The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

Poland visit Hampden in October for the fourth time and currently we are still looking for a victory. Sort it out Scotland. The first meeting came about in May 1960 and saw Scotland lose a friendly match 2-3 in front of 26,643 in what proved to be John Hewie’s last game for his ‘adopted country’.Five years later the Beatles had conquered the world but in the world cup Scotland [managed by Jock Stein on a part-time, temporary basis] messed up and lost 1-2. Celtic and Scotland captain Billy McNeil gave Scotland the lead after 14 minutes but a crowd of almost 108,000 looked on in disbelief as we conceded in the 84th and 86th minutes. From a purely arithmetical perspective, a Scottish victory would ultimately have meant a play-off with Italy for the right to go to England 66 and who knows, World Cup Willie could have been Bremner or Henderson or Johnston or McNeill……

I noted with interest that the Scotland-Egypt friendly match at Pittodrie in 1990 was the last Scotland home game that Hamish Husband has missed.That’s a pretty impressive record given that personal commitment also has to contend with issues such as work demands, illness, bills, wives, weans and inclement weather. It’s probably a taboo thing to say but I always hope that no-one close to me passes away on or just before a Scotland match such is the obsession that supporting the national team has become.

Happy Birthday to Tommy Lawrence, Liverpool’s chunky but well beloved goalkeeper by scores of fans from down Anfield way. Tommy who will be 75 on May 14th, played in over 300 League games for Liverpool, winning two League Championships as well as being part of the team that lifted their first ever F.A Cup, in season 1964-65 in a final against Leeds with Ian St. John netting an extra time winner.
Tommy was give the nickname the Flying Pig due to carrying a wee bit too much weight at over 14 stone. Tommy only missed a handful of games for Liverpool in a six season spell.
As for Scotland, Tommy would only play three times for the National team, starting off in June 1963 in a one nil defeat to the Republic of Ireland in Dublin. It would be another six years before Tommy would return between the sticks for Scotland.
Tommy returned for the World Cup Qualifier against West Germany at Hampden in front of a crowd of 95,000 in April 1969. Gerd Muller would put the Germans in front after 39 minutes before Bobby Murdoch equalised with two minutes remaining to give the Scots a fighting chance of qualifying for the 1970 World Cup. Sadly it was not to be.
As for Tommy, a month later he was to feature in a 5-3 defeat of Wales at the Racecourse Ground, Wrexham. Ironically for a man who rarely got injured, Tommy would only last just over 45 minutes after his photo was taken, as he clashed with the crossbar. Tommy was taken off and replaced by Jim Herriot of Birmingham. Scots scorers that day were Billy McNeill, Colin Stein, Alan Gilzean, Billy Bremner and Tommy McLean.
After leaving Liverpool, Tommy would cross the Mersey to play for Tranmere. As a footnote to Tommy’s life at Anfield, in February of this year as a BBC reporter was doing a piece on the streets of Liverpool, asking people about their memories of a famous FA Cup derby game between Liverpool and Everton from the late sixties, he unknowingly happened upon Tommy and asked him if he could remember the game. You can imagine his surprise as Tommy said he played in the game!
Happy Birthday also to Eric Caldow who will be 81 years old. I didn’t have the time to do justice to Eric and his dedication to the Scotland cause but hopefully somewhere down the line I may get the chance. So to Tommy and Eric, all the best!

It was forty years ago – on 13th May 1975 to be precise – that the Womblescame to Hampden Park and were sent homeward to think again. A crowd of 34,307 turned up to see Scotland v. Portugal as part of the celebrations commemorating the 800th anniversary of the granting of Glasgow’s burgh charter in 1175. As part of the half-time entertainment the Wombles took part in a penalty kick competition and for the uninitiated, the Wombles were pointy-nosed, furry creatures from a children’s tv programme who collected and recycled rubbish in and around Wimbledon Common in London.Needless to say the Wombles were boo-ed mercilessly but to placate any animal rights activists who may be reading this I’d like to say I have a sneaking suspicion that these six foot plus creatures were in fact just ‘actors’ dressed up in ridiculous looking costumes. I was fifteen at the time and enjoying an illicit affair with Woodpecker cider so I can’t be certain.

