Jim Brown of Sheffield United in his only game and Willie Miller of Aberdeen. Willie would not play again until 1978.
Alex retained his place for the next qualifier away to Denmark, once more in Copenhagen. Joe Harper, then of Hibs would score the only goal but this game is better known for the minor fracas afterwards in a Danish bar. It would lead to bans for Harper, Arthur Graham, Pat McCluskey, Willie Young and sadly for team Captain Billy Bremner, which would end his fine Scotland career.
For Alex, that was it though, Willie Ormond would choose fellow Manchester United full back Stewart Houston for Scotland’s next game but ultimately it would be Willie Donachie of Manchester City who wold keep Forsyth out of contention as he began to build a solid partnership with McGrain.
Forsyth would go on to pay 100 League games for Manchester United before moving back to Scotland to play for Rangers, Motherwell and Hamilton.
Happy Birthday Alex and all the best.

David Stuart

Happy Birthday to Alex Young who turned 79 on 3rd February. It is almost incomprehensible to anyone looking back in the late fifties and early sixties, to be told that a striker who won two Championships with Hearts, scoring 71 times in 155 league games and then going on to win the English First Division with Everton in season 1962-’63 scoring 22 goals in the process would only win 8 caps.
It’s bizarre to think about it, as it puts him one above Craig Mackail Smith and one below James Mackie on the all-time list. Then again Mackie and Mackail never had Denis Law to contend with; perhaps their style was too similar and they weren’t reckoned to be a good fit together as the likes of Ian St. John were matched in beside Law more often.
Alex was first capped as a Hearts player lining up in a front line featuring Alex, Denis Law, Ian St. John and Andy Weir both of Motherwell and Fulham’s Graham Leggat against England at Hampden in April, 1960. Leggat would score for Scotland after 16 minutes but Bobby Charlton would equalise through a penalty in the second half and that was the way it finished.
Alex’s next cap saw him come on for Denis Law after only twelve minutes in Vienna in May 1960. As far as I can tell this was the first time Scotland had ever been allowed to use a substitute and would still be only used sparingly and only in friendlies until the late sixties. Austria won 4-1 with Dave Mackay scoring the only goal for Scotland.
Scotland followed up their trip to Vienna by going to Budapest a few days later. Scotland drew with Hungary 3-3 with goals from Willie Hunter of Motherwell, George Herd of Clyde and Alex, notching his first Scotland goal.
3 days later and Alex was also part of a unique Scottish eleven as they lost 4-2 to Turkey in Ankara. To this day, this is bizarrely the only time Scotland have ever played Turkey. Alex was the scorer of Scotland’s second goal with Eric Caldow converting a penalty for the other.
Alex played in the first two Home Internationals in the 1960-’61 series, firstly against Wales in Cardiff in October where Scotland lost two nil and then a month later in a 5-2 victory over Northern Ireland at Hampden, where Denis Law returned to the side. Scorers that day were Law, Caldow with a penalty again, Young and Ralph Brand of Rangers hitting a double on his debut.
By Alex’s next Scotland game he was an Everton player. Scotland had begun their World Cup1962 campaign with two games in quick succession against the Republic of Ireland in May of 1961. They won the first leg at Hampden 4-1 with Ralph Brand again hitting a double along with Arsenal’s David Herd bagging a brace too.
4 days later Scotland won 3-0 with Young coming in for Herd, whom I assume was not fit for the game. Alex scored two with Brand once more supplying a goal.
And that was that for five years for Alex. In the meantime Alex would become a celebrated member of the Everton ’62-’63 side, he was nicknamed the Golden Vision by Everton fans. This had come about from a quote about him by Spurs double winning Captain Danny Blanchflower. He had expressed it as this “the view every Saturday that we have of a more perfect world, a world that has got a pattern and is finite. And that’s Alex – the Golden Vision.”
It was John Prentice whose four game Scotland management career, resulted in three defeats and one drawn game that brought Alex back for one more game for a friendly v Portugal in June 1966. The Scots lost one nil and that was it for Alex, although he would play for Everton for a couple of more seasons. In total eight caps and five goals was all he managed with Scotland
So Happy Birthday Alex or as Blanchflower christened you the Golden Vision and all the best.

