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.

There Was Something Very Scottish About How England Made It Hard For Themselves Beating Colombia

WATCHING England stumble past a piss-poor Colombia team, into the last eight of the World Cup last night – my first thought was: “Are you Scotland in disguise?” Because, there was something strangely familiar and Caledonian about their win.

 

Scotland in disguise? The England World Cup Squad

England was the better side, however, the all-too-familiar failings of the modern British game prevented them from truly making their superiority tell. The match ought never have gone to extra time, far less “the lottery of penalty kicks.” However, England lacked the technical skills, the wit and the imagination, to comfortably see-off their South American opponents.

I still remember my second Old Firm game, at Celtic Park, on 10 August, 1963. Rangers won 3-0, Jim Forrest announced his arrival with two goals and long before the end, the home fans had streamed away in disgust, leaving vast, empty tracts of terracing.

Forrest scored his second, Rangers' third goal, with one-quarter of the game to play. Had they wished, Rangers could surely have scored more goals, but, Baxter decided enough was enough, and spent the final quarter orchestrating humiliation on his hosts – who incidentally included six future Lisbon Lions in their ranks.

Baxter - the master of piss-taking keep-ball tactics

The Slim One was the conductor in a concentrated spell of “keep ball”, mainly involving John Greig, Ronnie McKinnon and Davie Provan, with occasional solo cameos from Willie Henderson and Davie Wilson. Ra Peepul, naturally, lapped-up this virtuoso display of gallus superiority from Baxter, the master of the genre.

How I wished, England could have produced such a show last night. But, while, naturally, they didn't possess a player capable of lacing Baxter's drinks, far less his boots; they ought to have been able, as that Rangers team were, of passing the ball around at will, frustrating the Colombians, and killing the game.

Celtic, under Jock Stein, had their own unique method of running down the clock and frustrating opponents. As I remember Bobby Lennox explaining: “If we wanted to waste time, we just gave the ball to Jinky and told him to take it for a walk.” The Wee Man would simply take-off down the wing, tormenting his opponents to dispossess him, an act which usually involved Celtic being awarded a free-kick in a dangerous area, offering them the chance to score.

 Jinky - nobody came close when it came to taking the ball for a walk to run down the clock

Of course, dribbling skills, even remotely-close to those Jinky, or Davie Cooper might display, are all but lost today; and, in any case, individual displays of prowess are frowned-on by today's coaches, more's the pity.

I doubt if we will, anytime soon, see a British midfielder with Baxter's combination of sheer arrogant gallusness, and his ability to nonchalantly make the killing 60-yard crossfield pass. However, we are increasingly these days told, today's players have a technical prowess beyond all but the very best of the old timers.

Pish, if that was the case, how come so-many England passes, even the simple five-to-ten-yard variety, did not go straight to feet? Even passing the ball around to kill time and frustrate the Colombians looked to be a chore. Sure today's players have an athleticism most of even the greats of the past didn't have, but, even the much-maligned Davie MacPherson – remember the unkind quote: “He's a versatile Scottish defender, he can mis-kick with both shins,” had better ball control than some of those England players.

The English media are getting awfy-excited about “Our 'Arry”, England captain Harry Kane. OK, he's a striker, a sub-species known for being a bit selfish and self-centred. But, when real captaincy was called for on Tuesday night, when tempers were flashing and the verbals were being exchanged – where was the Skipper?

 Bobby Moore and Billy McNeill - two great captains, who led from the front

Missing in action, that's where he was. He ought to have been in there, dragging argumentative niggling players such as Jordan Henderson away from the flash-points. Mind you, Henderson, as a Liverpool captain, should have known better. Just get the England players away from the feuding; very quickly, the referee would have realised: only one team is giving me problems here, and started sorting them out. Billy Wright, Bobby Moore or Brian Robson would have shown more leadership.

Of course, we can talk – you never find the Scots walking away when the boots start flying. This, however, on Tuesday night was another case of: “Are you Scotland in disguise?”

Another thing which perplexed me about the England performance was, how naïve they were in their passing. I accept, they will never be able to play tiki-taki well. The notions of one-touch passing and moving which that 21st century version of the 19th century Queen's Park play book is beyond this England team.

However, their ponderous, back and forth passing was never going to break down that Colombian defence. Where were the ancient British staples of fast, along the ground balls between the central defenders and full-backs, for wingers to run onto? They are like England cricket batsman, whose first movements are across and back, rather than on to the front foot and playing forward.

