The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

Also, having a birthday on August 21st is Paul Ritchie, who will turn 40. Like David Hopkin, Paul Ritchie only played seven times for Scotland and although their careers overlapped, they never played in the same team.
If you have read Scott Cockburn’s excellent ‘Club and Country’ article in the first Scotland Epistles, Paul Ritchie is one of the players mentioned in it. The gist of the article is about Scott’s ambivalence in supporting Scotland because as a Hearts fan over the last twenty years or so, he’s had to endure many a Jam Tart making the grade as an Internationalist for Scotland and then leaving Hearts, primarily for Rangers. If you think about it there’s Ritchie, Dave McPherson, Alan McLaren, Andy Webster, David Weir, Neil McCann, Allan Johnston and even Lee Wallace who all ended up at Ibrox even if via other clubs.
As for Ritchie, although he only played seven times; he managed to play in games against Germany, England, France and the Netherlands, which not too many have on their résumé. Paul’s first appearance was in a friendly with Germany in Bremen, which rather surprisingly the Scots won 1-0 (what we would give for that score next month?) with a goal from Don Hutchison. Paul had come on as a sub for Colin Hendry in the 66th minute just after Don scored. Also making his debut that night was club teammate Colin Cameron who won 11 of his 28 caps as a Hearts player.
Paul’s next game saw him line up alongside Colin Calderwood in defence for Scotland against the Czech Republic in Prague in June 1999. This was to be a night of ecstasy and agony for the Scots and Ritchie. It all started well with Paul heading a goal in the 30th minute, which was then added to by former Hearts player Allan Johnston who was with Sunderland at the time, 62 minutes into the game.

Unfortunately, for Scotland the Czechs got one back almost immediately and followed this up with an equaliser ten minutes later. More misery was added on, as that carthorse of a player Jan Koller, scored with a header with three minutes to go.
Cap number three came in the final game of our Euro 2000 group in October 1999 with Paul lining up alongside Brian O’Neill, then of Wolfsburg at the centre of defence. Scotland beat Lithuania 3 nil at Hampden with goals from Hutchison and Gary McSwegan and Colin Cameron both of Hearts. Their place as runners up was well assured prior to this and so it was off to the play-offs against . . . England.
Paul played in the first leg, a month later at Hampden which as most of us know Scotland lost 2-0 with a Paul Scholes double doing the damage. Paul missed out on the return leg with Mr. Hutchison once again finding the net for the solitary goal on a night we pummelled England but failed to get that second goal to take it into extra time.
Although we never made it to the finals we were in demand as opposition for those going to the finals as games against France at Hampden and Netherlands at Arnhem in March and April 2000 respectively were arranged. Paul was to play in both these games but was no longer a Hearts player having fallen out with the club over the refusal to sign a new contract and so was shipped to Bolton on loan. Scotland lost to France 2-0 and drew nil nil with the Netherlands. Although, Paul finally got the move to Rangers, he apparently desired in the summer of 2000, he never kicked a ball for them and was shipped off to Man City for £500,000 a few months later. As for Scotland caps, Paul was to receive another in 2004 during Berti Vogts’ tenure as the Scotland manager whilst playing for Walsall. Sadly for Paul, this came on the night Robbie Earnshaw ran riot for Wales scoring a hat trick in a four nil mauling. Happy Birthday Paul and all the best.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook August 21st, 2015

David Hopkin will be 45 on August 21st. If you’ve read Scotland Epistles #3 you will know that being included in a World Cup card or sticker set does not mean you are going to the World Cup, such a fate befell Mr. Hopkin too. Of course given the photo they used, perhaps David who has been known to make the list of ugliest Premiership players ever, would have preferred to have been omitted.
And yet it looked good at one point, David had gotten himself into the Scotland team just at the right time. He was due to play for Scotland against Wales in late May 1997 but having scored the play off winner for Crystal Palace against Sheffield United at Wembley a couple of days before he called off for the game. However, Craig Brown did not hold it against him and a few days later on June 1st he made his debut in a friendly against Malta in Valetta. Scotland won 3-2 with two goals from Darren Jackson after an early goal for Christian Dailly. David would be substituted early in the second half with Scot Gemmill replacing him, this scenario would be repeated a week later in Minsk, Belarus, as Scotland scraped a one nil win with a Gary McAllister penalty to keep their World Cup hopes alive.

