by Alex Gordon
So, honours even and Denis Law had Wembley in his sights a year down the line. As we’ve covered that disastrous 90 minutes in a previous chapter we can swiftly move on to happier memories.
Scotland had been deeply embarrassed by the 9-3 thrashing from their old foes in 1961. Six years earlier, Law, then a schoolboy, recalled feeling extremely hurt when Scotland toppled 7-2 to the same opponents at the same venue, especially as the goalkeeper had been Fred Martin, then playing for Denis’s local favourites Aberdeen. Ian McColl, who had replaced Andy Beattie 18 months earlier, prepared for the visit of England on 14 April 1962. He kept faith with five players who had been on the receiving end of a footballing nightmare the previous year. Rangers’ Eric Caldow and Davie Wilson, to figure prominently on this occasion, Celtic’s Billy McNeill, Ian St John, who was by now a Liverpool player, and Law were the men given the opportunity to get their own back on the English with 132,441 watching inside a heaving Hampden Park.
Bill Brown, with Spurs boss Bill Nicholson finally relenting and giving the go-ahead, replaced Frank Haffey in goal and there were also places for Dundee right-back Alec Hamilton, Pat Crerand, Celtic’s forceful midfielder, Jim Baxter, the elegant Ranger, John White, the equally stylish Spurs player, and Rangers’ pacy outside-right Alex Scott. Unsurprisingly, England manager Walter Winterbottom kept the same attack that had gone goal crazy at Wembley: Bryan Douglas, Jimmy Greaves, Bobby Smith, Johnny Haynes and Bobby Charlton. They had shared eight goals among them; Greaves with three, Smith and Haynes with doubles and Douglas with a single. Midfield player Bobby Robson, who hit the opener past Haffey that bleak afternoon for the Scots, was injured. Sunderland’s Stan Anderson replaced him and his international career was over after only two appearances.
England had devastated Scotland at Wembley with Robson scoring in the eighth minute and Greaves adding another two before the half-hour mark. This time it was England who were on the receiving end in the early moments. The lively Wilson, who had netted a hat-trick for the Scottish League against their English counterparts a few weeks beforehand, was on target in the 13th minute to the joy of his teammates and the relief of the supporters. Wilson’s shot flew past the stranded centre-half Peter Swan, who was on the goal-line. He made a valiant effort on the line to kick clear, but he only succeeded in diverting the ball high into the net. Billy McNeill recalled, ‘Denis Law was the architect of the goal after dribbling round goalkeeper Ron Springett and presenting Davie with the simplest of chances. Denis was outstanding and his darting runs and constant movement pressurised the English defence throughout the 90 minutes. I think he took the 9-3 defeat personally.’
As the Celtic captain pointed out, Law was in the thick of the action throughout proceedings as he challenged menacingly in the air and on the ground at every opportunity. England thought they had equalised when a shot from Haynes battered against the underside of the crossbar and came down on the line. Dutch referee Leo Horn waved play on. The match official awarded Scotland a penalty two minutes from the end when Swan, threatened by Law, handled the ball and Caldow made no mistake with the spot-kick. McNeill added, ‘England were fortunate to hold us to two goals. Significantly, it was the first time for 15 games that England had failed to score. In truth, we completely outclassed them.’
Law’s former Huddersfield boss Bill Shankly was in the crowd at Hampden and said, ‘England had been favourites to win, but Pat Crerand and Jim Baxter conducted the orchestra brilliantly. It was a typical bone-hard end-of-the-season playing surface, but it made no difference to those guys. They pulled the ball down and utilised it so well. Denis Law was also brilliant. What a display from him and his teammates. However, it riles me, frustrates me and annoys me to think of all the great players Scotland have had over the years and yet they haven’t done anything. It’s criminal after all that talent we’ve had that there’s not been a really successful Scottish international team.’
