Scott7

Looks a bit like a semmit. The sort of thing Jock Shaw would wear under his real shirt.

A parcel of spalpeens in the nation.

That’s a pretty good Scotland XI. Cropley, at times, did resemble Cruyff.

Like Caldow, an instant success in the jersey. No settling in. No getting acclimatised. Just run onto the park and perform. Both had experience with Juniors. Caldow at Muirkirk and Scott at Linlithgow Rose, was it?

Cunning plan, compo. Stein knew where he was going and didn’t fancy Fallon as a ‘keeper so he was preparing the ground. Of course, the absolute peaks of Simpson’s career were his FA Cup medals with the Magpies. That and his clean sheet against Elgin City in a Scottish Cup tie.

Just a pity he wasn’t available for selection. Brilliant winger. Springbok-fast, good ball skills (football was only one of his many sports) great crosser and penalty taker supreme. A hard act to follow but Davy Wilson managed it.

I suppose Stein and to a lesser extent, Shankly in his early years, showed that transformation can happen without mega bucks. The Souness/Walter combination illustrates the cash injection brings success model. However it comes about, once the transformation occurs big money is needed to keep it going.

Jock Stein transformed a team of losing donkeys into what became a nightmare. In his first season he got Simpson on a free and bought Clark from Morton. Next season they won the ……. sorry I can’t go on. I have to take something to dull the memory.

We all (except maybe dB) grew up hearing from old guys who themselves had heard from even older guys about the great players of the past but we never saw them play because they were gone before we went to matches. Somehow the names are so wired into our brains we feel we must have seen them or at least I do. Meiklejohn, McPhail and Morton are the prime examples but here’s the team: Jerry Dawson; Bert Manderson and Billy McCandless; Jimmy Gordon, David Meiklejohn (C) and Neilly Gibson; Sandy Archibald, Jimmy Smith, R. C. Hamilton, Bob McPhail and Alan Morton. I didn’t pick Dougie Gray, one of the most famous names of all, because I didn’t want to split the fullback partnership. “Two Irish backs you can’t get past” according to the fragment of the old song. What names have penetrated your brains to the extent of delusion? I don’t expect contributions from the Accountants. Nothing penetrates their brains.

An interesting proposition and I would like to see the theory tested, not out of admiration for Bruce, just to find out if cash is the only difference between the general jobbers and the mystical gurus. Would you take him in a swop for Gerrard?

That’s Makems. One of life’s regrets - never saw a derby match at Roker Park.

Aye, but he’s slow people keep telling me. He was quick to see the gaps and quick enough to get through them. He’s a player.

On the old Rivals boards you could have good exchanges with fans of every club - even celtic - but not Aberdeen. I make an uneducated guess without evidence (nothing new there) that about 80% at least of Scottish football supporters vote SNP, if they vote at all. Nothing political or even historical about it, just Jimmy Hill an’ that.

I bet they wish it was.

There was a time when as often as not I didn’t have five bob for the ‘bus to Ibrox so I was a regular attender at Tynecastle and Easter Road. I never had any trouble at either venue despite the colours of the scarf I wore, so I don’t hate either of them.

“Please remember that this is about victims and justice NOT about the team you support” A lot of people (not here, thankfully) would do well to remember that.

I’ve only seen the incident on highlights. Cast iron which is what Aribo would have needed to mend his leg if the maniac had connected.

Steve Thomson, England prop forward, and a number of other players are pursuing a claim against the RFU. He’s 42, played in every game of the 2017 World Cup and can’t remember any of them.

Did it though? Perhaps if the maniac had stayed on, Hibs would have played a more open game which would have suited Rangers better than time wasting and banked defence.

VAR rescues United. @compowill be raging. 1-1. I’m not that pleased myself.

I know what you mean but side-to-side-back-to-side isn’t very flattering. There’s no feeling of an imminent devastating thrust at the opposition defence. Quite the reverse in fact.

They’re not even flattering, stewarty, except maybe against Real and twenty minutes against Malmo. The Tranmere result was a warning.

That is my suspicion without a shred of evidence to back it up. On the other hand things happen for no particular reason. I saw Rangers dominate a competitive league competition for ten years up to the end of a treble season 63/64. Over the period the team developed and renewed. I couldn’t see anything other than a continuation of the process to more success. Season 1965 they finished 5th. That same season celtic were back in 8th and we all know what happened next.

There seems to be a lot of data connecting heading the ball with Dementia. On the other hand many people die of it who never headed a ball in their lives. If the evidence is there, it has to be banned unfortunately. Thornton, Kichenbrand, Millar, DJ all great with headers and Thornton and Millar weren’t tall. Can’t think of anyone similar in the modern game.

If the Hibs score first, they’ll get more than one.