In the summer of 1997, David moved to Leeds United for £3.25million. He would also be named as team Captain under George Graham at Elland Road. David would win his third cap up at Pittodrie against as Scotland cruised to a 4-1 win with Hopkin coming on as a substitute in the 50th minute and making an instant impact with a goal four minutes later. His second and Scotland’s fourth was a great individual effort, which made it seem as though David was going to be an important player for Scotland in years to come.
Alas, it was not to be as David had an indifferent start to his Leeds career, with injuries, suspension and regularly being substituted, all hindering his impact at Elland Road. He would only play one more game prior to the ’98 World Cup, making a one minute appearance against France in November, 1997. The 2-1 defeat would be the start of Scotland going on their longest run without a win, in a run of 9 games that unfortunately included the whole of the World Cup in France. David would return 18 months later in March 1999, starting the infamous game against the Czech Republic at Parkhead, where Gary McAllister was booed by some sections of the Scotland support. Scotland would lose this Euro Championship qualifier 2-1 and McAllister announced his retirement shortly after.
Cap number six would come against Bosnia in Sarajevo in September ‘99 as a makeshift left back. Scotland won 2-1 with goals from Don Hutchison and Billy Dodds. His seventh and final cap came a month later, also against Bosnia at Ibrox, in his more recognised position in midfield as Scotland won one nil with a John Collins penalty.
And that was it for David, if only his Scotland career had progressed the way we hoped it would that night at Pittodrie, but it was not to be. Happy Birthday David Hopkin and thanks for those brief glittering moments all those years ago.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook August 21st 2015

No doubt the SFA High Command will be contacting us soon regarding re-newing our now biennial membership of the Scotland Supporters Club. As well as enabling access to match tickets and including a membership card that features a photograph of a rapidly agingand often broken man I always look forward to receiving some goodies.

The goodies tend to fall short of the pre-Oscars trinkets and in 2012 included a keyring with mini-Scotland jersey attached, a circular enamel badge depicting the S.F.A. crest, a drawstring bag and a tartan scarf. The badge and keyring were attractive little collectibles but the scarf irked me some seeing as it was made in China. As we were in the middle of a recession would it have hurt that much to buy in bulk from the Edinburgh Woolen Mill?

I seem to recall that at one time only new members were afforded freebies – either a tie, scarf or beanie hat. This millennium however the giveaways have become a bit more varied and interesting. In 2005 the official membership pack included a T-shirt, pin badge, car/window sticker and discount voucher booklet. The discounts could be applied to sportswear, entry to the Scottish Football Museum , coaching courses and physiotherapy treatment!

For the 2006/2007 renewal there was a ‘Limited Edition’ gift box from the sponsors Whyte & Mackay whisky blenders containing a supporters club keyring and a booklet comprising a roll of honour of those Scottish players to have made at least 50 international appearances plus a statistical analysis of the records of all of Scotland’s international team managers. There was also a DVD showing someone’s choice of top ten Hampden goals over a thirty year period as well as some behind the scenes footage of the Scotland squad at training, enjoying some R & R as well as match day rituals which for some included taking time out to the read the programme. There was also the entire ninety minutes of Scotland’s 1-0 victory over the Netherlands in the 1st leg of the play-offs for Euro 2004. Fortunately there was no room left on the DVD to include anything from the 2nd leg.

For 2008 to 2009 the goodie box contained a kilt-pin and a set of six badges commemorating the twelve matches played in the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign. In addition there was the official Scotland CD – fifteen tracks that is a mixture of old World Cup songs and more relatively recent crowd pleasers from Deacon Blue, the Proclaimers and the Fratellis. It also includes Shang-a-lang by the Bay City Rollers. Superb……

To help commemorate 30 years of the supporters club in 2010 we all received a souvenir v-neck jersey. Nostalgia can be a painful experience though, for I seem to recall that when I joined the club back in the 1980s I considered size XL to be an alien concept, reserved purely for fat bar stewards. If I make it to the 50thanniversary I have visions of me heading for Hampden in a dark-blue Demis Roussos style ‘smock’. The diet starts Monday….

Another occasional and somewhat quirky S.F.A. produced collectible were the fold-up, pocket sized travel guides that were provided for supporters heading to away games. They were formulaic but helpful including as they did a city map/stadium location plan; some recommended restaurants, pubs, and night clubs; useful tips on transport, health, safety, security etc as well as some suggestions on things to do and see [ie castles, cathedrals and museums etc and notshebeens, bordellos and knitwear shops]. My one criticism was that within the section on useful foreign words and phrases there has been a tendency to include local translations for stereotypical scenarios such as ‘My mate is a bit crazy but he’s harmless’ and ‘I am drunk please let me into my hotel room.’ Then again maybe I’m just an over-sensitive ex-lush!

