Scotland concluded their 1988 European Championship qualifying campaign with a goalless draw against Luxembourg, and on this day in 1911, a young Patsy Gallagher made his debut for Celtic.
Archive for the ‘If You Know Your History’ Category
On This Day in Scottish Football
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009A life in cards – Bob McKay
Friday, October 30th, 2009Continuing our series of great Scottish players from days gone by through the medium of cigarette cards, we take a look back at the career of Bob McKay.
Scotland’s Road to Spain ‘82 (Part II)
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009We left off in Part I with Scotland in the middle of their Euro ‘80 qualification campaign in June 1979, with only a series of games to play against Austria, Belgium and Portugal – would Scotland go some way towards healing the disappointment of Argentina and qualify?
By the time Scotland played their next international game, the domestic competition was nearing its completion. Celtic led the table by one point from Rangers, Partick Thistle had slumped from second top to third bottom while United and Aberdeen where third and fourth respectively. There was only one more game for Celtic in that season and it would be against Rangers at Ibrox. Simply put, Celtic had to win as Rangers still had two games in hand – a home game against struggling Partick Thistle and, one week later, an away game against Hibernian in Edinburgh.
Before the title was decided however, Scotland would take part in the British Championship.
Between the 19th and the 26th May, Scotland played three games against the home nations, England, Northern Ireland and Wales, the opponents on the first day of the competition. Manager Jock Stein had begun to make some changes in the Scotland line-up since the defeat to Portugal in November of the previous year. Alan Rough and Paul Hegarty where still the only members of the squad who played their football in Scotland while John Wark (Ipswich) and Alan Hansen (Liverpool) where given their first caps.
Also making his debut in the dark blue of Scotland was one George Elder Burley, an Ipswich player like John Wark. Balancing this relatively new squad with experience, Stein called up veterans of the campaign in Argentina, Kenny Dalglish and Asa Hartford. No Archie Gemmill; instead Liverpool’s Graeme Souness and Leeds’ Arthur Graham where preferred up front. Unusually in today’s terms, the team featured no players from either Celtic or Rangers.
Scotland did not play well. A hat-trick by future Wales manager John Toshack sank the Scots in front of 20,000 at Ninian Park in Cardiff. On the same day England beat Northern Ireland 2-0 in Belfast. The result left Scotland firmly at the bottom of the group after the first round of matches having conceded one more goal than Northern Ireland.
Back in Scotland, Celtic won the league when on 21 May when they beat Rangers 4-2 in an exciting game at Parkhead. Rangers still had two games in hand, but even if they won both, they’d still finish one point behind The Bhoys.
The following day the Home Championships continued when Northern Ireland came to Hampden. Everton’s George Wood took over in goal from Alan Rough, who had been recalled to the Partick squad in preparation for their clash with Rangers the following day. Ian Wallace and Allan Hansen had been dropped, in favour of McQueen and Joe Jordan. Arthur Graham got the goal for Scotland in the seventy-sixth minute to seal the win, but what was probably more noticeable was the crowd: only 28,000 turned up for the game, low by any standard for Scotland home games.
The win over the Northern Irish meant that going into the final day of the competition, Scotland had an outside change of winning, as long as Wales lost to Northern Ireland and Scotland could overcome England at Wembley.
A seemingly tall order, but football is a funny game, and if the luck of the Irish could rub off on the Scottish players, then a victory over the English to be crowned British Home Champions would go some way to easing the hurt still felt by many.
The 100,000 fans packed into Wembley on the final day of the competition, 26th May, knew that it was possible for three teams to win the title. Should Scotland beat England, and Wales beat Northern Ireland, Wales would win. If Wales drew, and Scotland won, then Scotland would win. Simply stated, England had to win. Stein made no changes from the team that had beaten Northern Ireland three days previously: Wood, Burley, Gray, Wark, McQueen, Souness, Dalglish, Hartford, Jordan, Hegarty and Graham, with Narey and McGarvey as subs.