Scotland returned to the scene of the crime in 1963 and five players remained in position from the calamity two years earlier – Eric Caldow, Dave Mackay, Ian St John, Davie Wilson and, of course, Denis Law. Willie Henderson took over from Alex Scott on the right wing from the line-up that had been successful in Glasgow 12 months earlier. Otherwise it was the same forward line. Law was buzzing and had already become the darling of the Scottish support. In the previous Home International, against Northern Ireland five months earlier, the Manchester United menace had banged four past goalkeeper Bobby Irvine, who played his club football in Northern Ireland with Linfield. Law had gone into that game after rifling in four goals for United in the previous league game. Eight goals in five days – not bad by anyone’s standards.
The Wembley confrontation was only five minutes old when there was a sickening collision between Eric Caldow and England’s bulldozer of a centre-forward, Bobby Smith. Willie Henderson claimed, ‘I heard the crack above the din and I was over on the other wing.’ That was the end of the contest for the Rangers defender, who was carried off with a broken leg. Smith continued, hobbling on the left wing with a knee injury. Substitutes had yet to be given the go-ahead by FIFA and Dave Mackay offered to take over Caldow’s role on the left-hand side of the defence. Manager Ian McColl puzzled everyone, including the player, by nominating Davie Wilson. The Ibrox outside-left agreed to the switch, but insisted, ‘I told the boss I would play in the position, but only if he remained on the touchline to offer advice. He had been up in the stand at the kick-off, but came down to see the extent of Eric’s injury. Then he told me of the switch. I had never played there in my life. However, he agreed to remain trackside and I took confidence from that.’ McColl explained, ‘On my way down from the Royal Box, I had been wondering what to do if Eric had to go off as was, sadly, the case. Even though the game had only gone five minutes, I could already see that our half-back line of Mackay, Ure and Baxter had settled. I didn’t want to disturb the situation. I knew Davie Wilson very well, so I asked him to play left-back.’
Jim Baxter then took centre stage. I recall a conversation I had with Rangers legend John Greig, who would make his international debut against England a year later, when we were discussing the merits of this extraordinary individual. Greig smiled, ‘He does things with that ball others can only dream about. Do you know, he calls his left foot “The Glove”? When he’s playing all you can hear are cries in that Fife accent, “Gie the ba’ to The Glove.” He’s a one-off, alright. I remember a game against Partick Thistle at Firhill. It was the dead of winter and they had no undersoil heating at the time. The playing surface was treacherous, just like an extended sheet of glass. All of the Rangers players were changing their studded boots for rubber moulds. Well, everyone except one – Jim Baxter. He had already put on his usual boots with leather studs and he wasn’t changing them for anyone. We implored him, but he just grinned and said, “‘The Glove’ will be okay.” You can guess what happened next. He went out and didn’t put a foot wrong while the rest of us slid around on our backsides for the entire game.’
The Baxter Glove was in full working order against the English. The eccentric left-half rarely made a tackle if he didn’t believe the situation merited it. However, England right-back and captain Jimmy Armfield would later testify that Baxter could, in fact, tackle with the best of them. In the 29th minute the Scot robbed the defender as he foolishly tried to dribble round him. His timing in the challenge was impeccable. Then he elegantly strode into the danger zone and flashed an unstoppable drive between Gordon Banks and the right-hand post. The lurking Denis Law, in a good position, might have expected a pass from his pal, but Baxter’s only intention was to plant that ball behind the goalkeeper. This he managed with a certain amount of aplomb. And Law was the first to congratulate him.
Leo Horn, the referee who had awarded the Scots a penalty-kick at Hampden the previous year, was to do so again two minutes later. The panicking Ron Flowers felled Willie Henderson and there was only one man to take the kick – Jim Baxter. He placed the ball on the s
pot and sauntered forth before casually and almost contemptuously rolling it into the net with the England goalkeeper guessing wrong. Baxter’s slide-rule left-foot drive swept to Banks’s left as he moved to the right. Law, hands on hips, watched from the 18-yard line, obviously confident in his teammate’s prowess from the spot. Henderson said, ‘I was fond of a cigar back then, the bigger the better. People used to see me with these massive things and comment, “Mind you don’t fall off that, Willie.” If I had a cigar in the back pocket of my shorts that afternoon, I would have lit up when Jim went forward to take that kick. He was never going to miss.’ Blackburn Rovers’ nippy raider Bryan Douglas beat Bill Brown with a fine effort with 11 minutes remaining. However, this was to be ten-man Scotland’s day. The awful memory of 1961 was beginning to dissipate. Veteran sportswriter John Rafferty noted in the Scotsman, ‘Bewhiskied Scottish fans weaved onto the field and kicked their tartan bonnets into the goals and planted standards on the greenest turf in Britain. Impatient policemen chased them, but they were not to be moved.’
