Q Grant Salvona
poses an intriguing query: "Can please you tell me
the last time Celtic and Rangers each started a
game with 11 Scottish players?"
A For Celtic it was
a League match away to Kilmarnock which ended in a 0-0 draw on
November 19th 1994. The team was: Marshall, Boyd, McKinlay,
McNally, O'Neil, Grant, O'Donnell, McStay, Falconer, Walker, Collins
Rangers have recently 'celebrated' the 10th anniversary
of the last time they fielded 11 Scots at kick-off. The match
in question was a League game at Ibrox v Raith Rovers which Rangers
won 4-0 on April 16th 1994 starting with this eleven: Maxwell,
McCall, Robertson, Gough, McPherson, Brown, Durrant, I Ferguson,
McCoist, D Ferguson, Durie
Yes, I know that neither Stuart McCall nor Richard Gough
were actually BORN in Scotland but with 101 international
caps between them, I think they qualify.
Q Robert Houston asks:
"Who is the youngest Scottish player to win a full cap?"
A This was John
Lambie of Queens Park who was born on December
18th 1868 and made his debut against Ireland in Belfast on
Mar 20th 1886 aged 17 years and 92 days.
Not only was this his debut, he also captained the
side and scored one of the goals in a 7-2 victory.
Q Jim Wilson wants to know
"Has any professional football player played for all four
Fife clubs (Cowdenbeath, East Fife, Dunfermline and Raith Rovers)?"
A There may well have been
others but one who comes to mind is Gordon Forrest who
played for all four Fife teams as well as Berwick, Alloa, East
Stirling, Stenhousemuir and Falkirk in a career that lasted from
1972 to 1985.
He made almost 40 appearances in the league with
Dunfermline before moving on to Alloa in 1975. He joined
Raith Rovers during the 1977-78 season and was there for
two years, making over 40 league appearances, many as a substitute,
then left for Cowdenbeath early in 1980. He was more regular
there, turning out almost 100 times before joining Falkirk in
December 1982.
He didnt play that many games there before completing his
Fife collection with East Fife in 1983-84. He made five
appearances at the start of 1983-84 for them before moving on
to Stenhousemuir where he ended his playing days.
Q Craig Kerr
is back with more on Ally McCoist. "I believe
that McCoist is the only ever striker to win Golden Boots
as top scorer in Europe back to back; a remarkable achievement
considering that goals scored in Scotland count less than goals
scored in La Liga, Premiership, Bundesliga etc. Am I misinformed
(it wouldn't be the first time)?"
A Its complex but here
goes:
The Golden Boot was awarded by 'France
Football' from 1967-68 to 1989-90 on the simple
basis that the winner was the player who had scored the most League
goals in Europe that season.
From 1990-91-1995-96 there was no award.
Since 1996-97 the award has again been made but with weighting
introduced so that goals from stronger leagues are awarded
more points.
Therefore McCoist never actually won a Golden Boot as such.
However in both 1991-92 and 92-93 he was generally
recognised as the top scorer in Europe. There were players in
Georgia who scored more goals than McCoist in these seasons but
that country was caught up in turmoil and mini-wars following
the break-up of the Soviet Union and 'records' from that
time are generally disregarded by football historians.
McCoists unofficial awards come from
BEFORE the introduction of weighting. If anything his achievements
are slightly less impressive as they were in seasons when Scottish
football played more League matches (44) than any other European
country.
Regarding winning in two successive seasons: in 1998-99 Mario
Jardel won the Golden Boot while with Porto, scoring
36 goals at two points a goal. But he was also the top
scorer in Europe regardless of weighting. The following season
Jardel was again the top scorer in Europe, this time with 38
goals. However Portugals League was downgraded in the
rankings to 1.5 points a goal so Jardels 57 points
wasnt enough to win the Golden Boot which was awarded to
Sunderlands Kevin Phillips who scored 30 goals at
two points a goal for a total of 60 points.
The international football statistics organisation the RSSSF
has compiled a list of players who would have been golden
boot winners prior to 1967.
Several players were top scorers twice in succession and two did
better than that. Josef Bican of Slavia Prague was
top scorer for five years running from 1939-44 but should,
in the opinion of many, (including here) be disregarded
on account of the Second World War when many Leagues did not function.
However Imre Schlosser of Ferencvaros was undisputed
top scorer in Europe for four consecutive seasons - 1910-14
- prior to the outbreak of World War One
Youll see from the list that several Scottish players were
also top scorers in Europe.
For
a list of post-1967 winners see here
From great games to the game's
greats. If you have a query concerning Scottish football, this is
the place to send it to. We'll answer as many as we
can but regret that we cannot respond individually to requests.
So bookmark this site and look in regularly as questions
and answers are frequently updated.
Q Why
SFAQs? What does that mean?
A FAQs (Frequently Asked
Questions) can be found on many websites, mostly relating to
technical matters and SFA stands for (amongst other things)
Scottish Football Association. So a neat amalgamation of
acronyms gives us SFAQs which means Scottish Football
Answers (to) Questions.
The SFA is constructing a Hall of Fame. Here's a few of the
all-time greats we'd like to see in it.
JIM BAXTER
ALAN MORTON
BILLY McNEILL
JIMMY McGRORY in typical goalscoring fashion. British football's
most prolific striker is a contender for the Hall of Fame
For old SFAQs click here
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Q From Graham McEwan:
"How many times was the Drybrough Cup played for?"
A The Drybrough Cup was
played six times in all - 1971-72, 72-73, 73-74, 74-75, 79-80
and 80-81 and your query gives us a chance to outline
the history of one of the Scottish game's more obscure tournaments.