Scotland got off to a good start on twenty-one minutes when John Wark scored for Scotland. The Scots dominated the first half and should have got a second goal, but they where unable to extend their lead. Just on half-time, psychologically the worst time for a team to concede a goal, Peter Barnes equalised for the English and Steve Coppell and Kevin Keegan completed the scoring as England ran out 3-1 winners – and Champions. Northern Ireland and Wales only managed to draw, meaning that England had won the competition.
It made the defeat even harder to take.
Being beaten by England was bad enough, but to be beaten on English soil as the English players and fans celebrated was a lot to ask of the supporters. Scotland finished the competition third, with just two points.
With the season over, and the Home Championships done and dusted, Scotlands just had two more games before the long summer break: the second game against Norway in the European Championship Qualifying group, where Scotland would be looking to do the double over the Norwegians in the competition, having beaten them 3-2 back in November of 1978; and the small matter of a friendly against World Champions Argentina.
Diego Maradona was 19 when he took the field against Scotland on the 2nd June. The Argentinos Juniors player was already becoming an established international for Argentina. The 61,000 people who filled Hampden that Saturday saw a World Cup winning team filled with stars and stars to be. Stein again stuck with a similar line-up to the one which faced England. Rough replaced Wood in goal for the start, Sounness made way for Alan Hansen and Frank McGarvey came in for McQueen; both players where given their second starts.
Argentina scored first on thirty minutes when Luque put the ball past Rough. On sixty minutes Luque again scored, this time past Wood who had replaced Rough at half time. Diego Maradona added a third on seventy minutes. Arthur Graham got the consolation goal five minutes before the end. No one, not even Ally McLeod and his eternal optimism expected a Scotland win here, but although the score line suggests an easy game for the Argentinians, Scotland acquitted themselves quite well.
Taking heart from the performance against Argentina, Scotland continued their Euro ‘80 campaign when they travelled to Oslo at the start of June for their next game with Norway. Goals from Jordan, Dalglish, McQueen and Nottingham Forests John Robertson sealed a comfortable win for Jock Stein’s and allowed the team to go into the summer break with a good morale-boosting victory under their belt.
As referee Nielsen blew the final whistle in the Ullevaal Stadion in Oslo, Scotland where in third place in the qualifying group behind Austria and Portugal and level on points with Belgium, who had so far managed to draw all their games in the group. As we’ll see later, when the competition resumed after the summer recess, our results against the Belgians would prove to be crucial to both teams qualifying chances. But those games where a long way off yet. The international side took a long break from the rigours of qualifying for Euro ‘80; the next game would not be until September.
P W D L F A PTS Austria 5 2 2 1 7 5 6 Portugal 4 3 1 0 5 2 7 Scotland 4 2 0 2 9 6 4 Belgium 4 0 4 0 3 3 4 Norway 5 0 1 4 3 11 1
Back home in Scotland, the 1978/79 season in Scotland had come to a finish with Celtic as champions. Rangers finished second, with Dundee United and Aberdeen in third and fourth spot. Hearts and Motherwell had been relegated. Rangers completed a cup double when they won the League Cup and the Scottish Cup.
In the UK, as 1979 rumbled on, Margaret Thatchers Conservative government had fought its way into power as voters, angry at Labour’s mismanagement of the economy. The winter of discontent, which saw rubbish pile up on the streets and bodies go unburied as the country was struck by a series of national strikes, together with an inflation rate of 13% proved to be the undoing of Jim Callaghan’s government.
In May of 1979, Scotland had another chance to vote for devolution. The vote, effectively to sanction the 1978 Scotland Act would have seen Scotland get its own deliberative assembly. Despite a high turn-out of more than 63% and a vote in 51% vote in favour of our own assembly, the referendum proved unsuccessful due to a condition which was added to the Bill by George Cunningham, a Scot who represented an English seat which stated that at least 40% of the registered Scottish electorate had to vote in favour. In the end, only 32% of the registered electorate voted, and the bill was repealed the following year.
The preparations for the next round of qualifying games consisted of one friendly against Peru. When these two teams met in Cordoba in 1978’s World Cup tournament, the score had been 3-1 to the South Americans, with Joe Jordan getting Scotland’s only goal. The game was mired in controversy as Willie Johnston tested positive following a random post-match doping control. Despite protestations that the cause of the positive result was hay fever medication, Johnston was ordered home in disgrace – he would never play for Scotland again.
