The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

Actually to be honest I was going to do another piece but I’m just off the phone to Robert Marshall and it’s depressed me so much I thought I use this photo to cheer me up.

Okay, so we have scored fifteen goals against France in our time and I’m far too lazy to research them all but I’m pretty sure this must be number two in the all-time goals against France list. Although, we did score against them in a 1958 World Cup game with Sammy Baird providing the finish but we got beat 2-1 in that game so it’s discounted from the top two.

As promised another one from the Denis Law book. This time it’s a photo of the Scotland squad before the Northern Ireland game in November, 1960. It is quite an unusual photo in that it actually shows 12 players instead of the customary 11; any other ones I have seen from that era always have just the playing eleven even if it’s taken hours before the match.
Generally it was a given if you were the twelfth man you wouldn’t be playing, which is why a lot of good players such as Ian St. John and Willie Wallace quit the Scotland scene well before their time.

At this time when the Scotland players need to stand up and be counted particularly for the failings in Georgia earlier this month, it is perhaps worth remembering that the road to France 1998 was not plain sailing at all.

Although we had good results against Latvia and Sweden; we also had the farce that was the Estonia game which resulted in that famous ‘walkover’ match only for UEFA to change their minds and insist on a replay. Of course we were that sure we would win in the neutral venue of Monaco, but the players forgot you had to score to win games and have to be up for it against the so called minnows but sadly we were found to be lacking and a nil nil draw ensued.

With Sweden and Austria in our group, dropped points could see us fail to get to France, however Tom Boyd’s only International goal in the opposition net in 72 games and a Janek Meet own goal saw us get through a nervous night at Rugby Park in March 1997 and with a visit from Austria a few days later at Celtic Park it was time for Kevin Gallacher to make his mark on our qualifying campaign.

This was a time of very ordinary but hard working centre forwards for Scotland such as Darren Jackson, John McGinlay and Kevin Gallacher. McGinlay had scored the only goal of the game against Sweden at Ibrox in November 1996 (although that game should be remembered for Jim Leighton’s heroics too.) and Jackson had added the second goal in the win in Latvia in October the month before, however as for Gallacher; he was beginning to go the way of many a Scotland forward in all huff and puff but no final delivery. By the end of the Estonia game he had played 26 games and scored only 2 games in a Scotland career that started in 1988.

However, all that was about to change as Gallacher went on a run that was to see him score six goals in the final five games and see us through to France 1998.
First up was the other main rival in the group Austria at Celtic Park. The first goal sees a one two with Jackson and Gallacher, leave Jackson with a shot that the keeper saves but Jackson’s determination sees the ball go loose to Gallacher who needs no second invite to score. The joy on Gallacher’s face is quite evident if you watch the video of the game; however it is perhaps the confidence of scoring again that leads him to hit an audacious thunderbolt into the back of the pokey in the second half that secures the victory for Scotland.

Although, Scotland would lose to Sweden four weeks later in Gothenberg 2-1 with Gallacher scoring again, with Sweden and Austria still to play each other IF Scotland could win all their remaining games they would at least get second place in the group with perhaps an automatic qualification too.
He was not to score in Belarus in June 1997 and the hero that night would have to be Gary McAllister as one year on from his miss at Wembley he took the responsibility to score from the spot the only goal in the game in Minsk.
Two games left and both at home; Belarus at Pittodrie and Latvia at Celtic Park. In the first, Gallacher settles Scotland nerves when a save from a well worked free kick by Collins and McAllister sees him with a tap in to put the Scots in front after only five minutes. He would score a second and Scotland’s third with David Hopkin also scoring two to see us win 4-1. Against Latvia and again it’s his positioning that allows Kevin to head a goal in on 24 minutes after a great shot from Collins is parried out by the Latvian goalkeeper. With ten minutes remaining Gallacher attempts an audacious chip which rebounds off the bar for Gordon Durie to head in and it’s France here we come.

Although Kevin never gave us any more OMG moments in the Finals itself, he lit up our France ’98 campaign and his goals got us to Paris and that memorable day in the Stade De France against Brazil.
Shaun Maloney’s goals and contribution has only got us so far this qualifying campaign but we need our frontmen to produce the goods and with a little bit of luck maybe just maybe . .
The hour is near; where is the man?