We always were a nation to do things with a certain amount of élan and panache. At least the crossbars, on this occasion, remained intact.
Bobby Charlton knew how much beating England meant to his Manchester United teammate. ‘When Nobby Stiles and I were helping England win the World Cup, Denis made a point of playing golf. Whenever we played Scotland, Denis would kick us both and call us “English bastards” within the first minute or so of the match. It was as though he felt obliged to make a statement and, having done so, he could then get on with the game.
‘When I played my first match for England in Scotland I remember the bus journey from Troon up to Glasgow. It seemed there was scarcely a house where someone wasn’t hanging out the window shouting the Scottish equivalent of, “You’ll get nowt today.” Sometimes we did, sometimes we didn’t, but there was always one certainty – if there was a Scottish deficit, it would never be one of the heart. Down the years I formed the impression that no-one embodied this national pride more strongly than Denis and on my visits to his country there was always at least the hint that he was regarded as the most patriotic Scottish player of them all. I know that this image for him will always be the matter of deepest pride.’
Law was in his usual No. 10 berth a year later when England visited again on Home International duty on 11 April 1964. Manager Ian McColl made five changes from the triumphant Wembley line-up, some enforced through injury. Bill Brown, the unfortunate Eric Caldow, Dave Mackay, Ian Ure and Ian St John were replaced with Campbell Forsyth, a promising young goalkeeper at Kilmarnock, Celtic’s stuffy left-back Jim Kennedy, a defender who rarely crossed the halfway line unlike his eventual successor Tommy Gemmell, Rangers’ reliable John Greig, Billy McNeill, now captaining Celtic and Scotland, and Dundee’s Alan Gilzean, a towering presence in the middle of the attack.
Facing Law that day was his former Huddersfield teammate Ray Wilson, who had since moved on to Everton. The left-back said, ‘I saw Denis in the tunnel, smiled and said, “Hi, Denis.” He just looked me up and down and said nothing. In fact, he looked at me as though he hated me.’
The game, played in driving rain and swirling winds, was still deadlocked until the 72nd minute. Match official Leo Horn, beginning to be recognised as a lucky omen to Scotland, awarded the home side a corner-kick on the right. Davie Wilson skipped over to take it before sending the ball arcing into the penalty area. It seemed to be held up in the air by an invisible hand in the gusty conditions while there was the usual pushing and shoving as the England defenders bellowed the time-honoured cry, ‘Get a jersey.’ Whoever was supposed to be marking Alan Gilzean – probably Spurs’ giant centre-half Maurice Norman – wasn’t listening. Gordon Banks appeared to hesitate as Gilzean propelled himself forward to score with a near-post header. Once again, for the third consecutive Auld Enemy encounter, the Scottish fans were celebrating. It remained 1-0 and most of the 133,245 fans repaired to the nearest hostelries. It was a good time to be a publican in the Mount Florida area.
Goalkeeper Banks recalled years later, ‘That was my first game in Glasgow and it’s no exaggeration to say that a Hampden crowd in full voice can be terrifying when you first hear it. For me, it was like hearing an explosion of guns from the enemy lines. I am sure the Hampden Roar could have been heard way down over Hadrian’s Wall. Before their goal, I had Bobby Moore to thank for preventing me from giving away another. I miscued a throw right to the feet of Denis Law, of all people. He was so surprised to have it presented to him that he delayed his shot and Moore made one of those interceptions of his that were to make him a world-renowned defender. As I came off leaden-footed at the end, all I could see were thousands of Tam O’Shanters waving in the air like a field of tartan flowers. There is no celebration to match the one when the Scots have got the better of England on the football field.’