Fortunately for Scotland, there was to be no repeat of the chaos that surrounded the game a year previously. Likewise, the result was a bit more respectable. The game ended in a 1-1 draw, with Peruvian players scoring both goals. Olaechea put through his own net shortly after the kick-off. The score remained in Scotland’s favour until five minutes before time when German Leguia equalized for the South Americans. It was not a bad result in what was not a great game, but nevertheless, it would have to do as Scotland’s only warm-up game before the European qualifiers got under way again in October against table-topping Austria.
The 67,000 people packed into Hampden Park saw Johann Krankl put Austria into the lead just before the break, but a spirited fight back from Scotland saw captain Archie Gemmill, in his 34th appearance equalize with just twenty minutes to go. Just a month later, Scotland travelled to Belgium in the first of their back-to-back fixtures against Guy Thys’ side.
The Belgians, who had drawn all their group games so far had turned things around against around with convincing wins against Norway and Portugal. Scotland needed wins against Belgium to keep their challenge alive. In the first game on the 21st November at the Heysel Stadium, goals by François Van Der Elst and Eddy Voordeckers sank a Scotland side that had little to offer in terms of attacking options.
By the time the return fixture against Belgium came around in December, results had conspired elsewhere to make qualification for the Euro’s impossible. This fact was reflected in the low crowd that turned out to see Belgium complete back-to-back wins over Scotland when two goals by François Van Der Elst and one by Erwin Vandenbergh, all in the first half, proved enough to guarantee Belgium qualification.
The last game in the qualifiers, again at Hampden against Portugal in March 1980, was an opportunity for Jock Stein to try out some new players. George Burley was brought back into the team for his sixth cap, as where David Narey. The game would also be the first games in a Scotland jersey for Aberdeen’s Alex McLeish and Steven Archibald. The game, between two sides that had nothing but pride to play for was played out in front of one of the lowest gates for a friendly at Hampden. The game though was exciting stuff and ended in a 4-1 win for Scotland. Kenny Dalglish, Frank Gray and Archie Gemmill got on the score sheet, as did Steve Archibald who was brought on for Dalglish in the second half. Fernando Gomes scored Portugal’s consolation goal.
Scotland had failed to qualify for Euro’s. The final table put Scotland second from bottom, six points ahead of Norway, but four points from the qualifying games. The team, however, was showing promise as we headed towards the British Championships in May of 1980.
Packed with players from teams that either had, or would go on to win European silverware (John Wark would help Ipswich win the Uefa Cup, Alan Hansen, Kenny Dalglish and Graeme Souness would go on to win the European Cup with Liverpool in 1981, while John Robertson had won the European Cup with Nottingham Forest in 1979 and 1980) as well as a crop of promising new players about to come through from the leagues in Scotland, players such Jim Leighton, Willie Miller, Paul Sturrock, David Narey, Steve Archibald, Gordon Strachan and Alex McLeish, the future looked bright as Scotland looked forward to the start of the World Cup qualifiers in 1982.
We’ll conclude the story of Scotland’s Spain ’82 campaign next week.
If You Know Your History: Celtic 6-2 Rangers
Thursday, August 27th, 2009Following last night’s exit from the Champions League, we ease Celtic’s pain by reminding them that their team is actually quite good. On the 9th anniversary of the game, we look back at one of the finest Old Firm games ever.
Glasgow, August 27th, 2000. Four games into the new season, Martin O’Neill, the new manager of Celtic Football Club faces his first real challenge since taking over as manager from John Barnes: the first Old Firm game of the season.
Celtic had gotten off to a great start in the new 2000/01 season. Dundee United, Motherwell, Kilmarnock and Hearts had all been beaten, putting the Bhoys joint top of the table with Hibs, both teams on maximum points.
Rangers would travel across town to Parkhead as defending Champions. Under manager Dick Advocaat, they’d won the league the previous year -- their second consecutive league title -- with a record 21 point gap between them and Celtic. Although the League Cup eluded them, Rangers had won the Scottish Cup in May, beating Aberdeen 4-0 in the Final.
