Haverings During A Break In The World Cup 2018 Treadmill

DURING this break between the last-16 and the last-8 of the World Cup, one finds one's football mind wandering a wee bit. So, it was good to come across a thread on the Scottish Football of Yesteryear page on Facebook which is perhaps a mid-summer, close-season staple – pick your all-time Scotland team.

 

You could not pick an All-Time Scotland XI and not include these two

Naturally, I had to stick my oar in, and my All-Time Scotland XI, which I chose in 4-3-3 formation – with the players named in what was the club they are probably best associated with, this team, was:

Jimmy Cowan (Morton); Danny McGrain (Celtic), Willie Woodburn (Rangers), Alan Hansen (Liverpool), Eric Caldow (Rangers); Dave Mackay (Tottenham Hotspur), Graeme Souness (Liverpool), Jim Baxter (Rangers); Kenny Dalglish (Liverpool), Hughie Gallacher (Newcastle United) and Denis Law (Manchester United).

Of course, such exercises are all about opinions, and, given the choices available I don't suppose we would ever get a definitive Scotland XI.

Another Scotland side I like to select is an Uncapped Scotland XI – the guys who should have been capped, but, perhaps because they were with the “wrong” team at the wrong time, or, their career ran contemporarily with that of a legend – they never got to wear the shirt.

Selfishly I tend to put my cousin, the late Carlisle United goalkeeper Allan Ross into the XI, he did after all get into one Scotland squad, but, good keeper though Allan was, he was only the second-best in our extended family, so, I have left him out of the following team, which is in 4-4-2 formation:

Sorry Cous' - Allan Ross of Carlisle United, didn't make my all-time Uncapped Scotland XI

Malcolm Finlayson (Wolverhampton Wanderers); Matt Watson (Kilmarnock), Danny Malloy (Cardiff City), Ken McNaught (Aston Villa), John Murphy (Ayr United); Bobby Russell (Rangers), Billy Stark (St Mirren, Aberdeen and Celtic), Brian McLaughlin (Celtic and Ayr United), Andy Ritchie (Morton); Harry Hood (Celtic), Alex Ferguson (Manchester United).

On the thread, I “flew the kite” of an XI based on club partnerships. Of course, the benchmark for this is the notion, put forward by more than one football writer of the 1950s, that the Scotland team should have Rangers' “Iron Curtain” defence teamed with Hibs' “Famous Five” forward line in this team:

Bobby Brown; George Young, Jock Shaw; Ian McColl, Willie Woodburn and Sammy Cox (all Rangers); Gordon Smith, Bobby Johnstone, Lawrie Reilly, Eddie Turnbull and Willie Ormond (all Hibernian).

I then looked at a less-drastic selection, picking “pods” or club units: goalkeeper and central defenders, full-backs, midfield, and strikers, and eventually came-up with this team, in 4-4-2 formation:

Jim Leighton (Aberdeen); Danny McGrain (Celtic), Alex McLeish and Willie Miller (both Aberdeen), Tommy Gemmell (Celtic); Jimmy Johnstone, Bobby Murdoch, Bertie Auld and Bobby Lennox (all Celtic); Jimmy Millar and Ralph Brand (both Rangers).

I WRITE a lot of sporting obituaries these days; it is always somewhat sad, to realise another of the giants of your youth has gone, but, I do feel a duty to let a later audience know just how good some of these guys were.

June 2018 was not a good month for older Rangers fans, with the passing of two of the greats of the 1950s – wee Johnny Hubbard and big Harold Davis.

Harold Davis - (picture courtesy of SNS)

I never met Davis, but, a football-writing pal, Alan Pattullo of The Scotsman, after writing a terrific profile of “the Hard Man of Ibrox”, kept in-touch with Davis and was a mourner at his funeral in Gairloch in Wester Ross earlier this week, penning a nice wee report on the day as well.

The legend is well-known, signed from Fife junior football by Scot Symon at East Fife, Davis went off to do his National Service with the Black Watch, turned down the chance of a safe billet as a pt instructor to go on active service with his mates into the Korean War and was damned near killed when he took a burst of machine-gun fire across his abdomen.

He came too in a hospital in Japan, then spent two years getting his health and fitness back, confounding the doctors by actually getting back to football with East Fife, and earning a move to Rangers, now managed by Symon.

He replaced a legend in Ian McColl, mentored another in John Greig – kept the back door firmly bolted while Jim Baxter, another Fifer, worked his magic, and became a legend himself over 260-plus games for Rangers, which included one European cup final, two League Championship medals, two League Cup-winner's medals and one Scottish Cup-winner's medal.

He then served Partick Thistle well and had a distinguished coaching career with Queen's Park, Rangers, Dundee and Queen of the South, before relocating to Wester Ross to open and run a hotel, play golf and fly fish.

A hard man on the field, yes, but, a gentleman off it, he will be much-missed.

The caption on this picture says it is Johnny Hubbard scoring from the spot against Celtic. He is actually scoring against Kilmarnock, and while goalkeeper Jimmy Brown did save one Hubbard penalty, it wasn't this one.

That applies too to wee Johnny Hubbard, arguably the most-popular South African ever to come to Scotland. He left Pretoria, aged 18, for a three-month trial with Rangers, was signed on a full-time deal even before that trial had expired and never went home, other than on-holiday.

He became Scotland's best and best-known penalty-taker. Dave Walker of Airdrie, Jimmy Brown of Kilmarnock and Bert Slater of Falkirk all saved Hubbard penalties – the other 61 he took were all converted, an incredible 95% success rate. Forced out of Ibrox by Symon, who seemed over-keen to move-on any remaining Bill Struth boys, he was well-liked at Bury, before running down his career at Ayr United.

He stayed in Ayrshire and for many years worked as a sports development officer with the local council. He captained Prestwick Cricket Club – he lived in the town and also promoted his other sports – tennis, golf, cricket and gymnastics.

His community service in South Ayrshire saw him made MBE, while his huge popularity locally made even walking down Prestwick Main Street, or Ayr High Street a series of meets and greets with well-wishers.

Spitting Image sang: “I've never met a nice South African.” They never met Johnny Hubbard, another legend who will be much-missed.