The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

Happy Birthday Willie Miller

Former Scotland sweeper/central defender William Ferguson Miller hits 60 years of age on 2nd May, 2015. Scary isn’t it? We also nearly missed it, sorry Willie.Willie won his first cap against Romania in a Euro qualifier in Bucharest in June 1975 and his 65th and final cap against Norway at Hampden in November 1989. Both matches finished 1-1 and the latter game saw Scotland clinch qualification for Italia 90. Alas Miller did not make it to Italy as an injury sustained in the Norway game effectively ended his playing career which had included appearances at the World Cup Finals in Spain 1982 and Mexico 1986.

I’ve always thought it must be very frustrating/bitterly disappointing to be included in a squad that travels to the World Cup or Euro Championship Finals but never get on to the actual pitch. I know how upset I was when I regularly sat on the sidelines with my Boys Brigade team!

Our first appearance at the Euro Finals- at Sweden 92- against the Netherlands, World Champions Germany and the C.I.S. resulted in 16 Scottish players from the squad of 20 getting a piece of the action. No fewer than 10 players also appeared at some point in all three matches, however with the third match meaningless [we were oot by then!] surely Manager Andy Roxburgh could have found room for Henry Smith, Derek Whyte, Dave Bowman and Alan McLaren – or am I just a soft, sentimental old fool?

With the passage of time you can look out for ‘statistical anomolies’ and debate for hours whether or not certain players should have received fewer or more caps than they did.

Two players which I have found have always divided opinion in this respect are Frank ‘Where’s the burdz?’ McAvennie and Alan ‘You’ll never win anything with kids’ Hansen.Frank McAvennie won only five caps for Scotland [one fewer than Willie Carr] but two of these were against Denmark and West Germany in the World Cup Finals in Mexico 86. He also helped get us to the Finals by appearing in both play-off matches against Australia.Frankie-boy might have been a prolific scorer with Celtic, West Ham United and attractive young fillies in general [allegedly] but he only hit the net once for Scotland – in his debut against the Aussies at Hampden. To be fair, he also had a number of other decent strikers to compete with -eg Charlie Nicholas,Stevie Archibald, David Speedie, Graeme Sharp, Mo Johnston and Ally McCoist.

Yugoslavia [ie Union of Slavs] is another name which has disappeared from atlases [and football fixture lists] in relatively recent times. Scotland played Yugoslavia on eight occasions winning twice, drawing five and losing once. Two of the drawn matches came at World Cup Finals – at Sweden 58 and at the heartbreaking West Germany 74.The two victories were both Hampden friendlies – in November 1956 and September 1984.

In 1956 Scotland won 2-0 in front of 55,521 with our skipper, George Young, winning his 50th cap that evening. Future Scotland manger Tommy Docherty also lined up. Yugoslavia would finish as Runners-up in the 1960 and 1968 European Nations Cup and in 1976 they hosted the Finals finishing fourth. Yugoslavia’s expulsion from the 1992 finals resulted in a last-minute call-up for Denmark who went on to win the tournament!

My first experience of Scotland Low Crowd Syndrome [ie a home crowd of under 15,000] came about in December 1975 when I was one of only 11,375 who attended Hampden for a Euro qualifier against Romania. The match was meaningless by then [with Bruce Rioch scoring in a 1-1 draw], and it was a cold, wet ,miserable evening just eight days before Christmas but I took a perverse pride in being able to say that I was there, that I had suffered for the cause! A number of my classmates were less than impressed however and said I was just a complete tosser who wasted his money. Even my Mum thought I was daft.