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook September 16th, 2015

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock……It’s the waiting that’s the killer isn’t it? For Chrissakes, Thursday 8th October – where the hell are you? It’s a perverse double-whammy of [a] wishing your life away and [b] putting your life on hold as we keep 12 to 17 November clear in our diaries in case we make the play-offs. Yes I know there are much more important things in life to worry about but when you are a Scotland supporter all sense of perspective tends to go out of the window – along with the tv, the cat and the mother-in-law especially right after the ‘Torture in Tbilisi’ fixture.

Steven will be 29 on September 14th and hasn’t he marked the celebration well, with a hat-trick against Chelsea on Saturday there (GIRFUY Jose Mourinho).
Steven’s Scotland career began as a Kilmarnock player in 6th June 2007 under Alex McLeish coming on as a sub against Faroe Islands in a Euro Qualifier replacing his old Killie teammate Kris Boyd. Shaun Maloney and Garry O’Connor had already completed the scoring as Scotland won 2 nil.
His next cap would see him start against the Netherlands in September 2009 at Hampden, this would be during George Burley’s reign. Steven had also changed clubs and become a Rangers player by then. Scotland were narrowly defeated but Naismith had an eventful evening with having a goal disallowed and also hitting the post. The Dutch scored the winner in the 82nd minute and Scotland hopes of qualifying for the World Cup were dashed . . . once more.

Cap number four came in September 2010 as Scotland played out a nil nil draw in Kaunas v Lithuania under Craig Levein at the start of the 2012 Euro qualifier. Naismith would also play in that infamous game where Levein in his shit wisdom decided to play a formation of 6-4-0 against a very poor Czech Republic team. Scotland lost one nil with the Czechs scoring a goal that was apparently not part of the plan; as for the Scots we weren’t supposed to score and that plan was followed to a T (or is it a tee?).

Of course a few days after a piss poor performance, Scotland faced the World Champions at Hampden and lost 3-2. Sounds oh too familiar doesn’t it? Steven scored his first Scotland goal that night coming a few minutes after the Spanish had gone 2 nil up and then Pique was to put the ball into his own net shortly after and we dreamed; oh how we dreamed until a further Spanish goal dashed our hopes . . . once more.
Steven would score his next goal against Lithuania in the same qualifying series in September 2011 but again the damage had been done a few days before when the Czechs came to town and were given a penalty that never was and so we sloped out of the 2012 qualifiers.
By this time Steven had become a regular in the side sitting in behind the lone striker and when Levein was thankfully given the heave ho and followed by WGS, he became one of the first names on the teamsheet. He had also moved from Rangers to Everton by this time too.

Goal number 3 came in the World Cup Qualifier against Croatia at Hampden in October 2013 when he saved Barry Bannan’s blushes by netting the rebound from a woefully taken penalty. Robert Snodgrass had already scored in the first half as Scotland beat Croatia 2 nil but again it was too little too late and we were on our way to Benidorm rather than Rio for our holidays.
Steven has managed to score two goals in the current Euro campaign, scoring our second in Poland in the 2 all draw and fitting one in against Gibraltar in between Messrs. Maloney and Fletcher in our 6-1 win. It should be said that Steven has not had the greatest of campaigns despite some good performances he has let a few chances go a begging at times too. However, we are still not out of it yet and maybe with the boost of an EPL hat-trick Steven will find his scoring form in his fortieth Scotland game and give us something to cheer against Poland.

Happy Birthday Steven.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook September 14th, 2015

It’s taken me a week to write this short, cathartic piece – so let’s get it over with shall we?It was no disgrace losing 2-3 to the World Champions, indeed we performed much better at home against the Germans than Brazil did in July last year. What really hurt was the performance and result against Georgia three days previous. It was still annoying however that we didn’t manage to grab a point at Hampden but there were some positives not least seeing that arrogant [though admittedly excellent] sweeper-keeper Manuel Neuer concede two goals. So no clean sheet for you mein Herr but perhaps you can make up for it with a stunning display in Dublin next month.

When I was doing research for the Johnny McKenzie piece the other week, someone let me know that Johnny was in fact the second oldest Scotland surviving Scotland player. The first is Bobby Brown of Rangers, who was goalkeeper for Scotland in in 3 internationals or is it 5? Bobby took part in some of the Victory Internationals, which took place in season ’45 -’46. Of the home nations Scotland is the only one that recognises these and so it’s quite hard to keep track of how many exactly.

