For Scotland fans of a certain vintage, there are matches that stay fresh in the memory above all others. Forty years ago was one of those, the 2-1 victory over Czechoslovakia at Hampden Park which ensured Scotland would take part in the World Cup finals for the first time in a generation.
   That game on 26 September 1973 wasn't the first time I had seen Scotland play, but it is the first match I can remember them winning. It had such a huge impact on me, as an impressionable 15-year-old, that I kept the following day's newspaper. I still have it, and Allan Milligan's front page photo (above) of toothless Joe Jordan being congratulated by Tom Hutchison remains a classic image of unbridled Scottish celebration.
   More importantly, the win raised Scotland's football aspirations. It gave us confidence that we could compete on the world stage - this was the first of five consecutive qualifications - and also helped to shift the traditional attitude that beating England in the British Championship was the most important game of the year. 
   Our World Cup qualifying group seems ridiculous by modern standards. Just three nations, with the amateurs of Denmark making up the numbers, and group winner qualifying for West Germany. Scotland under Tommy Docherty breezed past the Danes home and away, while the Czechs could only, inexplicably, draw in Copenhagen before putting six past them in Prague. With two games remaining, that unlikely draw made our target simple: win at Hampden to reach the World Cup finals, regardless of what happened in Bratislava the following month.
   Simple? Hardly. 1973 had begun with a new manager, Willie Ormond, and an SFA centenary celebration game against our traditional rivals which turned into an embarrassing 5-0 rout; there would be another, albeit narrow, defeat at Wembley in May and by the autumn Ormond had lost five of his first six matches.
   In the media, there was scant optimism, and Ian Archer in the Glasgow Herald was particularly gloomy: 'There is no reason to believe that the Scotland of 1973 can succeed where the Scotlands of 1961, 1965 and 1969 have failed before them,' he wrote. 'Only the old adage that hope springs eternal will comfort the impassioned and the patriotic.'
   Nonetheless, the game was a sell-out, Hampden having been restricted to a crowd of 100,000. For the rest of us (particularly those like me with school to go to in the morning) there was the rare treat of a live broadcast on STV. It began ominously, a hard physical battle with no quarter given. I can still hear Arthur Montford intoning 'And that's disaster, absolute disaster for Scotland' as a nonsensical long shot from Nehoda evaded Ally Hunter's flap and crept in at the far post. It was 'a freak goal' according to the Scotsman. As half time approached, the hopes of the nation were revived as the big defender Jim Holton leapt above the Czech defence (and Denis Law) to head home a corner. All square at the break. 
   The second half was the stuff of legend. We saw a Scotland side which was disciplined, having to ensure there was no repeat of the opening goal while chasing a winner, and even the Scotsman's John Rafferty, not one for hyperbole, was 'thrilled to see this Scottish team play it with such composure'. In the 64th minute, Ormond replaced Kenny Dalglish with the robust figure of Joe Jordan, a game-changing move. Little more than ten minutes later, came the decisive moment: a Bremner shot hit the inside of the post and rolled agonisingly along the goal line and apparently to safety; but it came to Willie Morgan and his cross with the outside of the boot found the unmarked Jordan in front of goal, who found the net with ease. It was bedlam thereafter, a hysterical finale which lasted till the Norwegian referee blew for time. You can see the goals from the game on Youtube.
   Denis Law, who made his debut just after the 1958 World Cup and had suffered through those desperate failed campaigns of the 1960s, gushed: 'I don't think I have ever been happier in my life.'
   Below are the full front and back pages of the Scotsman, and while the paper is a bit yellowed with age, the memories remain fresh. In those days, football on the front page was something extraordinary, and that just about sums up what this meant.

When I worked at the Scottish FA a few years back, there were regular rumblings from the press that they weren't allowed to attend Council meetings and report on the deliberations. I tried to assure them that they would regret ever being allowed in, such was the quality and length of the debates.
   However, it wasn't always that way, and in the early days there would always be a journalist or two in attendance. For researchers, their reports give a valuable insight to football politics in the Victorian era. And sometimes a gem can be found, such as this delightful spat in November 1898 which was reported verbatim in the Dundee Courier and is given here in full. The chairman was SFA President JD McLean of Ayr Parkhouse, his opponent was Alex Kirkwood of Airdrieonians, who happened to live in Dykehead.

