Wednesday 29 August 2012

The World Cup

It is as if we have been hibernating. No competitive international fitba for nearly a year and until this last week I have been in a state of neutral. I have not been peeking at past glories on U Tube, I have cast aside happy memories of Scotland heroes such as Dennis Law and Willie Henderson. Scotland, gie's a break.
My emotions have been placed on Andy Murray, Paul Lawrie and numerous Scottish Olympics athletes.
Perhaps it was the resounding Boo that woke me up a couple of weeks ago in a show down Easter Rd, Edinburgh that got the loudest raspberry in the Festival.
An ungratefull Scotland crowd that did not accept a win at home in a friendly with the unfettered glee that would have been gratefully received in the dark ages of a decade plus of dirge at Hampden under various ( hapless) managers and (duff ) Scotland players.
The Westa supporters meeting on Sunday was a sell-out and travel plans were the agenda items. Busses to Wales, 2 of. 1 of which is off to Belguim.
A bus to Luxemburg, 1 of.
A bus to Aberdeen, 1 of,  to see the mighty Estonia.
Plans are afoot to visit Croatia next June.
World cup fever grabs me and my pals, but is is exciting the nation?
The home game double header is not a sell out, and is unlikely to be. The cost of tickets is a scandal and other than England we are probably the most expensive international nation in Europe. And to watch us! Scotland, surely not!!!
The 8th September sees us on the road to the road to Rio.
I for one will be excited, let's hope the players are up for it.

Hamish

Partisan and light-hearted insight into footballing and sporting news.: All Rhodes Lead to Brazil

Partisan and light-hearted insight into footballing and sporting news.: All Rhodes Lead to Brazil

Wednesday 25 July 2012

The World Cup starts soon

It's not that I am counting the days, but it won't be long until we are heading to The National Stadium to witness the new World Cup campaign. The first in line are Serbia and the one piece of good news is that it is on a Saturday. We all have our different traditions & meeting places. The Queens Park Cafe, Victoria Rd has long since been a favourite as it is too busy and there came a time when we felt unwanted. To be fair the locals would look askance at the long queues and the lack of staff.
The Iron Horse in West Nile Street became a fans favourite & again too busy. There were however many happy traveling fans who experienced a real Glasgow pub. The Croatians were a rather athletic bunch and for the delight of the ladies I am assured they looked good topless on the dance floor. We will meet again.
Eventually, and we were struggling, I was invited with every other Scotland fan to Shawlands Bowling club. Great, intimate and a warm welcome. Pies & rolls. A veggie? A roll & butter!!
A brisk walk to Hampden and the misery & ecstasy begins. The singing, the optimism the stramashes & that is just the queue for the toilets.
Who knows what the new campaign will bring?
It will not be easy, it hasn't been Easy Easy since 1974 & even then it wasn't particularly easy (easy).
Not long now!

Hamish

Wednesday 4 July 2012

Wembley 2013

I was out for a drink on Saturday & met a pal who had booked his bus seat for Wembley next August. A pre-season friendly which is in truth a warm up to the second phase in our attempt to qualify for Brazil 2014. With a bit of luck and hopefully skill we then will be in a good position for our Belgium / Macedonia double header!
The English Fitba Association have invited their oldest rivals in a re-enactment of the Home International games first played in 1872. The 0-0 draw was the first international in the world ever and the annual game against the Auld Enemy was to dominate our game for the next hundred odd years. There were off course high points both at Hampden and away. The Wembley Wizards in 1928 won 5-1 and set in motion our national obsession with, it should be noted that 2 years later England won 5-2.
Scotland had their hroes with Tommy Walker of Hearts with a great scoring record, Last Minutte Reilly and of course Baxter. The 1967 legendary performance in seeing us briefly assume the mantle of World Champions, lost soon after in a home defeat to Russia by the way. The 1963 2-1 victory was by all accounts a better performance coming 2 years after the 9-3 drubbing.
We also suffered 7-2 and although we had a good Wembley  record we also had the Wembley Hoodoo with disastrous goalie mistakes. I myself suffered;
1969   4-1     Herriot
1975   5-1     Kennedy
1979   3-1.    Woods

Were these and other setbacks enough to send us homeward to think again? The Wembley clubs and the massive Scottish crowds filling London as well as the stadium give a resounding no.
The 70's saw our  invasion reach epidemic proportions and the Londoners must have been mightily confused to see Lion Rampant  flags with the brazen message, or was it a threat,?
 ' Remember Bannockburn , 1314'.
I'm not sure they did and of course their reply may have been 'Remember 1966'
So we return in large numbers to watch a friendly & I am not concvinced it will be treated as seriously as we Scots will imagine. Team England will be fullof players who will not have a Scot in their dressing room to rub it in as surely Denis Law & Billy Bremner did in '67.
Wembley is now a magnicent stadium , light years away from our dismal Hampden rebuild. It will be a great sight to see our flags return & we may raise our game to add to past victories.
Stein was not forgiven easily for sacrificing the 1982 game, we lost 2-0 to save players for the World Cup. We went out in the first round.
The target is Brazil, nothing else counts & win lose or draw in London I want to be celebrating qualification on Tuesday 15th October next year with a victory over Croatia.
Now that matters.