Despite the slow changing of the guard at Parkhead, Celtic managed to bring in two players who would have a dramatic impact in the months to come. Striker Chris Sutton joined from Chelsea for £6m, while Belgian defender Joos Valgaeren joined from Dutch side Roda JC for £3.8m. Heading out the door was Mark Viduka, sold to Leeds for £6m.
Rangers, no doubt influenced by the growing Dutch contingent at the club had brought in Bert Konterman and Fernando Ricksen from Feyenoord and AZ Alkmaar respectively to strengthen the squad, while a young Kenny Miller had also joined from Hibernian to start the first of his two spells at Ibrox.
Like Celtic, Rangers went into the Old Firm game with a solid start to the league behind them. St Johnstone, Kilmarnock, Dunfermline and St Mirren proved little in the way of a challenge. And like Celtic, Rangers had already begun their Champions League campaign, beginning with a 4-1 aggregate win against FBK Kaunas, a team they’d meet again a few years late. Three days before this game, Celtic warmed up with a resounding 7-0 win over Jeunesse Esch to complete an 11-0 aggregate win in that years UEFA Cup.
When the teams lined up on that Sunday afternoon, few had any idea of what they where about to witness. Old Firm games have a reputation for being volatile and passionate affairs, and this game certainly did not disappoint.
Three goals in an 11-minute period, including an opening goal from Chris Sutton after only 51 seconds got Celtic off to a blistering start from which Rangers never recovered. New boys Ricksen and Konterman in particular looked way out of their depth in the Rangers defence -- Ricksen would be substituted after only 20 minutes, when Celtic where already 3 goals to the good, Stillian Petrov and Paul Lambert getting their names on the score sheet.
Students of the Scottish game will know that no Old Firm game is without controversy. Rangers’ Claudio Reyna pulled one back for Rangers just before the break, but there where many inside the ground who doubted whether the ball had actually crossed the line or not. Rangers got the benefit of the doubt that time, but when Rod Wallace put the ball past Gould shortly afterward, the linesman incorrectly flagged for offside. Similarly, Chris Sutton’s opener looked suspiciously offside.
Billie Dodds reduced the deficit to only 1 goal after the restart from the penalty spot, but two sublime goals from Henrik Larrson, the first a wonderful chip over Klos in the Rangers goal, and a second from Chris Sutton sealed a memorable victory for Celtic and a forgettable day for Rangers, who also had Barry Ferguson sent off for batting the ball away out of frustration 7 minutes from time.
Teams
Celtic: Gould; Valgaeren, Stubbs, Mahe, McNamara; Petrov, Lambert, Moravcik, Petta; Larsson, Sutton.
Rangers: Klos; Ricksen, Konterman, Amoruso, Vidmar; Reyna, Ferguson, van Bronckhorst, McCann; Dodds, Wallace.
Goals
Celtic: Chris Sutton, Petrov, Lambert, Larsson, Larsson, Sutton
Rangers: Reyna, Dodds (pen),
Highlights
What happened next?
Following the game, Celtic would continue unbeaten until December, when they went down 5-1 to Rangers, of all teams, in the second of that seasons four Old Firm games: they’d win the other two. They would also go on to record two more high-scoring games, including the 6-0 demolitions of Aberdeen and Kilmarnock, as well as comprehensive wins against Dundee United and Hibs.
They would lose only two more games that season, to Dundee and Kilmarnock, both defeats coming in the last two games of the season, long after the title had been secured. Their eventual points tally of 93 put them a massive 15 points ahead of Rangers to secure their first league title since 1998.
O’Neill would also lead Celtic to two winning Cup finals that season. The League Cup was brought home thanks to an inspired Henrik Larsson hat-trick in the final against Kilmarnock (they beat Raith Rovers, Hearts and Rangers on the way), while the Scottish Cup Final in May of 2001 say Celtic victorious again -- Henrik Larsson scored twice, with Jackie McNamara adding a third as Hibs where swept aside.
Celtic’s Henrik Larrson would end the season as top scorer with 35 goals, more than twice his nearest rival, Aberdeen’s Arild Stavrum, with 17 goals and 24 more than Ranger’s top scorer, Tore Andre Flo, signed from Chelsea for £12m.