David Stuart

Happy Birhday to John Hansen, who turned 66 on February 3rd. John is very much a legend down Firhill way having been part of the Partick Thistle team that won the League Cup in October, 1971 beating Celtic 4-1. Within a few weeks of the final, John was chosen to be part of Tommy Docherty’s Scotland squad for the Euro Qualifier against Belgium in November at Pittodrie. This would Tommy’ second game in charge, having won the first one 2-1 against Portugal in October.
John’s international career was not that lengthy as he would only play in two games for the national side but with right backs the calibre of Hibs’ John Brownlie, Rangers’ Sandy Jardine and Celtic’s Danny McGrain it’s hardly surprising.
John was given 11 minutes in the game v Belgium coming on for Jimmy Johnstone, not quite like for like but with David Hay at full back playing, perhaps he was moved in to the midfield. Also making his debut that night was second half sub Kenny Dalglish and Stevie Murray, then of Aberdeen, this would be Murray’s only cap.
In the summer of 1972, John travelled to Brazil for the Independence Tournament but would only feature in one game. Scotland kicked off the tournament with a game against Yugoslavia in Belo Horizonte in front of a crowd of 4,000. Hansen would only be given the second half of the game and who was he substitute for? Teammate Alex Forsyth, making his debut that day at right back also. Willie Donachie of Manchester City was given the left back slot.
Scotland drew the game 2-2 with Lou Macari bagging both the Scots goals. The other sub used that day was none other than Jimmy Bone who had recently moved to Norwich City from the Jags.
Tommy Docherty, in fact also picked Thistle players’ Alan Rough and Denis McQuade for his Scotland squads during his tenure and indeed upon leaving for Manchester United suggested that Thistle manager David McParland should be chosen as his successor.
As for John, he would go on to play over 200 league games for the Jags until injury in 1978 meant he had to retire from the game at the age of 28. Ask almost any Jags fan which Hansen is a legend down Firhill way, and almost to a man they will say John and not his brother Alan. As for John despite only 2 caps, what a season 1971’-72 must have been for him.

So Happy Birthday John and all the best.

David Stuart

Happy Birthday to Allan McGregor, who will be 34 today. It’s fair to say that Allan’s football career has been full of ups and downs and although some of them have been self-inflicted, what can’t be doubted is that, he is a great shot stopping goalkeeper. It is perhaps unfortunate timing for him, that Scotland find themselves blessed with not one but three good goalkeepers all at the one time. If only, it was centre forwards instead.
Allan was first capped by ex-Rangers boss Alex McLeish in a friendly against Austria in May 2007 and would play in only the first half with Craig Gordon swapping over, as is the way in friendlies it seems. Charlie Adam and Alan Hutton would also make their debuts that night. Scotland won 1-0 thanks to a goal from Garry O’Connor.
Craig Gordon would remain as the first choice goalkeeper giving McGregor so few opportunities until George Burley picked him to start against Argentina in a friendly and then Netherlands in a World Cup qualifier in March 2009. However, after this 3-0 defeat, McGregor indulged in a late night drinking session with Barry Ferguson, known as ‘Boozegate’ that would see both banned from the Scotland set-up for life it seemed.
Craig Levein would rescind this upon taking helm of the Scotland team and McGregor was given a game against Sweden in Solna. Although Scotland lost 3-0 nil, MacGregor’s own performance was good enough for Levein to make him first choice goalkeeper.
McGregor would play in the first four games of Scotland’s qualifiers for Euro 2012 including that 1-0 defeat to the Czech Republic and the narrow 3-2 defeat to Spain at Hampden. MacGregor would perform greatly in both of these games. Gordon would be brought back for the game against the Faroes and then McGregor took over for the rest of Levein’s torturous tenure in charge of the team. By cap number 22 McGregor was a Besiktas of Turkey player having left Rangers following their financial collapse. Ironically, McGregor was injured only 23 minutes into this friendly against Australia at Easter Road and was replaced by Matthew Gilks of Blackpool his only rival for the goalkeeping spot due to Craig Gordon’s continuing injury problems.
Gordon Strachan had McGregor back in goals for his first game in charge and would initially see him as first choice. However. McGregor moved to Hull City in July, 2013 and soon found his place in the Scotland team taken over by David Marshall of Cardiff City. He has made some high level mistakes and at some points lost his place in the Hull team which has led in part to Marshall being first choice for Strachan.
McGregor played in Scotland’s last game, the 6-0 defeat of Gibraltar in Faro and it would come as no surprise if Gordon were to go with him again when the friendlies in March come about and I’m sure Allan wouldn’t let us down if he were to become first choice again.
Happy Birthday Allan.