A Good Result - Or Was It?

THIS Celtic team getting out of the Amsterdam Arena with a draw, achieved after being reduced to ten men, would, in the normal course of events, be considered a good result.

 

However, Molde winning in Turkey has rather thrown a spanner in the works - given the Norwegians were being seen as the makeweights in the group. This could well be a Group of Death.

 

Celtic scored a couple of good goals, but, so too did Ajax. We know this current squad isn't yet a great Celtic one, but, the same could be said about the Dutch side. I thought, on the night, Ajax played the better football. Their players looked more-comfortable on the ball. As I said, this may well be a very interesting group indeed.

 

 

 

THIS month sees the 60th anniversary of the start of the European Cup, in which, of course, Hibernian competed - the first British club to participate, reaching the semi-final.

 

Hibs fan Aidan Smith, of The Scotsman was moved this week to celebrate his favourites' part in creating football history. Fair enough, but, in his article, Aidan made the familiar mistake, of crediting Eddie Turnbull with a record he does not actually hold.

 

Certainly Turnbull was the first British player to score a goal in the European Cup, but, in spite of 60-years of Scottish claims on the feat, he was NOT first British player to score a competitive goal in Europe.

 

I am afraid that honour belongs to one of two other men. If you accept that he played for a British club, the scorer of that first European goal was Charlton Athletic's South African-born, future Italian internationalist, Eddie Firmani.

 

If Firmani's place of birth and international country rules him out, the honour falls to Cliff Holton of Arsenal. Why the doubt? you ask. Let me explain.

 

The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, later to become the UEFA Cup, now the Europa League, actually started before the European Cup. Entry was restricted to cities which held Trade Fairs and, in spite of the Football League's antipathy and objections to European club competition, the London FA decided to enter a composite London XI.

 

Their team, drawn from all the London-based league teams, actually kicked-off their European campaign before Hibs did in the European Cup. In June, 1955, three months before Hibs kicked-off their European Cup campaign in Essen, London were in Switzerland playing against a composite Basel XI.

 

London won 4-0, Firmani scored the opener, Holton the second. We Scots are quick to bridle when our southern neighbours try to claim Scottish achievements; it is only fair, therefore, that we properly recognise the feats of those London players.

 

London made it all the way to the final of that inaugural Inter-Cities Fairs Cup competition, the trouble was, it took four years to conclude, so, by the time London lost to Barcelona, in the final in 1958, most people had forgotten what the game was all about.

 

 

I HAD to laugh when I read today that Alan Stubbs has praised Scott Cummings for putting-in some extra work to become happier to use his "weaker" left foot.

 

Now, being "one-footed" in football is alright, if you are Jim Baxter, Ferenc Puskas, or Davie Cooper. For such special players, being "one-footed" wasn't a handicap, but, for lesser players, it most-definitely is.

 

I remember, some years ago, watching a Scotland Under-21 cap tying himself in knots almost, in his efforts to get the ball onto his "good" foot. That player had a 17-year professional career, but, when he finally retired he could no more use his right foot than he could when his first club signed him as a trainee.

 

Getting a player to build-up his confidence on a weaker foot is not rocket science. I have a couple of friends, both former players and both now in their eighties.

 

They were the full-backs for their Primary team. The right-back couldn't kick with his left foot, the left-back was hopeless with his right. So, their Head Teacher, who was later mine also, came up with a plan. In practice games, the right-footer had to wear a "gutty" or "sand shoe" on his "good" foot, a boot on his "bad" one. This, remember, was in the days of leather T-balls, which weighed a ton when wet.

 

Later, the right-back won a competition to find the man with the hardest shot in Scottish senior football - using his previously weaker left foot; the left-back won the junior hardest-shot competition, using his previously useless right.

 

So, what's so special about a full-time professional working on his weaknesses? It is what they should be doing - if Scottish football and clubs were truly professional.