Celebrate Good Times

 

                                                                    Photo: BBC Scotland

Last week was one of those ‘international break’ interludes which means the top flight of Scottish football had a break while the lesser mortals in the lower leagues carried on as usual. 

Scotland were involved in what is now euphemistically termed a ‘double header’ with games against Cyprus and Spain at the National Stadium. Against all odds, Stevie Clarke’s men bagged six points to start the European Championship qualifying campaign with a bang, following up a laboured 3-0 over Cyprus with a brilliant 2-0 win over European ‘heavyweights’ Spain at Hampden - a game sure to live long in the memory.

The fixtures against Cyprus and Spain evoke memories of previous Scotland victories over said opposition and, moreover, the celebrations which followed. Back in early February 1989, Scotland travelled to Cyprus for a World Cup qualifier. The Scots were favourites to win. I can just about remember Scotland hammering the Cypriots 8-0 at Hampden in another World Cup qualifier in 1969 - Colin Stein scoring four goals. Stein had also scored in the fixture in the Mediterranean island where the Scots won 5-0 four months earlier.

Fast forward twenty years and we looked forward to Scotland repeating these easy victories. However, the Scotland team in 1989 was a different composition to the one that ended the decade that was the swinging sixties. While the team that cruised to that 8-0 win included the likes of Billy Bremner, Billy McNeill, John Greig, Willie Henderson, Alan Gilzean, Eddie Gray and Charlie Cooke as well as the aforementioned Stein, the 1989 version wasn’t quite as endowed with such talent. Nevertheless, when Maurice Johnston gave the Scots the lead after just nine minutes in the heat of Limassol, we sat back and waited for the goals fest. But we Scots know it never pays to get overconfident where the national football team is concerned…

Cyprus equalised six minutes later, and the game was level at half-time before the metaphorical roof fell in for the Scots three minutes into the second half when Cyprus took the lead. Scotland manager Andy Roxburgh cut a sorry figure but, thankfully, not for long as Richard Gough equalised six minutes later. But surely even a draw against the group’s so-called minnows – a group that also contained Norway, France, and the former Yugoslavia, - would seriously damage Scotland’s hopes of reaching the World Cup finals in Italy the following year.

Step forward Richard Gough once more. With time added on at the end of the game standing at a remarkable six minutes, the Rangers defender headed home a dramatic and, some might say, scarcely deserved winner for the Scots. Cue the normally placid Roxburgh leaping on to the pitch dancing like a demented gazelle on heat.

Scotland did qualify for the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy – but then they brought on the Costa Ricans…

What Scotland 1989 could have done with was a player with the sublime ability of Kenny Dalglish. Five years earlier, ‘King Kenny’ scored one of the most memorable goals seen at Hampden when he dinked past two Spanish defenders in the penalty box before firing a brilliant left foot shot into the top corner of the net to seal a 3-1 win over Spain in another World Cup qualifier, this time for the 1986 finals in Mexico. A young Maurice Johnston had scored twice to put the Scots in control, but Dalglish’s superlative strike put the Scots in dreamland.

Scotland manager Jock Stein wasn’t the sort of character to dance jigs of joy on the touchline but the celebratory atmosphere amongst the ecstatic Tartan Army was palpable to say the least. It gave the Scots real belief that they could qualify for the finals two years later which, of course, they did. These were the days, younger readers, when Scotland regularly qualified for the final stages of World Cups.

Jim Bett, who had a pivotal role in the game, recalled the fans backing at Hampden and said they were like an extra man for the Scotland team. He believed with such a backing they could have beaten anyone at Hampden that evening. Certainly, the celebrations went on long into the night, even with it being a ‘school’ night.

Now, Scotland have been celebrating another win over Cyprus and a sensational triumph over Spain. We Scots know better than anyone not to count our chickens but we can genuinely believe we will be at the finals of the European Championships in Germany in 2024. Can't we? Can we celebrate good times?