Happy Birthday John Spencer, no not the snooker player nor the actor from West Wing but the wee guy that used to play for Chelsea and Scotland. Oh right, him but wait David, its John Greig’s birthday on the 11th as well, surely we should be celebrating that? Well, aye but we already did a piece on him this year away back in Julember. So sorry Mr. Greig but you will have to wait for next year.
Anyway back to John Spencer, who will be 45 on September 11th. John mainly had a bit part to play in our successful Qualifier campaign for Euro ’96 but did start a in our first two games of the tournament itself. This was a period where like today, we didn’t have a great goalscorer available to us with the exception of Ally McCoist who at this point was used sparingly but quite effectively if you look at wins against Greece in qualifying and Switzerland in the finals. Generally though, it was players like Gordon Durie, Darren Jackson, Scott Booth, Duncan Shearer who were all hard working earnest players who gave their all but lacked that International class.
John’s first game was as a sub against Russia coming on for Bolton’s John McGinlay in the second half at Hampden in November 1994. Scott Booth had opened the scoring in the 19th minute but Dmitri Radchenko had equalised shortly after and that’s how the game finished.
The following month and it was another qualifier against Greece in Athens coming on for Billy McKinlay; the Greeks had already scored from a dubious penalty and again there was to be no further scoring.
John would feature again as a sub in an away qualifier in April, 1995 against the mighty San Marino in Serraville with John Collins and Colin Calderwood scoring the goals that gave the Scots a 2-0 win. John came on for Duncan Shearer.
His first start came in the Kirin Cup as Scotland drew nil nil with hosts Japan in Hiroshima in May ’95. At this point you may have noticed that John’s hasn’t got on the scoresheet as yet. I wouldn’t bother skipping ahead to see when that happens as John never did hit the back of the pokey in his fourteen games.
Cap number five saw John line up beside Scott Booth in another qualifier against Finland in September ’95 at Hampden. John Collins took a short corner and passed to Spencer who passed it back, Collin’s crosses and Booth scores with a header. Whoo-hoo one nil in ten minutes and that’s how it stayed.
Then came the pre-tournament friendlies; John started or came on as a sub against Australia at Hampden (1-0, McCoist), Denmark in Copenhagen (pumped 2-0), USA in New Britain (beat 2-1, Durie our only goal), Colombia in Miami (beat 1-0).

With that confidence boosting run of games we entered the 1996 Euro Finals. First up John started against Netherlands at Villa Park. Scotland had their chances but failed to find the net as did the Dutch, as we ground out a nil nil draw. John was replaced by Scott Booth at the start of the second half.
John once again started against England at Wembley but was replaced by McCoist in the second half, like the Dutch game Scotland had chances, notably Gary McAllister’s missed penalty but lost out two nil in the end.
In what was to be our final game of the championships against Switzerland at Villa Park, Ally McCoist started instead of John and scored a wonderful goal which turned out to be the winner. John came on for Ally with six minutes or so to play.
John would play twice more for Scotland in a World Cup qualifier against Latvia in Riga, which the Scots won 2-0 with John Collins and Darren Jackson scoring and coming on as a sub in a one nil friendly defeat to Wales at Hampden in May 1997. This was his only game as a QPR player, but the emergence of Kevin Gallagher and Darren Jackson partnership up front that saw us qualify for France 1998 and John’s own club career dwindling, combined to ensure he never played again for the national team.

So John Spencer 14 games and no goals is it worth remembering? Well it is in a boring statto way to me, as sometimes, it’s when you’re not looking for something you come across it. John played against Russia, Greece, San Marino, Japan, Finland, Australia, Denmark, USA, Colombia, Netherlands, England, Switzerland, Latvia and Wales. Yep, fourteen games and fourteen different nations. So Jamie Forrest, is not a record holder but for now it’s John Spencer; unless you know different.
Happy Birthday John.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook September 11th, 2015

Picked up this book in Oxfam today for £3.99 and it’s well worth it as there are some cracking photos which I will use over the next few weeks I’m sure. However, this one has the best quote from Denis “I’m young and fit and ready for action, the sun is shining brightly and I have a Scotland shirt on my back. Who could ask for more?”

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook September 9th, 2015