Hamish

Monday 16 April 2012

The National Stadium

We eagerly await an all Edinburgh Scottish Cup Final with a meeting of the green & white of Hibs and the boys in maroon from down Georgie Road.
The venue of the game will be the National Stadium, Hampden Park, until 1950 the largest stadium in the world with a European record crowd set in 1937 of 149,547 and 2 years later 149,269 for the visits of England. 147,000 witnessed the Celtic – Aberdeen  1937 Cup Final, quite an occasion and still more than Wembley ever held.
Various stages of downright neglect and subsequent reconstruction has seen the capacity final settled at 52,000 in the new 5 star EUFA venue, 2000 less if segregation is implemented. The Champions League and Europa League Finals were held in Glasgow  with a combined crowd less than the 127,000 at the famous Real Madrid – Eintracht Frankfurt 1960 legendary final.
There is a clamour for Murrayfield with a capacity of 67,000, a bigger venue and not too far to travel for the fans. And why not?
Hampden is no longer the biggest ground in Glasgow and only ties with St James park as the 5th biggest in the UK! Compare it the The Emirates!
It is the home of Scottish football and resounds to the noise of the Tartan Army Boys, but is it a good ground?  I contend that it not always the best.
The designers of the new stadium were hindered by budget constraints and a lack of vision. In retaining the bowl it marginalised the atmosphere, the terraces complete with seats are far to shallow, any seat near the front offers a poor view of the game.
52,000 is a strange figure and why was this chosen? Celtic have to play the cup finals in a stadium smaller than their own. Ranger’s fans will complain that the smaller teams get too big an allocation for the finals. Hibs & Hearts fans want Murrayfield. The question is where were the representatives of these clubs when the new Hampden was being planned?
Rangers offered the new Ibrox as a possible home for Scotland Internationals in 1980 with their stadium at the time sized at only 45,000 and were seen by many to be partly responsible for the then governments refusal to cough up with the promised millions for a new ground fit for Scotland.
Prior to the planning and rebuild in the 1990's Scotland's national team and cup finals regularly had crowds  exceeding 60,000. The present stadium makes little sense until the fans grab the atmosphere and even then only in big games.
I am a lover of Hampden, the history is remarkable, however 3 sides of the ground are below sub-standard. I cringe and despair when I land up with ticket behind the goals.
Watch and marvel at the new German stadiums, they did not cost a fortune.
This year’s final will be played at Hampden and there will be a great atmosphere and with luck there will be an exciting finale to the season, however we all know that the ground is not fit for purpose, it pales in comparison to Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, and the Arriva Stadium in Dublin may be strange it is however quite stunning. Hampden is not.
Hamish

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Burma

In my time as a media tart I have had some crazy interviews, however a few years ago I was privileged, nay mystified to have contributed a small part to world peace.
Amnesty International contacted me through ATAC as they have a strategy of highlighting individual prisoners of conscience, publicising their plight. It turns out that their focus of attention was a prisoner in Burma who was a football fan. The Tartan Army would be a worthy vehicle in which to help tell the world. Our worl-wide reputation for diplomacy really is that big.
I spent the day in Edinburgh, a photo shoot with a former political prisoner who put my life of ordinariness well & truly into the shade. This chap , now working for the BBC related being held captive in a container, a dissident with a cause & here's me a rebel without a clue! His stories of torture put my slightly amusing anecdotes of long tedious bus journey's to Europe to watch Scotland get walloped into perspective. Although a 13 hour return bus trip from Sofia to Macedonia, 1- 0 defeat and red hot tins of beer was a form of masochism not seen since The Marquis de Sade requested another pointed stick to be inserted side-ways up.... anyway I digress.
The highlight for me was a guest appearance on Burmese Free Radio. The extremely bemused presenter was introduced to a Scotland fan who had empathy for the poor guy in Burma.
It was only after my starring role that I realised that any future Scotland game in Burma would be without me! I would surely get a life ban, and sometimes I reflect that a life ban from watching Scotland, anywhere that is,  might not be that bad an idea!!
It is good to see Burmese democracy taking giant steps forward & I do feel that I have contributed.

