I have started to prepare a revised version of the Junior Internationals list that is on Brian McColl’s Scottish Football Historical Archive. The new list will make it easier to list players by clubs, identify players that went on to Senior or International careers, etc. Starting from 1889, I have now reached the start of the Second World War and I have taken a temporary stop to review everything so far.
The list that Brian co-ordinated and produced a few years ago was largely complete insofar as the matches identified. The editing this time around has been correcting mis-spelling of players from the original newspaper source, learning about players who were late call-ups for injury, identifying full internationalists, etc. In general players tended to have short Junior International careers with games in one season before they either went Senior or they were replaced by another wave of players in the next season. As a result, most players won their caps while at one club. However, some players did defy the odds and had longer Junior International careers. The biggest issue is the difficulty in sorting out players with common Scottish surnames who were reported simply by their surname and club. For example, I have 8 McDonalds and 9 Johnstones but some of them may be the same player who have just moved club.
Here are some “bits and pieces” from the Pre-War period.
Most capped player – 6 matches played between 1929 and 1931 by Wright of Aberdeen East End
Brothers – James and William McLennan (Saltcoats Victoria) played together against Wales in 1926 and had played together when Vics won the Junior Cup in 1925. A rare if not a unique achievement?
Youngest captain – Norman Corbett (Musselburgh Athletic) captained Scotland against England in 1936 at 16 years 272 days
Full internationals – 29 Junior Internationalists went on to win full international caps for Scotland
Most clubs – Bert Bingham (Irvine Meadow XI, Pollok & Arthurlie) won his four caps at three different clubs.
Missing information
This is the information that is currently missing.
Result – Norwegian tour in June 1921 match against Christiania in Bergen
Players - We are missing 71 names. These are 8 players from the match against Ireland on 31 December 1894. The remainder are from matches played on the 1921 Norwegian tour.
Grounds – we do not have the ground where the following games were played:
1) 2 April 1910 v England in Birmingham
2) 26 March 1913 v Ireland in Belfast
3) 9 March 1929 v Irish Free State in Dublin
Goalscorers -
1) 11 May 1889 v England 10:1 to Scotland – we only have one goalscorer (Espie)
2) 15 February 1890 v Ireland 11:0 to Scotland – we only have one goalscorer (Anderson)
I am very grateful for the help so far. However, if anyone has an affinity with a particular Junior club and would like to see a list of the capped players I have so they can say check it against a club history, etc. then please just pm me and I can arrange it. All other good ideas will be gratefully received.