British football, at its best, is about playing at pace and with passing accuracy, two facets which England failed to demonstrate. For instance, that Belgian winner the other night – that was a classic British goal.

A Chelsea goalkeeper bowls a quick out ball to a Manchester City midfielder, who runs 60-yards, passes ahead of a PSG player, whose low cross is dummied by a Manchester United player, for a Spurs man to score. OK, we cannot play-down the part which Thomas Meunier of PSG played in its execution, but, this was a goal made in the English League.

Wing Commander Charles Reep - Belgium showed his theory could work

Basically, it was an exemplary demonstration of dear old, much-maligned Wing Commander Charles Reep's theory: that most goals were scored via short, sharp three or four-pass moves. Just occasionally, good old-fashioned straightforward British football works – even if it takes four or five Belgians to demonstrate this.

And by the way, fear ye not all you Scots who can see our worst nightmare happening, and England winning the damned thing. Much as I like Gareth Southgate, and admire how well he is coping with the “impossible job” of being England manager. England just might be the best team in their half of the draw, and they are arguably, a better team than Sweden, Serbia or Russia.

But, some time soon, they have to come up against someone from the other half, and Uruguay, France, Brazil and Belgium are all better teams than England. All bar Uruguay are ranked above England in the FIFA-Coca-Cola World Rankings; and we all know one of the firmest rules of World Cup Finals play - England always lose the first time they meet a higher-ranked team in the knock-out stages.

That's another way in which they are Scotland in disguise – they will not win the 2018 World Cup.

Sunshine On Ayrshire - Bugger The World Cup

ON THOSE rare occasions when the sun is splitting the heavens and there is narry a cloud in the sky, plus, you live in God's County of Ayrshire – it is all too-easy to forget you are supposed to be blogging on fitba, even when there is a World Cup on.

 

Culzean Castle - I was looking at that, rather than Brazil v Mexico

So, yesterday, instead of doing essential work, such as counting how many rolls Neymar completes after going to ground in search of a free-kick, I was enjoying the company of a refined English lady and walking around the paradise that is Culzean Castle and country park. Ach! Let's be honest – I never expected Mexico to seriously inconvenience Brazil's march to the quarter-finals.

And, it meant I was home in time to watch Belgium v Japan. Fantastic second half, and, what an ending – best heart-stopper since 'Carrie' in my view. Fair play to Belgium, and in particular Curtois, to recognise, even with less than ten seconds left on the clock, the game was still winnable.

Marouane Fellaini - a handy big man to bring on

There is, I am glad to see, still a place in football for the old-fashioned cross into the box for a big man to attack, and, few do it better than big Fellaini. He might be Marmite to English commentators, but, when such shrewd operators as the Special One at club level, and Martinez at international level, keep picking him, he must be doing something right.

Tonight, of course, it's the noisy neighbours who are playing. England, in the knock-out stages of the World Cup, must-watch TV for the Scots, because, this is when we get interested.

Will it be tonight we can sit back and relish the English media going ape shit when they go out? I fear not. I am actually growing fond of this English team, merely because of the under-stated, restrained, very genuinely nice English way in which Gareth Southgate and his men have conducted themselves. It is difficult to wish ill on such nice people – their media however, well, that's another matter.

England could go a long way still in this World Cup – and if they get to the semi-finals or final, they would have a genuine chance – but, could we stand that?

Any way, a couple of wee things I have picked-up on over the tournament. The first is, as an ex-goalkeeper, albeit at a pretty low level, I keep asking myself: are these bloody gloves they all insist on wearing these days maybe more harmful than helpful – because the standard of handling is, frankly, shite.

Even 50-years on, Gerry Neef's save from Tam Gemmell is memorable

The late Gerry Neef will never get onto the short leet for “Greatest Rangers Goalkeeper”, but, I still, over the 50-years or so since he pulled it off, remember a flying save he made, to clutch a Tommy Gemmell 25-yarder. As we all know, big Tam hit a mean ball, but, the horizontal Gerry held this one. Of course, being Gerry, a few minutes later, he let a trundler through his legs, but, to even get to the Gemmell shot, far-less hold it, was exceptional.

Manuel Neuer is a far-better 'keeper than Neef, but, he, like so-many of today's top custodians, seems incapable of taking cleanly and holding anything short of a pass-back. I blame the gloves.

