SCOTLAND v ARGENTINA - 1979

I mentioned in yesterday's post about Dundee ref John Gordon, that he was one of the officials who was chosen for the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. So whilst on that topic I thought I'd drop this little feature on Retro from a year later when the newly crowned 78 World Cup champs, Argentina, paid a visit to Scotland.

This was a friendly match at Hampden, and surprise surprise Scotland got beat 3-1, however, the game has gone on to become quite a famous one because this was when a young kid called Maradona scored his first ever goal for his country. He was still in the under 20's youth team in 1978, so this full international encounter helped him on the path to being known as the worlds best footballer throughout the 80's, and some say, ever!

There were 2 Dundee United players in the Scotland team that day, Dundonian, David Narey, and the guy in the photo, Paul Hegarty.

Thanks to Ali Strachan.

SCOTLAND - 1974 WORLD CUP - #3

Germany was still divided back in 1974, but all of Scotland was united when we travelled over to the West to take on Brazil, Yugoslavia and Zaire.

Roaring us on, was the official Scotland mascot, as shown on an original patch in the top picture. I think it may have been nicknamed "Roary", but I really can't remember now.

To hold some of your essential knick-knacks for the trip, you might have had a bag designed like the one above. Very popular they were in the early 70's. We used similar styled ones at school, usually with football team crests on them. The one in the photo, however, shows the Scottish Bus Group logo, which would have been doing a roaring trade back then, shifting Scotland supporters to airports.

And below, you can view a very short film clip from 74, of Scottish fans greeting the team at an airport in Germany.

 

SCOTLAND - 1974 WORLD CUP - #2

Remember Larg's in Whitehall Street used to sell sheet music downstairs? Well here's 2 from 1974.

The Scotland World Cup Squad with "Easy! Easy!" and "Scotland! Scotland!".

Words and music by Bill Martin & Phil Coulter, who composed quite a few hits for the Bay City Rollers around this period.

SCOTLAND - 1974 WORLD CUP - #1

The 1974 World Cup in Germany was the first time Scotland had qualified for the tournament since 1958, and so for those who were in my age group (16) it was the first time we were involved in the event too.

There was also the added bonus of there being local interest, with Dundee lad Peter Lorimer a regular in the team. In fact by this stage in his career he had become a bit of a Scottish superstar! Then there was Dundee FC goalkeeper, Thomson Allan, who was also in the squad.

There was a good buzz in town when all this was going on. Most folk had colour TV by this time and the team were getting plenty of coverage. It wasn't just the telly and the newspaper sports pages they were making themselves known, they were also heard blasting out of Radio 1..!!

The Scotland Squad released an album to coincide with the tournament, which not only included the voices of the players but featured a hotchpotch of Scotch talent - Gallagher & Lyle, Lulu, Bay City Rollers, JSD Band, Middle Of The Road and Junior Campbell.

From it, there were 2 tracks which were released as a single - A-side was "Easy Easy" and the B-side was "Scotland Scotland".

However, the LP also presented one of the unlikeliest offerings you're likely to encounter in music ...Denis Law sings Jimi Hendrix!!

Actually, the track itself is fine, the Hendrix track being "Angel" which was a hit for Rod Stewart a couple of years earlier. This version has Rod singing along with Denis and contains a lot of banter which kind of captures the fun the World Cup was having on the Scots.

Top picture is the album cover. The cover opens up into a gatefold centre spread, as seen underneath it, and below is "Angel" by Rod Stewart & Denis Law.