On second thoughts, perhaps I should have waited until after the games against Norway and Georgia in June before posting this…

 

Twitter @Mike1874

fitbason.blogspot.com

Harry's Game

 

                                                                        Photo: BBC

Being someone with maroon leanings, not only am I glad of the respite from the cinch Premiership this weekend, but I am also looking forward to FC Edinburgh’s game this Friday evening against Queen of the South at the Meadowbank Maracanã. I’m particularly keen to be reacquainted with one player in the visiting team, who made a significant contribution to one of the best days of my football supporting life. Sadly, he didn’t fulfil the promise that was expected, perhaps unfairly on one so young. But in Gorgie he will forever be remembered for one game in particular…

T'was the week before Christmas 2017. I took my then 12-year-old grandson Jack to Tynecastle with, it has to be said, some trepidation. Hearts were playing Celtic in the Premiership. Now, I have seen some poor Hearts teams over the years and this one five years ago was in the distinctly average category. Although the Maroons were fifth in the league, their performances had hardly set the heather on fire and going into the game against the league leaders the home team had been hit by something of an injury crisis meaning there were to be first team debuts for a couple of untried 16-year-olds.

Celtic, on the other hand, were creating all sorts of records and generally blowing away the opposition on a weekly basis. Under manager Brendan Rodgers, the Hoops were on an incredible unbeaten run of 69 domestic games stretching back two seasons. They were two points ahead of second placed Aberdeen and had two games in hand. Surely, it would be a case of how many goals Celtic would score against a depleted Hearts team?

On our way to Tynecastle, I explained the situation to young Jack who nevertheless retained the admirable optimism of someone still to experience the bitterness of life and following Hearts in particular. I suggested that, when the scoreline reached 4-0, we would leave and head for the bus home. He agreed and we pondered at which point in the game this would be. Hopefully, we would still be there for the start of the second half…

One of those 16-year-olds making his debut was Harry Cochrane. He was slightly built and looked more like Jack’s age. I did wonder about the wisdom of Hearts manager Craig Levein thrusting such a young lad into the cauldron of a home game against Celtic.

With our expectations at zero as the game kicked off, we were pleasantly surprised when Hearts made a decent start. Celtic dominated possession, as you would expect but the game was still goalless halfway through the first half, much to our surprise. Surely it would only be a matter of time before we saw the first goal. In the 26^th minute we did – and the crowd of over 18,000 were stunned as it went to the home team. Not only that but it was fresh-faced Harry Cochrane who buried a low shot beyond Celtic keeper Craig Gordon – whatever happened to him? – from the edge of the penalty box.

As is my custom I turned to young Jack and opined ‘it won’t last’. But I didn’t expect the next goal to be from Kyle Lafferty to put Hearts 2-0 ahead. And this before half-time.

Having seen my optimism burst on far too many occasions in over fifty years, I still expected Celtic to turn things around in the second half. They began the second period with all guns blazing and a goal duly arrived just three minutes after the re-start. But it came for Hearts when David Milinkovic took advantage of poor Celtic defending to, incredibly, put Hearts three goals ahead. Jack asked if my pessimism was still intact. I replied I would accept a 3-3 draw…

Celtic threw everything, including the metaphorical kitchen sink at Hearts but the home defence stood firm. Young Cochrane looked dead on his feet and another goal did arrive with fifteen minutes left – astonishingly it was another for the home side when Milinkovic scored with a penalty kick. One of the most remarkable games in Premiership history ended Hearts 4 Celtic 0. But we didn’t leave at 4-0 – we stayed to milk the celebrations at the end.

Naturally, big things were expected of Harry Cochrane thereafter, but it didn’t quite work out for him at Tynecastle. After a couple of loan spells at Dunfermline Athletic and Montrose, Cochrane is now at Queen of the South.

It remains an anomaly that one of the poorest Hearts teams I have seen in over fifty years produced arguably the best league result in that time. Whatever else Harry Cochrane does in his career he will never forget that Sunday lunchtime in Gorgie in 2017 when he helped deliver a Christmas present Hearts fans could only have dreamt of!