Anyway, I’m damned if I can remember what goodies we got for our 2014 to 2015 membership so to help fill a void I would be obliged if someone could help me out – it’s annoying the ‘Daffy-Duck’ out of me if you will pardon the expression. Cheers.

Robert Marshall

First posted on Facebook August 19th, 2015

Last week a tip-off from a friend sent me scurrying up to the Victoria Bar in the Partick area of Glasgow. No they weren’t giving away free pints of Tartan Special and packets of cheese and onion square-shaped crisps but better still there was to be had a selection of Sunday Post beermats depicting Scottish Football Legends. It’s an exciting life being a collector…….

Memories of the Tennents Lager 1978 World Cup squad collection came flooding back as I entered the hostelry at 11.03am that Friday. The friendly bar staff were kind enough to help me locate seven different mats – I think their view was ‘Let’s help this joker out then we can get on with serving normal customers’ – with the Magnificent 7 being Willie Miller, Danny McGrain, Billy Bremner, Graeme Souness, Kenny Dalglish, Denis Law, and…….Andy Goram.

Between 1892 and 1976 representative sides from the Scottish League and the English League [usually referred to as the Football League] met on no fewer than 72 occasions with our noisy neighbours leading the series 40-18 with 14 draws.

Latterly the theory was that such fixtures allowed national team managers to try out league players in international conditions although in the inaugural match there were four Scots in the English League side! The fixture was also seen as an opportunity to reward consistently good players with an international honour.

In March 1976 Willie Ormond’s starting line-up included four Rangers players [Alex McDonald, Bobby McKean,Colin Jackson and Tom Forsyth] whilst Hibs provided Des Bremner and Arthur Duncan. In goal was Jim Stewart of Kilmarnock whilst Joe Wark [Motherwell], Andy Rolland [Dundee United], Willie Miller [Aberdeen] and Joe Craig [Partick Thistle] also appeared.Unfortunately, the English League which included Peter Shilton [then billed as the most expensive ‘Keeper in British football following his £325,000 transfer from Leicester to Stoke] won the match 1-0 thanks to a goal from Leeds United defender Trevor Cherry. I was amongst the ‘crowd’ of 8874 at Hampden Park that saw the curtain come down on this fixture but I would welcome a resurrection, if you will pardon the expression.

As well as the Scotland-England rivalry other semi-regular league internationals were arranged against the Irish League [Belfast-based] and the League of Ireland [Dublin-based ].In the early 1960s the Italian League joined in the fun and played representative games against both the Football League and the Scottish League. Denis Law played for the Serie A XI against the Scottish League in 1961. Unfortunately however, these League internationals went out of favour before our Welsh friends could properly get in on the act.

Over years the Scots played their home games at various stadiums across Glasgow and at Tynecastle Stadium, Edinburgh. English League venues seemed to include everywhere except Wembley. A more egalitarian, decentralised approach appeared to prevail down south.

Indeed, the Scots’ last success in that fixture was at St. James’ Park, Newcastle in March 1966. Alf Ramsey’s world cup hopefuls [which included Nobby Stiles, Alan Ball and Jack & Bobby Charlton] took the lead with a first-half goal from Jimmy Greaves. In the second half however a goal from Dundee’s Andy Penman and two from Joe McBride of Celtic gave the Scottish League a 3-1 victory.

Celtic’s Bobby Evans made the most appearances for the Scottish League – 25 in total between 1948 and 1960 whilst Willie Bauld of Hearts is the top scorer with 15 goals in 13 appearances between 1949 and 1958. Jock Stein’s only international recognition as a player came about in 1954 when he played against the English League at Stamford Bridge.

Well before the arrival of the new millennium apathy, low attendances and overcrowded fixture lists meant that to all intents and purposes it was the end for Inter-League ‘Nationals. Ironically though in these days of multi-national/multi-cultural leagues, fixtures involving Premiership/Premier League selects could be particularly attractive. The question is what incentive would these highly paid divas and divers require to take part? Even more money would mean nothing to most of them so why not go down the charity fund-raising route instead and appeal to their egos by praising them [and their managers] for supporting good causes.

I know I’m probably urinating into a south-westerly but sometimes you’ve got to get these things off your chest.

Robert Marshall

First posted on Facebook August 11th, 2015

If you’ve bought issue 3 of Scotland Epistles [and if you haven’t then you should be ashamed] you will have seen the article which asks the question – ‘When it comes to supporting Scotland do you swing both ways – ie do you support your country at Association Football AND Rugby Football?’