The 19th of May marked the anniversary of the first time Daniel ‘Danny’ Fergus McGrain and William ‘Sandy’ Pullar Jardine were paired together in a Scottish side. Although, both were natural right backs, it was to Danny’s credit that he was able to switch wings almost seamlessly.
It was Willie Ormond who first put them together, Danny was on his third cap having been paired with Willie Donachie over the previous Home International games but was switched to left back to accommodate Sandy Jardine on the right, winning his fifth cap. Sadly, it was not a winning start as Scotland lost to England one nil. This game also marked Colin Stein’s last game for Scotland as he came on as a sub for Peter Lorimer; Willie Morgan made way for Joe Jordan to win his first cap that day too.
Danny and Sandy were paired together for two more games that summer, which saw further defeats to Switzerland and Brazil. However, it was game number four that set Scotland alight and cemented their partnership as Scotland finally qualified for the World Cup by beating Czechoslovakia, on that unforgettable night at Hampden in September, 1973. They both played together in the away tie in Bratislava in a meaningless 1-0 defeat. This was followed by a credible draw against World Cup hosts West Germany at Hampden with Jim Holton scoring the Scotland goal. Over the next few games, Erich Schaedler, Donachie and David Hay were all played at left back with Sandy. The latter game against Wales saw Sandy Jardine score from a penalty in a 2 nil win.
However, they returned for the big one which saw us beat England 2 nil in front of a jubilant Hampden crowd which was wowed by the performance of Jinky Johnstone that day.

Two World Cup warm ups games against Belgium and Norway followed with mixed fortunes, both games ending 2-1, with the Belgians getting the better of us once again.
Then it was time for the Majors with Sandy and Danny playing in all three of our World Cup games. After, the World Cup was over Danny McGrain was diagnosed as having diabetes which in time, in his inimitable fashion, he conquered but in meantime Alex Forsyth of Manchester United took his place including a 2-1 defeat to Spain in a Euro qualifier on a cold cold night at Hampden that I might have mentioned before. Danny returned for the away game against Spain where the Scots fought out a one all draw but in terms of qualifying the damage had been done. Danny and Sandy played for the next five games and both were in attendance the day we got pumped 5-1 by England. Nuff said.
It would be just under two years before Willie Ormond picked Sandy Jardine again. Sandy came on as a sub for Ronnie Glavin, in what would be Willie’s last game in charge. Ally McLeod also used Sandy as a sub a couple of more times, before getting the band back together again for a home World Cup qualifier against Czechoslovakia (who else?), which of course we won 3-1.
Danny missed the next game, the decider at Anfield against Wales and indeed the whole of 1978 World Cup campaign through injury. Sandy would flit in and out of the team and had slipped down the totem pole with Stuart Kennedy of Aberdeen being preferred but did in fact play in that nightmare of a game against Iran in Argentina.
So was that the end of the road for the Danny and Sandy show? Well no, there was one last hurrah. Jock Stein had chosen Sandy on quite a few occasions at the start of season ’79-’80 and indeed made him Captain for a few games. On 21st November, 1979 Danny returned to the fold to play alongside Sandy for the last time. Unfortunately it was against Belgium (do we ever beat them, even when they’re ordinary?) and saw Scotland go down 3-1 at Hampden as our hopes for Euro 1980 went down the tubes.
Sandy won his 38th cap that night and had captained Scotland on 9 occasions. Danny would go on to win 62 caps and captained the side on ten occasions.
Their record of playing together wasn’t one of invincibility and indeed they only played 20 games as a pairing, but they were together on some of our greatest nights. It was the magic of having two great overlapping full backs in the side at the same time, which made those times so exciting, even coming from either side of the Old Firm, they transcended the divide, as both were gentlemen and played with heart for their clubs and country and we loved them for it.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook 20th May, 2015

The seventh women’s world cup finals kicks-off in Canada on 6th June and that is yet another major football tournament that Scotland won’t be appearing at, although at least our lassies made it through to the play-offs where they lost to the Netherlands. If the Scottish Women had managed to make it to Canada I had planned to try to convince the Missus that our ‘Holiday of a lifetime’ should include visits to Vancouver, Montreal and Ottawa such is my desperation to see Scotland on the big stage again.