When we were playing, we occasionally wore a woollen pair, on really bad days, otherwise, we went bare-handed, and I reckon we handled better.

The shape might be different, but, today, rugby and football balls are made of the same composite materials. Rugby players, who have to have good handling skills, NEVER wear gloves – just saying.

When, oh when, are referees genuinely going to start yellow carding “simulation”; you see the odd card flourished, usually for the most-obvious bits of over-acting, but, there is no consistency.

You also have the good old commentator's staple: “Well, for me, he went down too-easily there.” When that happens, and VAR says: “No penalty,” book the diver – that would soon stop it.

SOMETHING I forgot to mention in June, was the new season's format in the Junior and Non-League Senior ranks. The SJFA has accepted the need to get involved in the SFA's ongoing plans to establish a proper pyramid system in Scottish Football.

Fine-tuning this long-overdue forward step will take some time, but, as things stand, here is how football in Scotland will look this season:

• Level One – SPFL Premiership (12 clubs)
  
  
• Level Two – SPFL Championship (10 clubs)
  
  
• Level Three – SPFL League One (10 clubs)
  
  
• Level Four – SPFL League Two (10 clubs)
  
  
• Level Five – Highland and Lowland Leagues (18 clubs in Highland League; 1 clubs in the Lowland League)
  
  
• Level Six – East of Scotland League (39 clubs playing in three 13-club conferences); South of Scotland League (15 teams playing in one division)
  
  
• Level Seven – Junior football: SJFA has three Regions – East, North and West which organise their local teams into various leagues as required. West Region has 63 clubs, split into divisions (3x16 clubs, 1x15 clubs); East Region has 36 clubs playing in 3x12-club divisions; the North Region has 35 clubs who play in three divisions, (a 14-club Superleague and the 10-club First Division North and 11-club First Division East)
  
  
• Level Eight and below – amateur football.

The new format for the West Region Juniors is particularly interesting, as it sees the ending of the apartheid system which kept the old Ayrshire League and Central League sides apart, now it is an all-in league, although, the old local cups will still offer the sort of tribalism which is the Juniors' stock-in-trade.

The new leagues wil line-up as follows:

Premier Division

Auchinleck Talbot

Beith Juniors

Cambuslang Rangers

Clydebank

Cumnock Juniors

Glenafton Athletic

Hurlford United

Irvine Meadow

Kilbirnie Ladeside

Kirkintilloch Rob Roy

Kilwinning Rangers

Largs Thistle

Petershill

Pollok

Renfrew

Troon Juniors

Championship

Arthurlie

Benburb

Craigmark Burntonians

Cumbernauld United

Dalry Thistle

Darvel Juniors

Girvan

Irvine Victoria

Kello Rovers

Kilsyth Rangers

Larkhall Thistle

Neilston Juniors

Rossvale

Rutherglen Glencairn

St Roch's

Whitletts Victoria

League One

Ardrossan Winton Rovers

Bellshill Athletic

Blantyre Victoria

East Kilbride Thistle

Gartcairn

Glasgow Perthshire

Greenock United

Lugar Boswell Thistle

Maybole Juniors

Maryhill Juniors

Port Glasgow Juniors

Royal Abert

Shettleston Juniors

Shotts Bon Accord

Wishaw Juniors

Yoker Athletic

League Two

Annbank United

Ardeer Thistle

Ashfield Juniors

Carluke Rovers

Forth Wanderers

Johnstone Burgh

Lanark United

Lesmahagow Juniors

Muirkirk Juniors

Newmains United

Saltcoats Victoria

St Anthony's

Thorniewood United

Vale of Clyde

Vale of Leven

This World Cup Has Brought Me Back To Football

I ADMIT, I have been silent for almost a month, the reason is simple – I think I got a wee bit fed-up wi' fitba; well, maybe not fitba, perhaps the stagnant hole into which the game in Scotland has got itself, at least at the top level.

 

The VAR team at work during the World Cup

But, the World Cup has got the old brain cells tingling again; to quote Ko Ko from 'The Mikado': “My brain it teems with endless schemes.” Some of the innovations of this World Cup have certainly provided food for thought.

Principal among these has been VAR or to give it its Sunday name: 'Video Assistant Referee', which is being tried for the first time in this World Cup. Of course, as we already know, VAR is not perfect – it cannot be, because there is still, rightly in my view, a human element to its use, and people make mistakes.