Now of course rugger isn’t nearly as good as soccer but between 18 September and 31 October 2015 Scotland will head south into England to compete in our EIGHTH successive Rugby Union World Cup Finals. That’s a 100% record by the way and although the likes of Argentina and Italy can match that, Spain and Portugal have only qualified once whilst both Brazil and Germany have yet to qualify – and yes they have been trying [no pun intended]. Meantime, Georgia will be making their fourth consecutive appearance at the finals.

With all the effort I have put in over the last few months on the Facebook page and the magazine, my hard, more J Jonah Jamieson than Lou Grant, editor in chief Robert Marshall has granted me some time off. So today I am off to sunnier skies . . . no not England but to Greece and the island of Kos. My bags are packed, mainly with small cash notes and my Saltire budgie smugglers are all set to be modelled on the beaches of Mastihari.

Unfortunately this means I won’t be posting any articles and with such luminaries as Paul Lambert, Neil McCann, Bobby Murdoch and Ronnie McKinnon all having birthdays they will be missed out too. I am most disappointed in not being able to revisit Stewart Kennedy’s Scotland career. Unbeaten in four games and then pumped severely at Wembley.

John Wark was one of those players I loved as an Ipswich Town player, not so much as a Scotland player. Sometimes though it’s all about timing; who is it you’re playing alongside, which positional changes are made to fit you in the team, where does the Manager want me to play etc.

For John, all of this is true. Ally MacLeod brought him into the squad apparently for the East Germany friendly in June 1977 but a hamstring injury forced him to withdraw. It is quite intriguing to think of John making his way into the team and contention for Argentina and how much of a difference it could have made.

However, it was not to be and John would have to wait until 19th May, 1979 for his Scotland debut. It was not the most auspicious of starts as we were thumped 3 nil by Wales with John Toshack scoring all three. Also making their debuts that day were Alan Hansen, Paul Hegarty and George Burley.

The first few years of Jock Stein’s reign weren’t that spectacular, as I have said before; a lot of the time he would play with three centre halves almost. It was not uncommon to see Miller, McLeish and Narey in his line ups, alternating with Hansen and even Wark making up the trio. So for the most of his early games John seemed to be a holding midfielder whereas his Wikipedia page describes him as an offensive midfielder. With that moustache and long unkempt hair I can understand what they mean. Seriously though John’s look was one of the things I liked about him; that whole couldn’t give a monkeys if facial hair was unfashionable thing.

In some ways you couldn’t argue that John didn’t get a good initial run in the team for he played in all nine Scotland games that year. It’s a pity we only won 2 games, drew 2 but lost the other five including a 3-1 defeat to England with John scoring his first Scotland goal. Of course, we did suffer the double curse of playing in Euro Championships and also playing Belgium, who thumped us both home and away.

John doesn’t play at all in 1980 for Scotland, his club stats suggest he was an almost ever present for Ipswich at this time; he does however return for a World Cup Qualifier against Israel in Tel Aviv in early 1981 where Scotland scrape by 1-0 with Dalglish scoring the only goal. As Scotland slouched towards qualification his goal against Northern Ireland in a one all draw at Hampden was quite important but ultimately it would be wins against Sweden that would see us though to Spain ’82 along with Northern Ireland.

John would also score against the Irish in 1981-82 Home Internationals just before the World Cup. He would go on to play in all our World Cup games scoring two against New Zealand in our 5-2 win.

Another disappointing Euro campaign followed, although Scotland did start with a win against East Germany at Hampden with John scoring the opening goal but with Belgium and Switzerland in our group defeats soon followed. John would score against the Swiss at Hampden in the two all draw that saw Charlie Nicholas burst onto the International scene with that brilliant goal.

Caps 27, 28 and 29 came as a Liverpool player, the final one being John’s last. John played the first half against Yugoslavia in that famous 6-1 win, which was only attended by 18,512 but which 30,000 claim to have been at. Although, John’s first full season at Liverpool was quite successful as he scored 27 goals in total; injury and the signing of John Barnes would see him play less and less for the Reds and with that his Scotland career finished. John played 29 times for Scotland scoring 7 goals, which would be quite good for a Scotland striker never mind a midfielder.

Happy Birthday John and all the best for the coming year.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook August 4th, 2015

Belgium/Netherlands 2000, Portugal 2004, Austria/Switzerland 2008 and Poland/Ukraine 2012 -21st century Euro Finals that we’ve failed to qualify for. Gonnae no add to this list, Scotland – just gonnae no….

They say that suffering is good for the soul however, so here’s a brief reminder of how those not so fab four qualifying campaigns panned out.