Scottish teams have been left on the outside looking in over the past couple of weeks as the European competitions reach the latter stages.
It has not been a good year for the SPL representatives as our Uefa co-efficient declines.
We hark back to a famous night in 1982 and Jim (Dennistoun) asks: My dad tells me that two Scottish teams recorded famous European away victories on the same night in the 1980s. Can you help with the details?
- Wednesday, September 29, 1982 was, indeed, a glorious night for Scottish football. Celtic beat Ajax 2-1 in Amsterdam to progress to the next round of the European Cup on a 4-3 aggregate, Charlie Nicholas and George McCluskey getting the goals while, in the Uefa Cup, Dundee United progressed at the expense of PSV Eindhoven (3-1 on aggregate) after a 2-0 win in Holland with Billy Kirkwood and Paul Hegarty scoring. On the same night, Rangers also made it through to the next round of the Uefa Cup with a 2-0 home win over Borussia Dortmund (aggregate 2-0) with Derek Johnstone and Davie Cooper netting.
Blue with the cold (Govan) – What is the record attendance for an Old Firm game at Ibrox?
- According to our records the largest crowd was for Rangers v Celtic on January 2, 1939. The official attendance was given as 118,567, although it is worth remembering that children were often lifted over the turnstiles and therefore were not counted in the official returns.
By all accounts, the game itself was a splendid affair, played on a bright, crisp January day, with Kinnear and Venters scoring for Rangers and Carruth netting for Celtic during a spirited second-half fightback.
The present capacity at Ibrox is 51,082.
Tammy Troot – My pal tells me that the British Army team regularly played against Scotland in the 1950s. Is this correct?
- Your friend is right. Many prominent footballers were undergoing their National Service and represented the British Army. A good example of this is the game played in November, 1958, in front of an 11,000 crowd at Tynecastle where a Scottish XI drew 1-1 with the British Army team.
Scotland XI: Beattie (Celtic), Caldow (Rangers), Wilson (St Mirren), Mackay (Hearts), Gabriel (Dundee), Cumming (Hearts), Hunter (Motherwell), Rankin (Airdrieonians), Herd (Arsenal), Law (Huddersfield Town) and McParland (Partick Thistle).
British Army: Slater (Falkirk), Parker (Everton), G. Williams (West Bromich Albion), J. Williams (Plymouth Argyle), Plenderleith (Hibernian), Milne (Preston North End), Scott (Rangers), Smith (West Ham United), Hitchens (Aston Villa) Dobing (Blackburn Rovers) and Mullhall (Aberdeen).
Denis Law opened the scoring for the Scotland XI, with Gerry Hitchens equalising for the British Army team.
Rab Lindsay (Castlemilk) – The first Scotland v England match I attended was the 1968 game at Hampden – a 1-1 draw. Could you please give the team line-ups?
- The game was played on February 24, 1968.
Scotland: Simpson, Gemmell, McKinnon, McNeill, McCreadie, Greig, Bremner, Cooke, Johnstone, Hughes and Lennox.
England: Banks, Newton, Wilson, Mullery, Labone, Moore, Ball, Hurst, Summerbee, Charlton and Peters.
Martin Peters opened the scoring for England while John Hughes equalised for the Scots.
Provan Puzzler – Against who did commentator Davie Provan make his Celtic home debut?
- Davie made his Parkhead debut against Burnley on September 27, 1978. The game was an Anglo-Scottish Cup-tie which Celtic lost 1-2 on the night and 1-3 on aggregate. This was also the game where Danny McGrain made his long awaited return from injury, having missed Scotland’s ill-fated World Cup adventure in Argentina.
