Scots have never been afraid of a battle.
It is, we are led to believe, ingrained in the national psyche. On the football pitch, in those black- and-white days of yore, a degree of physicality was not so much accepted as expected. Hard but fair was the code of conduct. Shake hands afterwards and into the plunge bath.
Of course, there is always the exception that proves the rule and it came, not against traditional foes such as the Auld Enemy, but in a series of heated exchanges with Austria. It all culminated spectacularly 50 years ago tonight when a "friendly" at Hampden descended into violent farce and was abandoned by the referee after 79 minutes. Scotland were 4-1 to the good at the time and the Austrians had "lost it" in more ways than one.
"I still, 50 years on, cannot work out why the Austrians lost the plot as they did," said Davie Gibson, the former Hibernian and Leicester City inside right whose first cap was soured by the abandonment.
"Apart from Bill Brown and Ian Ure, we didn't have a player taller than five foot eight or nine; they were bigger than us but, while they were happy to dish it out, they weren't so happy when the likes of Denis Law kicked them back.
"And with us winning easily and stroking the ball about they lost it completely. In fact, I feared it might have been abandoned earlier. Horst Nemec, their centre forward, spat at referee Jim Finney and was sent off, I felt Jim, England's top referee at the time, might have abandoned the game there and then."
What debutant Gibson did not know was that there was "history" between the two countries. The first visiting Austrian side – the legendary "Wunderteam" in 1933 – had impressed with their passing, but their "crude" tackling was commented on by the press.
Relations were even more fraught when the teams next met, in Vienna, in 1937. Torry Gillick took exception to some Austrian tackling and was sent off but refused to go.
In December, 1950, the Austrians became the first continental side to win in the UK when, on a skating rink of a pitch, they won 1-0. However, their ice-hockey-style body-checking led to Willie Woodburn punching one Austrian.
Some six months later the teams met in Vienna. Again the Austrians' tackling was "coarse" but, this time, with no protection from the Swiss referee, the Scots' discipline slipped and Billy Steel was sent off as they slumped to a 4-0 defeat.
The 1954 World Cup meeting was another bad-tempered affair with the Austrians objecting to the tackling of Tommy Docherty.
The teams met again a year later in Vienna. The Austrians' approach was described in the report by the Herald's Cyril Horne as "amounting to assault and battery". Bobby Collins was kicked in the face and Gordon Smith, standing-in as Scotland captain for the injured George Young, was at his imperious best down the Austrian's left flank until Rockl, the left-half, was dismissed for one foul too many on the Hibernian man.
Amazingly, Smith, the first gentleman of Scottish football, escaped without censure after a retaliatory punch at Rockl, while his clubmate, Lawrie Reilly, flattened an Austrian fan who had invaded the pitch. He was not the only Austrian floored; forward Erich Probst, a man with a reputation for putting himself about, was laid out by his "victim" after a late challenge on Docherty. Scotland won the match as clearly as they had the fight, 4-1.
Scotland versus Austria games were now taking on Ali v Frazier proportions but the return game, at Hampden in 1956, passed without unsavoury incident and, in 1960 in Vienna, Scotland produced a dire display to lose 4-1.
If there was a truce, it only lasted until May 8, 1963. The Scots, still on a high after an unbeaten Home International series began well. Davie Wilson scored in 16 and 26 minutes, Law added a third on the half-hour, in the aftermath of which goal Nemec was sent packing. Law scored a fourth in 71 minutes and although the Austrians pulled a goal back through Anton Linhart a minute later, their collective discipline had gone. Erich Hof was sent off in 78 minutes for a foul on Willie Henderson; Linhart then had a kick at Law, who put him down with a single retaliatory punch and Finney, having seen enough, walked off the park to abandon the game.
There have been no red cards in matches between the countries since. Peace in our time, as someone once promised on their arrival home from a meeting with an Austrian 75 years ago.
He was only a few years out.
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