In a season where the SPL was increased in size from 10 to 12 teams, there where an unusually high number of high-scoring games. Together with Celtic’s 6-0 wins, Hearts and Rangers both scored seven goals in their wins over Dunfermline and St Mirren respectively.
Despite much criticism from managers, the 2000/2001 season was also the first season in which the new ‘league split’ was announced, following the expansion of the SPL from 10 to 12 teams. The split, after 33 games had the top-six and the bottom-six sides play eachother one more time to determine final placings.
At the end of the season, both Celtic and Rangers, together with third-placed Hibs and fourth-placed Kilmarnock qualified for Europe, with St Mirren, promoted from the First Division as champions relegated in a miserable season that saw them win only 8 games.
Sources: BBC, The Scotsman, Soccerbase
Scotland’s Road To España ‘82 (part I)
Sunday, August 9th, 2009There are some things in this life that are set in stone: Newton’s Third Law, death, taxes, the Old Firm winning the SPL every year, and so on. Likewise, every Scottish football fan knows that Scotland have never gotten beyond the first round of a World Cup. On three occasions, Scotland came very close to qualifying, but on all three occasions, goal difference would prove to be the cause for an early return home, and the shattering of an entire nations dreams.
There are some that say that the fortunes of a town – and even a country – is closely linked to the fortunes of it’s football team. This was never highlighted more effectively in 1978, when, on the back of a disappointing World Cup in Argentina, Scotland as a nation needed to regain a pride in its team, and hence the country, that many claim had been lost in eight short days in June of that year.
In the first of a three-part “If You Know Your History”, we look back at the years between the two World Cups in Argentina and Spain to see if Scotland was able to live up to the broken promises of ‘78 and make Scotland the greatest football team and help to restore some of that pride that had been lost. To tell that story however, we have to go back four years to a game that is still regarded as the best game of football Scotland has ever played.
It’s Sunday 11th June 1978. Scotland are playing what could be their final game in that years World Cup finals. Scotland had so far failed to win a game in the competition; an opening day loss to Peru and a draw against Iran saw them second bottom of the group, two points behind today’s opposition, Holland. Scotland needed to win, and not only that, needed to win by three clear goals in order to go through with group winners Peru on goal difference. The game had been tough. Holland, without Cruijff, had gone ahead on the half-hour mark from the penalty spot, before Dalglish equalized, and Gemmill put the Scots ahead, again from the penalty spot shortly afterward. In the stands, the Scots supporters in the Estadio San Martin stadium, on the march with Ally’s army where praying for a miracle, another goal to bring them closed to the next round and achieve something no Scotland team had ever done before.
The Scots pressed hard, but the Dutch defence held tight. On sixty-eight minutes, Robert Kennedy finds Kenny Dalglish on the edge of the Dutch area. Surrounded by future Celtic manager Wim Jansen and Jan Poortvliet, Dalglish stumbles and the move seemed to break down, but the ball somehow found it’s way to Archie Gemmill, lurking a few yards away. He took the ball, skipped past the challenge of Wim Jansen, then took it past a lunging Ruud Krol and suddenly the Nottingham Forest player found himself clear on goal. Gemmill set himself and cooly fired the ball over the on-rushing Jan Jongbloed as Rene van de Kerkhof arrived too late to stop the ball from going into the net.
The Tartan Army goes wild as the promise that manager Ally McLeod made before the team left for Argentina looked like it might still come true. One more goal lads, and Scotland would surely win the World Cup The game kicked off again with Scotland looking for the third goal that would put them through. The game still had another 20 minutes to play however, and the Dutch, losing World Cup finalists in the ‘74 knew the Scots would through everything at them. They had to make sure that Scotland didn’t get that third goal – one way was to defend, the other, the one they chose was to score themselves. In the seventieth minute, disaster struck as Johnny Rep thundered the ball past Alan Rough – a killer goal, and the Tartan Army knew that it was all over. No one, not even Ally McCleod, ever the optimist, could see Scotland getting two more goals in the time left. When the final whistle blew, Scotland where out, Holland went through. For the fourth time in their history, Scotland had fallen at the first hurdle. Surely it couldn’t happen again?