So here’s another cover with John Greig shaking hands with Bobby Moore. This was from the previous year’s Auld Enemy encounter at Hampden which unfortunately we lost 4-3. Two goals from Jimmy Johnstone and one from Denis Law weren’t enough to stop us losing.
However, this is a preview issue for the 1967 match and we all know how that one finished, surely? Just in case you didn’t we hammered England 3-2 with goals from Bobby Lennox, Law and Jim McCalliog to become the unofficial World Champions!
So open the first page and what do you get? With the title saying “It must be Eng-land, Eng-land”, a guy called Pat Collins is “reviewing the Wembley meeting of the World Champions and Scotland “
There is some interesting narrative in it too, in reference to England’s World Cup win; “ many still doubt the worth of that England achievement. The Scots are out to make nonsense of the contention of those, myself included, who will forever insist that the best team won the World Cup.”Sounds a bit like just because you keep saying it doesn’t mean it’s true.
A bit further on he is talking about how great England fans were the previous year during the World Cup Finals and says “ And for once the Englishmen will be backed real cheers, like those of last July and not the tiny whimper of yesteryear” Oh dear got that wrong too.
Further on in the magazine, John Greig is saying “England may be World Champions but they’re not world beaters” Too right John. In another article well known Scottish journalist Ken Gallacher tips the Scots to win.
There’s also fresh faced photos of Ronnie McKinnon and Billy Bremner in club colours. There is also some clips of games from yesteryear but too many showing English goals, although there is a nice shot of Hughie Gallacher scoring from the 1928 Wembley Wizards game.

There’s also a two page article on the Mighty Atom: Bobby Collins and his move to Bury from Leeds. Bobby had a fifteen year career with Scotland which included a six year gap between ’59 and ’65. In total Bobby played 31 games for Scotland scoring ten times
. Going back to the first article, Pat Collins say ‘he pays scant attention to the recent Under 23 game between the countries”, however quite interestingly there is a match report on the game. Scotland beat England 3 – 1 at St. James Park Newcastle. The first goal being scored by Jim McCalliog who of course would make his full international debut at Wembley scoring a goal in the 3-2 defeat of England. Jim also graces the back cover of the magazine.

The full Under 23 line up was Bobby Clark (Aberdeen), Jim Whyte (Aberdeen), Hugh Tinney (Partick Thistle), Pat Stanton (Hibs), Tommy McMillan (Aberdeen), Eddie Gray (Leeds), Peter Cormack (Hibs), Tommy McLean (Kilmarnock), Jim McCalliog (Shef. Wed), Jim Smith (Aberdeen) and Ian Mitchell (Dundee Utd). Jim Smith and Peter Cormack were the other scorers. Seven of the team would go on to full honours; Clark, Stanton, Gray, Cormack, McLean, McCalliog and Smith.

David Stuart

First posted on Facebook May 19th, 2015

It’s kind of sad how English football has re-written itself over the last twenty years or so. It’s as if football didn’t exist before the heinous brand that is the English Premiership came into being. On Saturday, Sadio Mane of Southampton scored a record breaking hat-trick in English top flight football. However, most references go on about how he has surpassed Robbie Fowler’s record of 4 minutes and 33 seconds, but for top flight football in England, the record was actually held by a Scotsman. Take a bow Graham Leggat. Aberdeen born Graham, played for the Dons between 1953-58, scoring 64 goals in 109 appearances and indeed had been part of their championship winning team of ’54-’55. He moved to Fulham after the World Cup in ’58 in which he played in two games. Graham had a successful career with Fulham, scoring 127 goals in 254 League games, which if you do the maths is a goal every two games. On Boxing Day, 1963 Fulham pulverised Ipswich 10-1 with Graham scoring a hat-trick in three minutes, which stood as an English top flight record ’til last Saturday. I can’t imagine there were many games in Scotland that day, as the Winter of ’63 shut down Scottish football for almost two months and some say even cost Partick Thistle the First Division title that season.

First posted on Facebook on May 20th, 2015