. . And so to the back cover and Hibs great Pat Stanton. Pat played over 400 games for Hibs from 1963 to 1976 and was the captain of the famous Turnbull Tornadoes. The Hibs team under manager Eddie Turnbull flourished in the early 70’s with players like John Brownlie, John Blackley, Alan Gordon and Jimmy O’Rourke, although major trophies eluded them they were League runners – up twice as well as losing out in the Scottish Cup final in 1971-72 but they did win the League Cup in the 72-73 season.
Pat played for Scotland 16 times, his Scotland career began in a 3 nil defeat to the Netherlands at Hampden. I have no idea what the circumstances were but for this game there was no Anglos included at all, nor Celtic players. The team was; Bobby Ferguson (Kilmarnock), John Greig (Rangers) capt., David Provan (Rangers), Pat Stanton (Hibs), Ronnie McKinnon (Rangers), David Smith (Aberdeen), Willie Henderson (Rangers), Andy Penman( Dundee), Jim Scott (Hibs), Willie Wallace (Hearts) and Willie Johnston (Rangers).
David Smith, Andy Penman and Jim Scott were the other debutants that night. Smith would win one more cap but Penman and Scott never made it to two although Pat would have to wait ’til 1969 for his next cap.
Pat would play in all six qualifying games for the 1972 European Championships against Belgium, Portugal and Denmark although we won all our home games, we also slumped to three away game defeats including an embarrassing 1 nil defeat to Denmark, where Finn Laudrup, father of Michael and Brian scored the only goal.
Pat captained Scotland on three occasions; in 1971 in a one nil defeat to the USSR in Moscow after Bobby Moncur who had captained the side the previous seven games dropped out. Similarly, he captained the side again when Billy Bremner was unavailable in May ’73 for the Home Internationals against Wales and Northern Ireland, dropping out for the England game with Bremner returning.
His final game was a World Cup ’74 warm up against host nation West Germany, which ended 2-1 for Germany with Dalgish scoring. Fellow Hibs player Erich Scahedler played his only Scotland game that night too, but unlike Pat, he was selected for the World Cup squad.
Finally around this time there was a lot of players called Pat; in Scotland there was Pat Gardner (Dunfermline and Dundee United player), Pat McCluskey at Celtic, whilst down south there was Pat Jennings, Pat Rice and Scot Pat Crerand. However, despite extensive research I have been unable to find trace of a player called Pat McGroin.

Another Shoot cover and this time it’s from May 19th 1973 with Peter Lorimer and Sammy Nelson of Northern Ireland battling for the ball. Scotland had played Ireland three days earlier, however as Lorimer and Nelson weren’t in the line ups that day, this is more likely form the previous years game played at Hampden on May 20th, 1972. Technically it was a home game for the Irish but due to the ‘troubles’ , the SFA had refused to send a team to Ireland so the game was played at Hampden.
Funny enough, I was in a pub last night and there was a group of old guys trying to out do each other with quiz questions and one asked “Who scored on his home ground for the away team?” The answer was ‘Kenny Dalglish’ in reference to his goal at Anfield against Wales in 1977. Had I thought about it I could have proffered a few others including Peter Lorimer. Scotland beat Northern Ireland 2 nil that year with very late goals from Denis Law (86 mins) and Peter (89mins). God help you if you are one of those people who insist in leaving games five minutes early every week. This would be Denis’s 44th cap for Scotland but despite making another eleven appearances, he never scored again.
Peter would score again to give Scotland the winner against Wales four days later and in twenty one internationals scored four goals, including of course the opener against Zaire in ’74. Peter was well known for his lethal shooting and in fact if you look at the Scotland v Brazil game from ’74 you will see him try to hit free kicks from about 40 yards. He holds a few records for Leeds, as their all time goalscorer with 238 goals and the youngest player at fifteen ever to play for them.

As for the Scotland line up that day, it was; Bobby Clark (Aberdeen), John Brownlie (Hibs), Willie Donnachie (Man City), Bobby Moncur (Newcastle), Billy McNeill (Celtic), Jimmy Johnstone (Celtic), Billy Bremner (Leeds), George Graham (Arsenal), Archie Gemmill (Derby), John O’Hare (Derby), Denis Law (Man Utd). Lorimer came on for Jinky Johnstone after 61 minutes.
Although there is no George Best in the Irish line up there is Danny Hegan. Danny was born in Coatbridge and was one of the first players to be eligible to play for Ireland under the ‘father’ rule in 1969, although, this did not apply for the Home International Championships until 1972.
As to the magazine, there is a few photos from the Home Internationals of ’73 inside and on the back cover a poster of a Scotland player . . . but more of that later.