However, in general, thus far, VAR has been a success – whether that will still be the considered opinion once we get into the knock-out phase, and things get serious, remains to be seen.

One thing where it has singularly failed to convince is among all the jostling, pushing and holding at set pieces, particularly corner kicks. In the England v Tunisia game, Harry Kane was twice wrestled to the ground, without getting a penalty for his troubles. I can accept, he was maybe having his twopenceworth, to the Tunisian defender's sixpenceworth at the first incident, but, in the second – in Rugby Union, the Tunisian defender's challenge was a penalty and a yellow card every day of the week, and twice on Sunday – yet nothing was given.

No penalty - my arse!

I know, the two “dummies” - the almost-useless additional goal line officials we see in European games are not in evidence at the World Cup, but, I have felt since they were introduced, they ought at least earn their match fees by getting involved at corners, and watching the all-in wrestling, and ruling on penalties or free kicks.

In American Football, there are additional referees, looking out for holding offences, who when they see one, drop a flag to indicate they have seen it. That decision is then reviewed and acted on. What I have seen in American Football is (and here I use the team names for clarity, not to suggest any particular team is more-guilty than any other): say Green Bay has possession, on the “snap” to the Quarterback, a bit of pushing ensues between the Green Bay offence and the Cowboys defence and the officials spot it – down goes a flag, play is stopped and the offence reviewed.

Now, it might be there are five pairs of players grappling illegally, the decision might be, two of the “bouts” were started by Green Bay players, two by Cowboys – so, they cancel-out each other, but, the fifth struggle was initiated by a Cowboys' defender, so, Green Bay get the foul awarded to them.

I reckon, if footballers thought the same system might apply to them and penalties followed, we would see a lot fewer wrestling matches.

With VAR, unlike in Rugby Union, when a decision goes to, or is subject to a review by the intervention of the TMO (Television Match Official), we do not hear the conversation between the match referee and the guy in the TV booth – it might be illuminating if we did. Generally, however, I thin VAR is working well.

Another innovation I would like to see football bring in from Rugby Union, is the Citing Officer, the guy who can decide, if a referee misses something, or if he feels a player got off lightly, harden-up any punishment – upgrading a yellow to a red card for instance. I think, if they knew they weren't automatically in the clear at the final whistle for offences they got away with, players would soon moderate their behaviour.

I have been saying for a while, Association Football, being the most free-form of all the different forms of “Football” really should have a zero tolerance attitude to foul play, but, it is perhaps the most-lenient in how it treats miscreants.

THERE IS another hardy annual about the World Cup Finals, or the European Championship Finals for that matter. This is the manner in which BBC and ITV have become cheer-leaders for England.

Nothing against this, if they want to forget journalistic neutrality and get right behind their team, fair enough. But, I do not see why the Scots should have to suffer such insufferable bias. If Danny Murphy, or Glenn Hoddle wants to go on about “we” or “us” to an English audience, no complaints – we get it in coverage of Scotland games from our own talking heads. However, it is long past time the English media realised, “England” is not “Great Britain” or “The United Kingdom”.

 Bill McLaren - could give today's commentators lessons in beng neutral

For instance, Bill McLaren showed absolutely no bias as he commentated on his Son-in-Law, Alan Lawson, scoring two tries against England at Murrayfield in 1976. He was equally even-handed as he described Tony Stanger, a boy he taught to play rugby as an eight-year-old in Hawick. Indeed, one of my all-time favourite sports writers, the late Frank Keating, paid tribute to “The Voice's” ability to treat Scotland the same as any other nation in commentary, in poetic form.

We could do with more Bill McLarens and fewer Clive Tyldesleys, we might enjoy the games more. And,while I am offering a critique of the personalities involved in the World Cup coverage – can I just say, he might have been a terrible manager of Rangers, but, as an analyst and talking head in Moscow, Ally McCoist is playing a blinder. His partnership with Jon Champion is every bit as good as his on-field pairings with Mo Johnston and Mark Hateley.

 

Ally wasn't on-duty for the Germany v Sweden game, more's the pity. I feared for the sanity of the ITV team when it looked as if Germany might lose and go out at the group stage, but, that fantastic goal from Toni Kroos didn't half put their gas oot o' peep.

It also produced the best World Cup crack of this tournament: “The last time the Germans failed to get through the group stage was in 1938 – they didn't take that very well.”