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 Young’s 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.

Connolly’s 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 Finalist’s 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 aren’t going this time."

A It might cheer us all up Adam. The game in question was Scotland’s 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 Scotland’s 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 it’s Mark McGhee. There’s 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 didn’t 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 Livvy’s 3rd.

Of course if you mean after their FIRST season in the top flight then Livingston’s 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? That’s the painful question from Neal Bourne

A Celtic’s 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 can’t say I remember the match, I have to say that most of that team would walk into today’s side. It doesn’t look like a side which should have lost by that amount.

Scotland’s goals were scored by Mackay and Wilson (2). The match was also McNeill’s 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: “What’s the time? Nine past Haffey.”