Monday 2 April 2012

Red Boots

My first boots were a pair of Puma 300 size 5. I was 7 ish and either Puma started at a size 5 or my Father insisted on a pair I would grow into, they were beautiful &  had green rubber soles. Black with the distinctive Puma band, the mark of Pele & later Dalglish amongst others. The Germans tended to favour Adidas, certainly Beckenbauer, The Kaiser was a man of 3 stripes.
I had a particularly good pair of Adidas Santiago, bought when I was 12 and played in the Glasgow Cup Final, we lost 3-2 to Lourdes.
That great sports shop Chivers, Carlisle persuaded me that the pro's were all wearing boots slightly too small as they would stretch & fit like a glove. That piece of 1970's advice persuaded me to buy & painfully wear a pair of Puma Meister boots for a long long season. The pain was slightly alleviated when we played at home as Hammond's Pond was adjacent to the pitch and an immersion in water allowed for a certain temporary stretch. Next pair, Adidas 2000 bought in Luke Sports, Battlefield Rd, Glasgow. Slightly too big at 9. 1/2s.
great until it rained and they were suddenly 10. 1/2s.
Recently I was offered a game of 7's in Kendal, I went to the nearest so called Sports Shop and bought the cheapest on show.
All my other football boots, those bought since I was 7ish, many many  boots, mostly Puma or Adidas had one glorious thing in common. They were black, and if they were adorned with 3 stripes or a Puma flash then these were white in colour.
But now, me, a grown man in his earlyish 50's now wears Red Pumas. A saving of £3.00 persuaded me to buy red. Do I play well in them? Yes of course,  I certainly continue to show flashes of brilliance. For any passing spectator they will instantly recognise an oldish player who has certainly watched and learned from Barcelona & Athletico Bilbao. Style, yes in an athletic, technical way.
Style, not in any sartorial way. Cascades of laughter greeted their 1st appearance and this mirth has never ceased.
There is a rumour that the town of Ayr is going to run special tourist buses on a Friday night to witness the ludicrous sight. A fellow player has nominated me for the Turner Prize. the same wit has suggested that on a summers evening my boots may be a hazard with a late sun causing a glare strong enough to blind passing airline pilots.
They may be boots worthy of Hot-Shot Hamish himself, next time I however I am going black.
I long for the days when the kids buying football boots  agree that 'Black is the new Black'.

Wednesday 28 March 2012

Laughing stock?

I'm not justifying Rangers not quite so mysterious tax affairs reference the payments of players however we do have a tendency to castigate ourselves as the only nation that suffers scandals,mishaps, disasters and stramashes.
The world's self proclaimed biggest club Barcelona were nobbled by the Spanish Government  in 1987 for tax evasion in paying the players. A club so big that they claimed the money back from the players. This resulted in a players strike.
An oft heard phrase in phone - ins is 'We must be the laughing stock of the world!' If only anybody cared!!
Gretna, Airdrie and the shenanigans of 3 football authorities are not news in Burnley never mind Berlin.
Belgium and Austria have seen their share of clubs going bust.
I can only imagine that when we play abroad, club or country we are not respected, despite what their Manager may claim in media interviews.
We are now a nation with one well known player, & he is injured. We are in a not disimilar position like all the wee diddy nations who have one or 2 players in the Bundesliga, of which we have none. The French League? they may distantly remember Mo Johnstone!
I long for the day when we are mentioned as a nation of skillful, technical players.
Barcelona have used St Andrews as a training camp, Largs is still used as source of coaching courses.
Other than that, not a lot.
Shame!

Tuesday 27 March 2012

Did the ball move?

What an atmosphere! 8000 Scots in Wembley, outnumbered for once and to be honest we travelled with a modicum of hope & yet, & yet. We had a better record at Wembley than at Hampden. This was Euro '96 & football was coming home. Not home that is to the home of the first international, that home was a cricket ground in Glasgow.
But at half-time we were the better team & almost as important we had the better half-time sing song.
England had a brief period of good play in the 2nd period & scored courtesy of Shearer.
We were back in the game. The board was up to get Gazza off, & to be honest he was rubbish that day.
Penalty. Score this & we would get another, surely.
Mcallister as captain takes the spot kick *+& the ball moves. It shimmers and shakes. I saw it, I was in the front row behind the goals. We miss & Gazza scores a beauty one minute later.
Uri Geller claims the credit for moving the ball. I blame God & he / she does us another disservice a few days later at Wembley, a Dutch goal through Seaman's legs.
The ball moved, I saw it.
England 2 - Scotland 0.