              TREATMENT OF REFEREES
A letter was read from Mr Watson, who was referee in the Federation match, Cameronians v Dykehead at Dykehead. He had to order off the field Steven, of the home club, for rough play. He also reported McLaren, of Dykehead, for using bad language to the visiting linesman, Mr Ramsay. Mr Watson also said that at the end of the game, which was finished twenty minutes before the time owing to darkness, he was invited into the pavilion, and struck by a Dykehead committee man. He was glad to get out, so threatening was the man in question.
   After a discussion, which lasted an hour, it was agreed to suspend both players for one month, and ask the Dykehead to give an explanation of the assault on the referee. This led to a 'scene' with Mr Kirkwood, of Dykehead.
   The Chairman was on his feet, speaking when Mr Kirkwood (interrupting) said - I wish to say---
   The Chairman - Sit down, Mr Kirkwood.
   Mr Kirkwood - I defy you to keep me from speaking.
   The Chairman - I shall hear you after I'm done.
   Mr Kirkwood - I shall speak of what I like, and when I like. (Cries of 'Chair'). I never heard a chairman give such an extraordinary judgement. To ask a club to come and produce evidence against itself was absurd. I never heard a chairman put forward such a proposition, and I hope I never will. (Cries of 'Chair').
   The Chairman - We must have no more insolence. Sit down, sir.
   Mr Kirkwood - You won't put me down. ('Chair')
   The Chairman - I will see you afterwards.
   Mr Hood (Beith) - It is foolish for any club to be asked to incriminate itself.
   Mr McLaughlin (Celtic) - It is clear as day from the evidence on hand that the referee has been assaulted, and the Dykehead is trying to shield the man who did it.
   Mr McCulloch (Dundee) - It is not a hundred years since a club was ordered to produce its own books to enable others to prove their case, but then it was a northern club.
   Upon a vote, the amendment received only 8 votes.

Ah, they don't behave like that any more. Or do they?



Postscript: in 1900, less than two years later, Alex Kirkwood was elected President of the Scottish Football Association.

I'm always intrigued by little discoveries about Scottish football, things I wasn't aware of before. I recently stumbled across this little announcement in the Dundee Courier on 23 April 1896 about the formation of a new football club which, frankly, I knew nothing about:

Today marks the centenary of the birth of the legendary Bill Shankly in the Ayrshire mining village of Glenbuck. This little community, now virtually wiped from the map, had an extraordinary record of producing top class footballers and long before the Shankly family came to prominence there were a number of others who grew up in Glenbuck and would go on to play for Scotland.
   The very first of these was the mercurial Alexander 'Sandy' Brown, whose great claim to fame was scoring in every round of the FA Cup in 1900-01 as Tottenham Hotspur won the trophy for the first time. He is in the middle of the front row in the above photo, and there is also online footage of the final, one of the earliest films of a football game. Sandy scored twice in the first match, a 2-2 draw with Sheffield United, and the third goal in the replay which Spurs won 3-1.
   The following year he was selected for Scotland against England, and he duly marked his debut with a goal, but it would never appear in the record books. Early in the second half, part of the terracing at Ibrox collapsed, killing 25 people, and although the game was played to a finish it was immediately declared void. When the match was replayed the following month, Sandy was not in the team.
   He had to wait a further two years for his one 'official' Scotland cap. By then playing with Middlesbrough, he failed to impress against England as Scotland lost 1-0 at Celtic Park, and he was never troubled by the selectors again.
   Sandy Brown started out with Glenbuck Athletic and his football talent rescued him from a life in the coal mines. He turned professional with St Bernard's in Edinburgh early in 1896, just after his 18th birthday, and was an immediate success, scoring 8 goals in 15 league matches. That summer he was snapped up by Preston North End, where he played for three seasons, scoring regularly. But he could not settle, and his career was a progression of moves from club to club: Portsmouth in 1899, Spurs in 1900 for a year, back to Portsmouth, Middlesbrough in 1903 for two seasons, then Luton Town for three years. He set up in Luton as landlord of a pub, the Dewdrop Inn, but well-publicised marital difficulties forced him to give it up.
   I recently did some research into his background (helped by contributors to the scottishleague.net message board). It had long been thought Sandy was born in 1879, but a careful analysis of birth records in Glenbuck showed that his date of birth was in fact 21 December 1877 and his mother Margaret White was not married. However, six months later she married the father, William Brown - and the following year they had another son, Tommy, who would later also become a professional footballer with Leicester Fosse and Portsmouth. Sandy ultimately emigrated to New Zealand, and died there in the town of Granity on 6 March 1944.
   The village football team is generally known as Glenbuck Cherrypickers, but their original name was Glenbuck Athletic, founded around 1877 by three men including William Brown - possibly Sandy's father. The 'Cherrypicker' name was adopted around the turn of the 19th century and the picture below shows the team just after they won the Ayrshire Junior League in 1897. There are two players in the photo called Brown (without initials), and one of them is Sandy's younger brother Tommy before he moved south.
   The Browns were among the earliest of the long conveyor belt of talent from Glenbuck who became professional footballers, an extraordinary record for such an obscure village. Bill Shankly and his brothers are the most famous, but other Scotland internationals include goalkeeper Willie Muir of Dundee (capped in 1907) and John Crosbie of Ayr United and Birmingham (capped 1920-22).