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Q Killieboy asks: "Who
was the first to miss a penalty at the 1994 World Cup?"
A This had us stumped for a while.
Did you mean in the Final? In a penalty shoot-out? Or in a 90-minute match?
Then we twigged. First to miss a penalty at the 1994 World Cup was Diana
Ross during the opening ceremony. Don't tell Berti but with that
surname there's got to be a Scottish grandparent somewhere!
Q Gus Lauchlan puts his World
Cup hat on to ask: Who was the Scotland captain at Italia 90
and who captained Scotland 48 times?
A Roy Aitken was the skipper
in the 1990 World Cup and the 48-times captain was George
Young. Corky as he was known, was the first Scotland
player to earn 50 caps. He played 53 times in total between
1947-57 and all save his first five appearances were as skipper.
No fewer than 34 of Youngs appearances as captain were in successive
matches. Imagine a Rangers player turning out for Scotland so regularly
nowadays!
Young won six League Championship winners medals, four Scottish
cups and two League Cups in his Rangers career. A schoolboy and
a wartime international, Young would surely have gained more caps but
for the war. He was later a successful manager of Third Lanark.
Q Jim Hamill wants to know:
Which clubs apart from St Johnstone and Everton did current QoS
manager John Connolly play for? And did he represent Scotland at
any level?
A Connolly played for Barrhead
High School and Glasgow United before signing as an amateur
for St Johnstone. He turned pro at 18 in 1968 and was involved
in some big-money (for the times) transfers. Everton paid £75,000
for him in March 1972 and he moved on to Birmingham City
for £70,000 in September 1976. In May 1978
he moved to Newcastle along with Terry Hibbitt in a swap
deal with Stewart Barraclough heading the opposite way.
Connollys career was plagued by injury - he suffered two bad leg
breaks - and Newcastle let him go in September 1980. He was snapped
up by Hibs and won a 1st Division winners medal at the end of the
season. That, and a League Cup losing Finalists medal with Saints
was his sum medal total. A poor return for such a talented player.
He moved to Gateshead in January 1982 then on to Blyth
Spartans as player-manager in November that year before returning
to Gateshead twelve months later. He then had a short spell as Whitley
Bay boss in 1984. Connolly spent a long time out of the game
before taking up the reins at Palmerston Park.
As for representative honours, he won one Scotland cap in a 1-0
friendly defeat away to Switzerland in June 1973, being
substituted by Joe Jordan. He played twice for the Under - 23s,
both against Wales in Swansea. Scotland lost 1-0 in 1971
but he was in the team which won 2-1 two years later. Kenny
Dalglish and Asa Hartford scored the goals.
Q Adam Turner asks: What
was the game when Archie Gemmill scored that great goal in the World Cup?
It might cheer me up a bit seeing as Scotland arent going this time."
A It might cheer us all up Adam. The
game in question was Scotlands third and last match in their World
Cup group and was played in Mendoza, Argentina on June 11th
1978. The Scotland line-up to face Holland was Rough,
Donachie, Buchan, Kennedy, Forsyth, Rioch (capt.), Hartford, Gemmill,
Souness, Dalglish, Jordan
There were four changes to the team that drew dismally with Iran.
Out went Sandy Jardine, Kenny Burns, Lou Macari and John Robertson.
In came Tam Forsyth, Stewart Kennedy and skipper Bruce Rioch
who had all played in the opening 3-1 defeat against Peru.
Most crucial of all though was the inclusion of Graeme Souness
for his first World Cup finals appearance.
Scotland needed to win by three clear goals if they were to qualify
for the second phase but Rob Rensenbrink put the Dutch ahead early
on before their rhythm was upset with an injury to Johan Neeskens
who had to be replaced.
A Souness punt was headed down for Dalglish to equalise
just before the interval. Two minutes after the restart, Souness was
brought down inside the area and Gemmill converted the penalty.
A rampant Scotland took the game to the Dutch and both Dalglish and
Jordan had narrow misses with headers before wee Archie turned
it on in the 68th minute, going past three defenders and switching the
ball from right to left before firing home THAT goal.
Alas, three minutes later a Johnny Rep piledriver from 25 yards
flew past Rough to make it 3-2 and effectively end Scotlands chances.
Incredibly for such an important match, there were no substitutions made.
Even more incredibly, considering both Forsyth and Souness were on the
pitch for the full 90 minutes, no Scotland player was booked.
Q Jimmy Bell asks: Now
that Aberdeen are back in Europe, can you settle an argument? My mate
says Drew Jarvie is the Dons top European scorer while I say its
Mark McGhee. Theres a drink for the winner.
A Enjoy your drink Jimmy. Mark
McGhee scored 13 goals for Aberdeen in Europe (14 if
you count the Super Cup). John Hewitt scored 12 and Jarvie
is in third place with 10.
Q On
the same Euro-theme, Terry McGuire wants to know: Are Livingston
the first team to qualify for Europe after just one season in the top
division?
A Surprisingly enough, no. Morton
in 1968-69, Partick Thistle in 1972-73 and Airdrie
in 1992-93 all played in Europe twelve months after winning
promotion. And Raith Rovers didnt even wait that long. They
took part in the UEFA Cup in 1995-96 DURING their first
season back in the top flight.
However, only Morton, out of the above, qualified by virtue of
their League position and they were 6th compared to Livvys
3rd.
Of course if you mean after their FIRST season in the top flight
then Livingstons achievement is undoubtedly unique.
Q Who was the Scottish goalkeeper
and what was the score in the Scotland v England international in the
early 1960's when England ran in a record score? Thats the painful
question from Neal Bourne
A Celtics Frank Haffey
was the man in question in the 9-3 defeat at Wembley in
1961. What made matters worse (if such a thing were possible)
was that Haffey allowed himself to be photographed in front of Big
Ben at 9.15 the same evening. His grinning face was plastered
all over the papers with clock reading 9-3!
The Scotland line-up on April 15th 1961 was: Haffey, Bobby Shearer,
Eric Caldow (Capt.), Dave Mackay, Billy McNeill, Bert McCann, Johnny McLeod,
Denis Law, Ian St John, Pat Quinn, Davie Wilson. Although, fortunately,
I cant say I remember the match, I have to say that most of that
team would walk into todays side. It doesnt look like a side
which should have lost by that amount.
Scotlands goals were scored by Mackay and Wilson (2). The match
was also McNeills international debut. As for Haffey, he famously
emigrated to Australia where he became a nightclub singer. He also became
the butt of a joke which ran: Whats the time? Nine past
Haffey.
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