 

Twitter @Mike1874

Get Yer Official Programme

 

Regular readers of this column – and I thank you both – may have a notion that I tend to look at the past through rose coloured spectacles. Those far-off days of decades ago long before football became the corporate beast it is now; when teams took to the field in plain shirts with not a sponsor’s name to be seen; when you didn’t need to buy a ticket in advance – just handed over your cash to the friendly old man at the turnstile - and when you had to buy a match programme in order to get the half-time scores from around the country. I still miss those half-time scoreboards…

I’m currently reading Cliff Hague’s excellent book ‘Programmes, Programmes!’ which not so much wallows in nostalgia but nearly drowns in it. A Manchester United fan who actually hails from Manchester, Hague writes affectionately about how he still treasures his ticket stub from the 1968 European Cup final (although he felt the need to add ‘Champions League’ in brackets) between United and Benfica played at Wembley Stadium. It cost the princely sum of £2 and the match programme set the author back one shilling – that’s five pence, young ‘uns. Of course, everything is relevant. The pay packets (in the days when we had such a thing) didn’t exactly bulge for the working class in this country more than half a century ago. But it’s a sobering thought that the price of a ticket for a European Cup final in 1968 wouldn’t even get you a pie at a domestic league game today.

Hague also writes about the programme for Manchester United’s first home game following the Munich air disaster in 1958. Twenty-three people died when the plane carrying Manchester United players and officials and members of the press back from the club’s European Cup quarter final in Belgrade crashed on take off from Munich airport where it had stopped to refuel. Atrocious weather conditions with snow and ice on the runway meant the pilots had tried three times to take off but the plane failed to clear the runway on the third attempt and more than half the forty-four passengers onboard perished, some immediately, some days and weeks later. The programme for United’s game against Sheffield Wednesday merely left the names blank on the team sheet, a poignant indication of the tragedy. The importance of the programme is forever a reminder of a tragedy that destroyed one of football’s greatest ever teams, the legendary Busby Babes – although manager Matt Busby survived the crash.

Programme collecting has always been popular among football fans so it’s disappointing to read of some clubs who have stopped producing them, in paper format at least. Some have gone digital in producing programmes which may reduce a club’s carbon footprint but takes away, in my view, from the matchday experience. In days of yore one would leave the pub after partaking of a half pint lager tops and push through the turnstile five minutes before kick off (after greeting the friendly auld fella at the gate – Ed) and stand on the often open terrace. The programme would make a good read at half-time along with a pie and a cup of Bovril (other beverages were available)

One could catch up with the manager’s thoughts on the previous game. Whenever I went to Tannadice, reading Dundee United manager Jim McLean’s thoughts were often enough to have one crying into one’s Bovril but usually a manager’s ‘notes’, as they were often described in the programme, contained the usual cliches about ‘treating today’s opponents with respect and how it will be a tough game but the boys are ready for the challenge’

Scrolling through the digital version on your mobile phone doesn’t quite have the same effect and, try as I might, I just can’t write the team changes or the half-time scores on my mobile phone screen…

Much to the dismay of many, some clubs – and I’m talking about you, Hibernian FC – have even stopped producing any programme, digital or paper, which is a real shame. 

Cliff Hague’s book is a wonderful recollection of times gone by and some programmes such as the aforementioned Manchester United one against Sheffield Wednesday are a moment in history.  Yes, everyone needs to keep a tab on their carbon footprint and paper is a commodity that is easy to cut back on now we’re in the digital age. But producing football programmes on recycled paper may be a way of offsetting that.

Much of what gave me huge enjoyment when I first began going to the football more than fifty years ago has disappeared. While I don’t miss some of it – open air toilets which amounted to little more than a brick wall with a drain – football programmes are an essential element of going to the game.

Please don’t let this disappear.

Twitter @Mike1874

fitbason.blogspot.com