It was the third time Law and Gilzean had spearheaded the attack – they would play together on another six occasions – and later on there were suggestions of a rift between the pair. Law had a firm take on the rumours. ‘Gillie is a friend. As for us not blending, he was ideal for me. I like to play it quick and sharp and Alan has this great ability to play one-touch stuff. There’s nobody better to give you that half-yard extra space. Had he played for Scotland more often, we would have had a better team. He also has the sort of wacky good humour that keeps up morale. You get to know to check the salt and pepper pots. I’m not the only guy who has found the lid slackened and got the lot in my soup.’
The so-called fall-out between Law and Gilzean appears to have no substance. In the games where they dovetailed, Scotland scored 18 goals and the players shared ten strikes equally between them. Scotland won four of the nine encounters – against Norway (6-1), Wales (2-1), England (1-0) and Northern Ireland (3-2) – drew three – against West Germany (2-2 and 1-1) and Spain (0-0) and lost two – against Northern Ireland (2-3) and Poland (1-2).
Denis Law, with Ian St John replacing Gilzean, at last got on the scoresheet at the sixth time of asking against England on 10 April 1965. Alas, there was to be no victory parade at Wembley as a dour, tense struggle ended in a 2-2 draw. Spurs’ Bill Brown was reinstated in goal with Chelsea’s adventurous Eddie McCreadie replacing the pedestrian Jim Kennedy at left-back. Pat Crerand, Law’s Manchester United mate, came in at right-half with John Greig moving to the left and Billy McNeill commandeering the role in the middle of the defence. Leeds United veteran Bobby Collins wore the No. 8 jersey. Spurs inside-right John White, at the age of 27, had tragically died after being struck by lightning while getting caught in a storm on a golf course in the summer of 1964. Law lamented at the time, ‘He was killed in the prime of his life. It was a tremendous loss, not solely for his family, but for all of his teammates at club and international level. He was a super player who had still to reach his peak. He was wonderful to play alongside. John White was a favourite player of mine.’
Denis Law must have been the first name on Ian McColl’s team sheet at the time. His four goals against Norway in the 6-1 win at Hampden in November 1963 brought his total to 15 in his last nine internationals. He had also netted four against the vulnerable Northern Ireland, another three as he waged a one-man campaign against Norway, two against Austria before the game was abandoned with 11 minutes remaining, and singles against Wales, Spain and Finland. The Manchester United attacker was also on target against Wales in a 2-1 victory 13 days after his virtuoso performance against the Norwegians. Alan Gilzean swept round lunging goalkeeper Gary Sprake to set up Law with a simple tap-in, his 21st goal in 22 internationals. Law, only 23 at the time, was well within sight of Hughie Gallacher’s 23-goal record for Scotland. It was phenomenal finishing from an exceptional player. Law added another with a second-minute effort against the Finns as the Scots triumphed 3-1 at Hampden on 21 October 1964.
Law was now sitting on 22 strikes for his country. Could he equal Gallacher’s feat at Wembley? The guy’s timing was perfect and, yes, he scor
ed his goal as Scotland came back from two down to claim a point. Bobby Charlton netted the opener in the 25th minute with a drive that flicked off Alec Hamilton and left Bill Brown flapping. McColl’s men were in disarray by the time Jimmy Greaves had doubled the advantage ten minutes later with a shot that went in off a post. Thankfully, Law managed to pull one back four minutes before the half-time break, when he tried his luck with a dipping shot from 30 yards that left a befuddled Gordon Banks stranded on his goal-line. The England custodian, normally so reliable, tried to kick the shot away and didn’t look too clever as it zipped under his foot and sliced into the net. A crestfallen Banks said, ‘I don’t know what on earth happened with that goal. Denis simply scored with a shot that deceived me. He didn’t get a lot of goals from outside the box and he really surprised me that day.’
England were severely handicapped in the second-half with injuries to defender Ray Wilson and West Ham forward John Byrne. In the circumstances, Scotland piled into attack and duly levelled with an Ian St John counter in the 59th minute. The Scottish press weren’t ecstatic about the final 2-2 scoreline or the display. One said, ‘England were clearly toiling with their injuries and, to all intents and purposes, they only had nine fit players on the field. They were there for the taking. Everyone saw it apart from Ian McColl and his players.’
