LARGE trainfuls of Scottish fans arrived at Euston station that Saturday morning 53 years ago, singing and sipping light breakfasts from cans of lager. Here and there, there was bravado, defiance. “All we need is three quick goals from Law and we’ve got them,” said a man from Stirling. But there was pessimism in the air, too.
“Perhaps for the first time, Scotland went worried to Wembley,” wrote the Glasgow Herald’s Samuel Hunter columnist. “Tartan rosettes covered hearts half-ready to bleed. They were champions of all the world after a competition in which we had not been fit even to have a kick at the ball. It had to mean something.”
“They”, of course, were England, the Auld Enemy who, just the previous summer had over-run the Germans, 4-2 after extra time, to lift the Jules Rimet trophy. But Scotland, under new manager Bobby Brown, badly wanted to win. They were also eager to avenge a 9-3 humiliation at Wembley in 1961.
For this particular game, on April 15, 1967, they had a strong team - Simpson, Gemmell, McCreadie, Greig, McKinnon, Baxter, Wallace, Bremner, McCalliog, Law and Lennox – though England, with Banks, the Charlton brothers, Greaves, Hurst and Peters – looked invincible.
But, in front of a crowd of 100,000, Scotland defied the odds to win. The headline in that afternoon’s sports edition of the Evening Times said it all. “GREAT SCOTS!”, it fairly shouted. The report began: “Scotland the brave ... and the magnificent. The team, given little chance of victory, beat world champions England by 3-2 in a breathtaking international at Wembley today.”
Denis Law (pictured) gave Scotland an early lead. Bobby Lennox added a second, in 78 minutes, and although England belatedly scored through Jackie Charlton in 84 minutes, Jim McCalliog (pictured) got Scotland’s third goal, three minutes from time. Geoff Hurst claimed England’s second goal moments later. It was by any measure a landmark Scottish victory, with many fans asserting that Scotland were now the unofficial world champions.
Our sister paper noted that Jim Baxter had “recaptured almost all of his old glory in attack”. A well-known piece of footage from the game shows him indulging in eye-catching showmanship.
Samuel Hunter wrote that he and his fellow fans, “desperately tired but taller than when we left”, eventually made it back to Glasgow Central. At the taxi-rank, one older fan looked at his remaining funds – two shillings, all that was left of twenty pounds – and decided he would walk home.
“Just before he turned into Jamaica Street he suddenly did a little jig step and swung the toys he had bought for his three grandchildren over his head. He looked like a man who had suddenly remembered that he also had something to tell them.”
Read more: Herald Diary
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel