Q Roger Campbell
asks “Could you please give me information on Gregg
Watson who played for Aberdeen, Partick Thistle & Alloa
Athletic to name but a few? “
A Gregg Watson signed for
Aberdeen in 1987, aged 17, but chances at Pittodrie were limited
and between then and 1993 he made just 23 league appearances and
one in the League Cup for the Dons. He joined Thistle for
93-94 and made nearly 200 appearances there (168 League, seven
League Cup, five Scottish Cup, four Inter Toto and three Challenge
Cup), scoring two League goals.
After that it was on to Livingston where he picked up a
championship medal in 1998-99 when Livvy won the Second Division.
All told he played 28 League (one goal), four League Cup and five
Scottish Cup before joining Stenhousemuir during 1999-2000.
He made 27 League appearances (one goal) and three Scottish Cup
for Stenny then joined Alloa in 2000. Since then ,and up
to the end of 2003-04, he's played 72 League games and scored
three times. He's also made six LC, five SC and six Challenge
Cup outings.
Substitute appearances have been included in these figures. He
won promotion from the Second with Alloa in 2001-02 and also appeared
in the losing team in the Challenge Cup Final that season.
Q John Northcutt is looking
for “ Scottish career details of John Cushley and
Ian Crawford who both played for West Ham.”
A John Cushley joined Celtic,
aged 17, in 1960. During his time at Parkhead he was mainly a
stand-in for Billy McNeill. He made his League debut in 1962-63
and between then and 1966-67 made 30 league appearances.
He played five times in the League Cup, one of which was the 1964-65
Final when he was on the losing side, once in the Scottish Cup
and five times in Europe (three Fairs, two CWC).
He joined the Hammers during the close season in 1967.
Returning to Scotland from West Ham, he signed for Dunfermline
and between 1970-71 and 71-72 his appearance tally was 49 League,
six LC, three SC and one Anglo-Scottish Cup.
When Dunfermline were relegated in 1972 he joined newly-promoted
Dumbarton and made 85 League appearances, 18 LC, 7 SC and
one Drybrough Cup (equivalent of England's Watneys Cup) between
1972-73 and 1975-76. Apart from two league and one LC in 1975-76
all his games in Scotland were at the top level.
In total he made 164 League (including twice as a sub),
29 LC, 11 SC, 5 UEFA and 2 others for a total of
211 appearances in Scottish football.
He didn't score any goals.
Ian Crawford's first senior clubs was Hibs. He joined
up at Easter Road in 1951, aged 17 but didn't make any first-team
appearances before leaving for Hamilton in Nov 1953. He
played 19 League games, scoring three times and five SC, scoring
twice that season.
Hamilton were relegated and he signed for Hearts in Aug
54. Between then and 1961 he made 127 League appearances and scored
58 goals. In the League Cup he played 31 and scored 16 and in
the Scottish Cup he played 13 and scored four.
He also played in the European Cup in both 58-59 and 60-61 with
a total of three appearances and one goal. His goal away to
Standard Liege in 58-59 was Hearts' first in Europe.
He scored twice in the 1956 Scottish Cup Final when Hearts
beat Celtic 3-1 to win the Cup for the first time in 50 years
and also won two winners medals in the League Cup in 58-59 and
59-60 though he didn't score in either Final.
He also won two League Championship medals - 57-58 and 59-60.
He signed for West Ham in the summer of 1961 and went on to play
for Scunthorpe and Peterborough.
Q BrianCSC asks
“Can you name the players who played for Celtic in the 1977
Scottish Cup Final, including subs?”
A This team beat Rangers 1-0
thanks to an Andy Lynch penalty on May 7th 1977 in the
first Final to be televised live since the 1950s:
Latchford, McGrain, Lynch, Stanton, McDonald, Aitken, Dalglish,
Edvaldsson, Craig, Conn, Wilson. The two substitutes were
Johnny Doyle and Tommy Burns, neither of whom were
used
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 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.
For old SFAQs click here
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Q From the wonderfully-named
Normanlisteningdevice: “Can you give me details of
the Spring Cup 75/76,in particular the
Groupings? Also any info on Tom Forsyth who scored a smashing
goal against Celtic in the 73 cup final.”
A The league season consisted
of just 26 games in the 1st and 2nd Divisions in 1975-76 so the
Spring Cup was established to provide competition in March
and April 1976.
There were seven groups of four with the top two in each plus the
two best third placed sides qualifying for the last sixteen.
These were the groups with Qualifiers in CAPITALS.
