I Believe

I AM a Baby Boomer, a member of that generation of people, conceived in the rush of end-of-the-war, back-to-normality carnality, who went on to endorse the mini-skirt, long hair, rock and roll, invent sex, on 16 October, 1964, and generally bring ruination and damnation on Western culture.

 

We didn't have to do National Service, so, "they" couldn't prise us into nice little boxes - it's been downhill ever since.

 

We started to become interested in football during that now long-ago decade when the Scots were the imports of choice into the English League, when Europe was a huge adventure, just beginning. We started in a game in which all boots were brown, hard-toed, went above our ankles, had leather, hammered-in studs, and had to be dubbined.

 

The first real ball we got was also brown, it was assembled, in a factory in Dumbarton Road, Glasgow, by stitching together T-shaped panels, it had a lace and, if you happened to head the lace, you kent a' aboot it.

 

It was a different world, in which the Old Firm didn't win all the trophies, every year, crowds were huge, and they stood, and Hampden really roared.

 

The Scotland team could attract 130,000-plus fgans to Hampden to see them take-on England; there was no television in Scotland before 1952 and Alex Ferguson was still living in Govan.

 

Back then, as I began to follow football, Scotland actually reached the World Cup finals. In 1954, we were drawn in what would today be dubbed "The Group of Death", with Austria, Uruguay, the World Champions and Czechoslovakia - the Czech Republic and Slovakia then being one country.

 

We were unlucky to lose 1-0 to the Austrians, then got hammered 7-0 by Uruguay, we didn't bother playing the Czechs, waste of time really.

 

Austria finished third, Uruguay fourth, so, at least we didn't lose to a couple of diddy teams.

 

West Germany as they then were, won that World Cup, winning what is now, in German folklore, a game known as: "The Miracle of Berne", in which they beat the seemingly unbeatable Hungarian team of Ferenc Puskas and Co.

 

Scotland's international team, at that time, usually went on an end-of-season tour of Europe. In 1955, we drew with a very good Yugaslav team in Belgrade, hammered the Austrians in Vienna, then gave the Hungarians a massive fright, before losing in Budapest. The SFA's International Committee, the guys who benefitted most from these European tours - a nice we jolly to foreign climes on the SFA expense account, didn't fancy such a trip in 1956 and in 1957, well, there was a bit more seriousness to the European tour.

 

We had just thrashed a Spanish team, which had a forward line of Miguel, Kubala, Di Stefano, Suarez and Gento, which not even Real Madrid and Manchester United combined could afford at today's prices, at Hampden to head our World Cup qualifying group.

 

We then headed to Basle, where a brace of goals from Jackie Mudie and Bobby Collins saw us home against the Swiss. Mudie, by the way, had scored a hat-trick against the Spanish.

 

Next stop was Stuttgart, and a game with the World Champions, which drew 80,000 fans on a Wednesday afternoon. Germany was rebuilding towards the 1958 World Cup finals and put-out something of an experimental team, containing just one of the World Cup-winning XI; but, that player was "Der Boss", Helmut Rahn, the Rot-Weiss Essen forward who had become a national hero with his two goals in the "Miracle of Berne".

 

Scotland made a couple of changes from the team which had won in Basle three days before, resting skipper George Young of Rangers and veteran winger Gordon Smith of Hibs, with Bobby Evans of Celtic and Alex Scott of Rangers coming in.

 

The German fans were shocked as, playing classic Scottish along the ground, pass-and-move football, Scotland took control and the Wee Barra, Collins, firted them in front in 20-minutes, with Mudie scoring his fifth goal in three games in 33 minutes, to make it 2-0 to Scotland at half-time.

 

Collins made it 3-0 after 54 minutes, before the whistling in disgust of the home fans fired-up the Germans. Rahn proceeded to give big John Hewie of Charlton a torrid time down the right and big Tam Younger in the Scottish goal had to be at his best to keep them out.

 

Ian McColl and skipper Tommy Docherty, who had ran the midfield in the first half, were pushed further back; Evans played a blinder in his unaccustomed centre-half role, and with Eric Caldow and the hard-pressed Hewie also defending well, the Scots held-out.

 

Gerhard Siedl grabbed a consolation goal for the Germans in 70-minutes, but that was as close as they could get and the match finished in a 3-1 win for Scotland.

 

Now, I am under no illusions about this Sunday's game between the two countries. Germany, even without their stars such as skipper Lahm who have retired after Brazil, should still be too-strong for us.

 

We will start an under-dogs, but, wewere under-dogs in 1957. Then, as now, a thrawn, red-headed midfielder was running things for Scotland, so, who says we cannot win again.

 

This is Scotland after all - we have a track record when it comes to beatng reigning World Champions.

 

BELIEVE.