The expectation that Ally McLeod had set (the promise of returning with a medal and then defending their win) had been built up by the press to near hysterical levels, levels Gordon McQueen likened to Beatlemania. The discovery of North Sea oil in the late 60’s and the unfulfilled promise of the wealth it would bring to Scotland, lead to the rise of Scottish nationalism in the guise of the Scottish National Party (SNP). Their successful “It’s Scotland’s Oil’ in the early 70’s had seen the SNP return 11 candidates to parliament in 1974, starting a process that would force the Labour government to prepare for a referendum on devolution.
It was against this backdrop of a resurgent Scottish nationalism that the plane carrying the Scotland team back from Argentina touched down at Prestwick a few days after the defeat against Holland. Scotland had been let down by the performance of the national side but the upcoming European Championship, to be held in Italy in 1980, would provide the chance for the team to restore some of the pride lost.
Scotland had been drawn in a group with Austria, Belgium, Portugal and Norway. Austria where the only team in the group to also have played in Argentina ‘78. They’d done rather well, coping top of a group that contained Brazil and Spain. Belgium had not qualified for the World Cup ‘78 and, should they qualify for Italy ‘80, it would only be their second appearance in a European Championship. Managed by Guy Thys, Jean-Marie Pfaff, Eric Gerets, Jan Ceulemans and playmaker Enzo Scifo where the core of a strong team.
The European Qualification campaign started on the 25th October 1978 when Ally McLeod took his team to the Praterstadion in Vienna for the game against Austria. The team that night featured only two players who played their club football in Scotland. Alan Rough, of Partick Thistle and Aberdeen’s Robert Kennedy had played in the game against Holland. The rest of the team was comprised of players based in England. Joe Jordan, Martin Buchan and Gordon McQueen represented the red side of Manchester, while Billy Donachie and Asa Hartford played for the blue side. Archie Gemmill, made captain for the game, played for Nottingham Forest, Kenny Dalglish and Graeme Souness both played for Liverpool; Aston Villa striker Andy Gray and Leeds’ Arthur Graham completed the side.
The Austrians went into half-time with a single goal lead provided by Bruno Pezzey. The lead was extended just after the break by Schancer and the game seemed over in the 62nd minute when Kruez gave the Austrians a seemingly unassailable 3-0 lead. Gordon McQueen and Andy Gray scored for Scotland, but Austria held on to the lead. The game proved to be the end for Ally McLeod; shortly after the game, McLeod was sacked. Jock Stein was asked to return to manage the national side, and took charge of his first game against Norway at Hampden on the 25th October, 1978.
Fate smiled on Scotland as they recorded their first victory since they beat Holland in June. Things got off to a bad start when Einar Aas scored past James Stewart within the first five minutes. Parity was restored when Kenny Dalglish scored on the half-hour mark but Norway again took the lead through Okland on sixty minutes. With eight minutes to go, Dalglish equalised and Gemmill added a third from the penalty spot. Norway where beaten 3-2.
The last European fixture of 1978 came in November. Scotland travelled to Lisbon for the third game in the the qualifiers against Portugal. An Alberto Fonseca goal on twenty-nine minutes proved to be the only goal of the game as Scotland slumped to a second defeat.
Jock Stein had again picked a side comprised mainly of players based in England; the core of the team was based around Manchester United (McQueen, Buchan, Jordan), Manchester City (Hartford, Donachie) and Nottingham Forest (Gemmill and Robertson). Back in Scotland, by the end of 1978, Dundee United lead the Scottish Premier League with Partick Thistle and Aberdeen in second and third place respectively. Perhaps this is why the only Scottish based players in the squad that faced Portugal – David Narey, Alan Rough and Stuart Kennedy – had come from these teams. So as 1978 came to a close, Scotland where in second place in the European Qualifiers with three points, just one behind Austria and two behind group leaders Portugal. Things where going well, but there was a long way to go yet.
In Part 2, we follow Scotland through 1979 and 1980 as they continue their European qualification campaign, take part in the Home International Championship, play Argentina and begin the road to España ‘82.