AIRDRIEONIANS, EAST FIFE, Brechin City, Stranraer
FALKIRK, ALLOA, Kilmarnock, Berwick Rangers
ST MIRREN, PARTICK THISTLE, Meadowbank, Forfar Athletic
DUMBARTON, ARBROATH, ALBION ROVERS, Stenhousemuir
QUEEN'S PARK, DUNFERMLINE, HAMILTON, Cowdenbeath
RAITH ROVERS, CLYDEBANK, Clyde, Queen of the South
MONTROSE, MORTON, East Stirling, Stirling Albion
Two rounds of two-leg matches produced the semi-finalists. Both
semis and the final were one-offs, played at neutral venues. Airdrie
beat Clydebank 4-2 after extra time in the Firhill final but the
attendance was only around 5,000. Indeed crowds were so poor that
the competition was scrapped after just one season with teams in
the two lower divisions playing each other three times to bring
the number of league fixtures up to an acceptable level.
As for Tam 'Jaws' Forsyth, he was still a teenager when he
established himself as a regular with Motherwell. He endured
both the agony of relegation and the joy of promotion while with
the Steelmen. He made his name as a tough-tackling wing-half and
signed for Rangers in October 1972 for a fee of around £40,000.
Jock Wallace moved him to centre-half at Ibrox and it as here that
he earned his feared nickname. The “smashing" goal
you refer to was the winner for Rangers in their 3-2 1973 Scottish
Cup Final triumph over Celtic when Forsyth managed to net from approximately
SIX INCHES out!
It was the first of only six goals in his Rangers career. Forsyth
went on to win a League title medal with Rangers in 1974-75 and
was part of the treble-winning side in both 75-76 and 77-78. He
added a fourth Scottish Cup winners medal in 1981 before retiring
through injury the following year, aged 33.
All told his career spanned over 500 first-class matches and
he scored 29 goals.
He was capped 22 times for Scotland. His debut was against
Denmark in a friendly in 1971 while he was still with Motherwell.
He played just 45 minutes and didn't appear in a Scotland shirt
again until a World Cup qualifier in Prague in October 1973.
It was 1976 before he was capped again - v Switzerland at Hampden
in a friendly. Incredibly, he captained Scotland to a 1-0 win!
After that, Tam was a regular over the next two seasons, playing
in the victories over England at Hampden in 1976 and at Wembley
twelve months later. During that latter match one Scottish banner
proudly proclaimed that Forsyth was “cooler than the
Fonz.”
His last match for the national side was the 3-2 win over Holland
in Mendoza in the 1978 World Cup.
Q While the above questioner
has fond memories of the 1973 Scottish Cup Final, it's a totally
different Old Firm encounter which Liam Kearns is looking
for information on as he asks: “Can you tell me the team-line-ups
for the 1957 League Cup Final?”
A This was the famous (or infamous)
“slaughter in the sun” on October 19th
1957 when Celtic thrashed Rangers 7-1.
Celtic: Beattie, Donnelly, Fallon, Fernie, Evans, Peacock,
Tully, Collins, W McPhail, Wilson, Mochan
Rangers: Niven, Shearer, Caldow, McColl, Valentine, Davis,
Scott, Simpson, Murray, Baird, Hubbard
Scorers: Celtic: Mochan 2, McPhail 3, Wilson, Fernie pen.
Rangers: Simpson.
Q Sticking with high-scoring
Finals, the next query is from Alan Sheridan who wants to
know “who were the goalscorers & what was the exact
goal scoring sequence in the following Scottish League Cup Finals,
when Celtic beat Dundee 5-3 in '67, Hibs 6-2 in '69 & Hibs 6-3
in '74? Also, when Celtic beat Hibs 6-1 in the '72 Scottish Cup
Final.”
A Celtic 5, Dundee 3 LC Final
28/10/1967
Chalmers 7min, 1-0, Hughes 12 min, 2-0, George McLean 23, 2-1, Chalmers
71, 3-1, Jim McLean 73, 3-2, Lennox 77, 4-2, George McLean 85, 4-3,
Wallace 88 5-3.
Celtic 6, Hibs 2 LC Final 5/4/1969
Wallace 24, 1-0, Auld 31, 2-0, Lennox 44 (injury time), 3-0, Lennox
59, 4-0, Lennox 74, 5-0, Craig 76, 6-0, O`Rourke 84 6-1, Stevenson
87, 6-2.
Celtic 6, Hibs 3 LC Final 26/10/1974
Johnstone 11, 1-0, Deans 34, 2-0, Harper 42, 2-1, Wilson 51, 3-1,
Harper 61, 3-2, Deans 64, 4-2, Deans 66, 5-2, S.Murray 74, 6-2,
Harper 83 6-3.
Celtic 6 Hibs 1 Scottish Cup Final 6/5/72.
McNeill 3, 1-0, Gordon 11 1-1, then a hat-trick from Deans 23, 2-1,
55, 3-1, 75, 4-1 and two from Lou Macari 86, 87.
My thanks to my colleague Forrest Robertson for the League Cup
figures.
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