The early 1970s saw the authorities begin to move away from their
long-standing opposition to sponsorship. But they embraced commercialism
only tentatively, refusing to allow companies to lend their name
to existing tournaments. As a result those companies prepared to
put some money into the game had to set up their own tournaments,
of which the Drybrough Cup was one - the first sponsored
competition exclusive to Scottish clubs.
The competition was established in 1971, a year after the
similar Watney Cup had been introduced in England and was
open to the clubs which scored the most League goals in the preceding
season - the top four from the then two existing divisions - with
the draw seeded so that top division clubs couldn't clash in the
opening round.
It was played before the start of the traditional season and all
competitions were done and dusted inside a week. There was none
of the giant-killing associated with the Watney Cup (where Halifax
knocked out the Man Utd of Best, Law and Charlton
and the competition was won by Colchester!) as all four
top league sides - Aberdeen, Airdrie, Celtic and St Johnstone
won their ties on Saturday July 31st 1971 and the Dons and the
Celts triumphed in midweek semi-finals to clash at Pittodrie in
the Final on August 7th.
This was an open, attractive match watched by around 25,000 which
Aberdeen won 2-1 thanks to goals from a Joe Harper spot-kick
and Davie Robb. John Hughes scored for Celtic.
Although ostensibly for an equal number of first and second division
sides, unsurprisingly the two promoted teams - Partick Thistle
and East Fife - were among the lower division's leading scorers.
So, in reality there were six 1st Division sides taking part. The
two lower league sides - Dumbarton and Arbroath -
went on to win promotion in 1971-72.
The Drybrough Cup. Small beer to the Old Firm
The initial tournament was judged a success. Each entrant was guaranteed
a minimum of £1,000 (a tidy sum for some clubs)
out of the £25,000 pot the sponsors put up for grabs.
Significantly though, even at this stage, Celtic were reluctant
entrants. They felt it was a needless addition to the calendar and
they had a point. In England the Watney Cup was played for by the
highest scorers EXCLUDING teams who qualified for Europe
or won promotion.
In 72-73 the four lower sides were again eliminated immediately
but the competition was still a success - a total of 67,000 watched
the opening round. The Final was scheduled for Hampden -
probably in anticipation of an Old Firm clash - but it was an all-green
affair as Celtic bested Aberdeen 3-2 in front of 40,000
at Parkhead in the semis while Hibs crushed a full-strength
Rangers (nine of the Cup-Winners Cup winning team plus Colin
Jackson and Andy Penman) 3-0 before a crowd of 27,111.
But the competition had powerful detractors. None more so than Jock
Stein who made his view quite clear in the match programme for
the Aberdeen game: "I am one of those who are not really
enamoured of this kind of cup-tie football at this time of year."
This could be construed as biting the hand that feeds you, except
that Celtic, at that time, were well-enough fed as it was!
The Final was a thrilling affair where Celtic came back from two
down at the interval to take the game to extra time before Hibs
triumphed 5-3. While the attendance of 49,462 was nowhere
near filling Hampden, it wasn't a bad figure for the first week
of August.
At the start of 1973-74 the four top division sides - all playing
at home - won once again, though Raith Rovers came close
to an upset by taking Dundee to extra time. Attendances,
other than at Dens Park, were pretty decent too. In the last four
Celtic cruised past Dundee 4-0 with 26,000 inside Parkhead while
at Easter Road, Hibs and Rangers again contested a Final spot. 28,089
saw the holders edge through 2-1 after extra time.
For the second successive season the Final was a Hibs-Celtic affair.
This time though it was a much poorer game as Hibs retained the
trophy in front of 49,204 thanks to the only goal of the
game from Alan Gordon in extra time.
In 1974-75 it was as you were as the four top sides all won. And
while there may have been a falling away in support from the Old
Firm, interest was still strong elsewhere. This writer was one of
the 13,272 in attendance at Easter Road to watch Hibs
beat Killie 2-1 on the unfeasibly early date for a football
game of July 27th.
Once again the nearest thing to an upset was Dundee scraping through
after extra time - this time against Queen of the South.
Extra time was also required at Dens Park in the last four before
Celtic won through to the Final while Rangers finally won at Easter
Road, beating Hibs 3-2.
The first Old Firm final attracted 57,558 to Hampden to see
an exciting encounter which left the teams deadlocked 2-2 after
120 minutes. Celtic finally got their hands on the trophy winning
the penalty shoot-out 4-2.
After that the competition went into cold storage. Scottish football
was restructured into three divisions at the end of the season,
meaning two more League matches for the new Premier Division clubs.
Coupled with the Old Firm's dislike it looked like the end.
But the Drybrough Cup made a brief comeback at the end of the decade.
In 1979-80 it still held enough allure to encourage over 10,000
along to Rugby Park to see Rangers beat Killie in the last four
before going on to record their only success in the tourney, defeating
Celtic 3-1 in the Final in a match most memorable for a Davie
Cooper goal when he received the ball on his chest with his
back to goal, swivelled and flicked it past four Celtic defenders
before scoring.
But this was a competition whose time had come and gone. Fittingly,
the first winners were also the last as Aberdeen beat St
Mirren 2-1 in the 1980-81 Final (the only one that the tourney's
arch-opponents Celtic didn't feature in) at Hampden. But whereas
the Dons first victory was celebrated, this triumph doesn't even
merit a footnote as a recent history of the club states: "History
shows 1980-81 to be a season in which the Dons had nothing to show
in terms of silverware."
When the winners don't even think the winning's worth mentioning
it comes as little surprise to find the Drybrough Cup quietly interred
some time shortly after August 2nd 1980 - the date of the last Final.
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