Monday 26 March 2012

In these days of austerity, days when a Scotland team plays, probably more than once, and probably again no doubt, with no forwards, it is hard to believe that we used to give such abuse to some really good players. Really good ones that is!
Take for example Stevie Archibald. 27 caps, 4 goals. Star of Aberdeen, a really good Aberdeen team that is. Star of Tottenham Hotspur of the London variety, which included Ossie Ardilies, Hoddle etc.
And to top it all he played for Barcelona in a European Cup Final.
Many a time he was given pelters from the terracing. He played in 2 world cups for goodness sake.
He got a right good shiriking from the tartan beclad fans.
I bet you he is still fit. If he has boots he could still get a game, maybe not for Scotland that is as we don't play centre forwards anymore.
But Stevie we are often short on Fridays in Alloway. Astro turf boots mind you.
See you there. 7.00 sharp for a 7.15 kick off, mostly.
A discussion yesterday just before the Friday evening 7's, or 7 against 6 as it is occasionally and sometimes 7 against 8. Which game did Jim Baxter nutmeg Jimmy Armfield of England? Peter got it wrong I fear, not the 1964 1-0 game in which Alan Gilzean scored a headed winner, no it was the glorious 1962 2-0 victory. Davie Wilson scored the first in the 13 min. and the great Eric Caldow clinched it with a penalty with 2 minutes remaining on the clock. A crowd of 132,000 went mad celebrating Scotland's first home  win against the Auld Enemy for 25 years.
The annual home internationals were the high point of the international season and a victory against England was sweet especially as we had the misfortune of losing 9-3 the year before. An old friend of mine who was at Wembley that day blames the hapless and hopless Frank Haffey only for the first 8 as he is to this day convinced that Robert Smith's unjust 9th goal for England  was not only offside, not over the goal-line and followed a foul throw in 55 minutes earlier in the game.
The 1962 squad was possibly the best ever to play for Scotland and lost to the great Czechoslovakia team in the World Cup Qualifiers in a play off in Brusselles after extra-time. They were a year later to reach the final of the World Cup losing to Brazil and we were to rue the best chance we had of doing something.
Badly organised that squad certainly were.  Talented no doubt about it.
Baxter did nutmeg Armfield and passed the ball to a Scottish player who did not break stride.
Any mention of Jim Baxter & it is all too easy to conjure memories of the keepie up at Wembley 1967 & that short period of mastery over England, an all too brief spell as World Champions. A month later the crown passed to The USSR with a 2-0 defeat in a Hampden friendly. The England game itself was a qualifier for the 1968 Euros and our quest for glory was effectively ended that October in a 1- 0 defeat in Belfast. Slim Jim already passed his prime played only one more time for his country at home to Wales with a 3-2 victory.
A Fifer who started his career at East Fife he was quickly bought by Rangers after a starring performance against them. His class ,confidence and style along with arrogance quickly endeared him to the Scottish football public, Celtic fans included, except in Old Firm games I would guess. A classy left foot which sprayed the ball around the pitch he had joined a good Rangers team who were to win many trophies. He had of course an impish sense of humour and was so indispensable to the Gers that his bar tab was paid by the club at the St Enochs Hotel. It was indeed a legendary bar tab. His leg break in Europe was a turning point and he had a poor career in England.
A 1960 debut against N Ireland , 34 caps followed and 3 goals including 2 against The Auld Enemy. His greatest performance was however in the 1963 2-1 victory in London. The Wembley pitch was made for players such as Jim and there is a story that in the closing minutes he approached the goalie Bill Brown and advised him that:
  • He planned to score a hat-trick
  • If in the final minute the score remained 2-0 he would score an own goal.
Seemingly Brown had no doubts as to Baxter's honesty and was probably mightily relieved in some sense that England scored a consolation.
A Scottish fitba hero & one we will never see again. We however won nothing with Jim nor with any of that great squad of players.

Tartan Scarf

The trend for wearing kilts started in earnest not at Euro '96 but at France '98, the World Cup where we made our customary 3 game appearance and our early journey home was in no footballing way detrimental to the tournament.
Whether it was the prospect of opening the cup against Brazil and being for a short period the stars of the show, we wish or a sea change in nationalism we cannot be sure. However the first game following was an away trip to Lithuania and the kilt was de-rigeur, a must for all self disrespecting Tartan Army footsoldier. A centre of attraction in airports, railway stations, christenings and weddings of which the Scots were star players.
I am however not a kilt wearer, never have been and I have tried. I am a tartan scarf wearer, at present a Stuart tartan. We have been wearing scarves surely since 1872, 0-0 draw.
I do not claim to be an expert in tartan however 2 years ago I received a phone call from a guy also called Husband, an English chap living in Achiltibuie, well north of Scotland.
He was attending a wedding in Orkney & wanted to know which tartan to wear, I had half expected an invitation. His logic that I would know was puzzling and quite a compliment.
I checked with my  Father & he said Husband can wear Macdonald.
If this is untrue, who would know.
When the new Scotland campaign starts I will be travelling with scarf, not quite sure of the tartan though.