This magazine cover is from World Sports May 1968 and shows the Scots in attack with Billy Bremner in clear view and John Hughes as the no. 9. On the goal line is Martin Peters and Ray Wilson, with Bobby Moore looking on as Gordon Banks is leaping in the air. The England number two is Keith Newton. The full Scotland line up is Ronnie Simpson (Celtic), Tommy Gemmell (Celtic), Eddie McCreadie (Chelsea), Billy McNeill (Celtic), Ronnie McKinnon (Rangers), John Greig (Rangers) captain, Charlie Cooke (Chelsea), Billy Bremner (Leeds United), John Hughes (Celtic), Willie Johnston (Rangers) and Bobby Lennox (Celtic). Interestingly enough in Richard Keir’s excellent Scotland The Complete International Record there is a picture of the team at Largs before the game and John Hughes is not there but Alan Gilzean is. One can only guess that Gilzean was injured prior to the match to allow Hughes to take his place and indeed score Scotland’s solitary goal. As for the magazine there is an article on Billy Bremner, but most of the coverage is of the Australian touring squad for that year. 

As promised here is a postcard of Hampden from 1908. I found this in a bunch of postcards belonging to my Dad. It has actually been posted in May 28th 1908, although the writing is so tiny it’s hard to read. I can’t work out who sent it but his address is 8 Corsewall St. in Coatbridge and it’s going to a M. Lewis Esq. at 10 Montrose Avenue, West Kilburn, London. As I said some of it is quite hard to read but from what I can detect the writer has been too busy to do anything except work and is a bit annoyed he hasn’t been able to take in or even play a game of cricket.
He then goes on to talk about the game on the card and how he has marked an ‘x’ above J. Quinn the pick of the “Scotchman”, that day. If you closely at the photo you can see an ‘x’. The player in question was in fact Jimmy Quinn of Celtic who would play 11 times for Scotland, scoring 7 times including four against Ireland in March 1908. Jimmy is Celtic’s fifth all time goalscorer and indeed was first player to score over 200 goals for them.
Another player of note, playing that day is Hearts legend Bobby Walker. Bobby played 461 League games for Hearts scoring an impressive 311 goals. He was known as Football’s First Superstar and indeed according to the 1934 Football Encyclopedia edited by Frank Johnson refers to him as ‘the greatest natural footballer that ever lived’. Bobby gained 29 caps for Scotland, including 11 against England in a 13 year Scotland career, which saw him score 8 times for the National team.

The full Scottish line-up was; Peter McBride (Preston North End), Alexander McNair (Celtic), James Sharp (Woolwich Arsenal), Andrew Aitken (Middlesborough), Charles Thomson (Hearts) captain, John May (Rangers), James Howie (Newcastle United), Robert Walker (Hearts), Andrew Wilson (Sheffield Wednesday), Walter White (Bolton Wanderers) and James Quinn (Celtic).
There is a high number of Anglos in the side, however looking at games from around that time it was not unusual for the England game to have so many, although games against Ireland and Wales sometimes had none.
As to the photograph, it looks as though it’s taken of the West Stand and probably from somebody’s front window on Somerville Drive. Is it me or is there a uniquely balanced man just left of the nearest goal? I have looked in other photos of the time and it is indeed a black flag flying but I have no idea why. As to the postcards worth the ‘x’ does devalue it but I have no idea of it’s worth. I would be interested in similar postcards but haven’t really seen any except there is one of Jimmy Quinn v England on ebay in not so good condition for £143.00. If you know of others please let us know.

I posted this on TAMB a wee while back but it’s such a great image I thought you wouldn’t mind if I posted it here. It was used as a cover to Charlie Buchan’s Football Monthly in March 1968. It’s from the previous Scotland and England game in April 1966 which ended in a 4-3 defeat. Jimmy Johnstone scored two that day and Denis Law the other but a last minute clearance from Nobby Stiles prevented Scotland from snatching a late draw. 1966 was a not great year for Scotland at Hampden. The crowd for the England game was 123,052 but a month later saw the crowds dwindle to only 16,513 as Scotland were thumped 3-0 by the Netherlands. A further defeat to Portugal and a draw with Brasil followed suit. It would be the final fixture of the year against Northern Ireland in November that would see Scotland win at Hampden finally that year as Bobby Murdoch and Bobby Lennox scored to give us a 2-1 win.