by Alex Gordon
Debutant Ronnie Simpson, who passed away on 20 April 2004 at the age of 73, was annoyed at the end of the game. A superb photograph figured in most of the national press showing the veteran goalkeeper, minus his false teeth, celebrating with the young Jim McCalliog at the final whistle. He had taken over from Bobby Ferguson, the Kilmarnock goalkeeper who would join West Ham United for £65,000 – a British record fee for a keeper at the time – later that summer, and was determined to keep a clean sheet. Ferguson had failed to convince Bobby Brown, a former Scotland international No. 1, of his worth. Ferguson had played in seven of the previous eight Scotland games and had conceded goals in every game, 12 in total and four against England in a 4-3 defeat at Hampden the previous year.
Brown stuck to his guns about the decision to bring in Simpson, quaintly known as ‘Faither’ to the rest of his Celtic teammates. The newly-appointed manager said, ‘I knew Scotland had a problem in that position. I had witnessed it first-hand on several occasions. I thought it was time for a change and not for one moment did I ever think Ronnie Simpson would let us down. He was a reliable, safe pair of hands. He also had experience of the Wembley pitch after having played there twice for Newcastle United in the early fifties, so the ground would hold no surprises for him. To my mind, he was the most consistent goalkeeper around at the time and it was hardly a risk putting him in against England. I didn’t care what age he was; I was only ever interested in ability. Anyway, he must have been doing something right if Jock Stein picked him for Celtic week in, week out.’ A month and ten days after that ringing testimony, Ronnie Simpson would pick up a European Cup medal as part of the triumphant Parkhead team against Inter Milan in Lisbon.
The goalkeeper wasn’t thinking that far ahead, though, in the jubilant Wembley dressing room afterwards. Tommy Gemmell recalled, ‘He was genuinely upset that England had managed to score two goals inside the last six minutes or so. That underlined the perfectionist in our goalie. He didn’t want to concede any goals and Denis wanted to score more. Some people are never happy!’
The redoubtable Ranger John Greig led out Scotland that day and said, ‘What a memory and what an honour to captain a team with the likes of Denis Law, Jim Baxter and Billy Bremner in it. That game was the highlight of my international career. Every player did their bit – and more – that afternoon. I had positive vibes before the game. Honestly, I was convinced we were going to create an upset. The English football press did us a favour by suggesting that we shouldn’t even be allowed to share the same pitch as their lads.
‘Comments like that went down like a lead balloon, particularly with a guy like Denis. He, more than anyone else, was determined to stick two fingers up to the opposition. They underestimated us, no doubt about it, and I thought the scoreline flattered them. We enjoyed our celebrations afterwards and my club teammate Ronnie McKinnon and I stayed an extra night in London because Rangers were flying to Bulgaria on the Monday for a European Cup-Winners’ Cup-tie against CSKA Sofia. We arranged to meet them at Heathrow Airport.’
The timing was fortunate for Greig because Scotland’s triumph over the world champions created a bit of a stir in the capital. The Rangers man was hurriedly invited to appear on the Eamonn Andrews Show on Sunday night. They used to open the chat show with the words, ‘And now live from London . . . the Eamonn Andrews Show!’ Actually, it was taped on the Sunday afternoon and broadcast in the evening. The Scottish captain, thankfully, hadn’t overdone the celebrations the previous evening and sailed through the performance while sharing a couch with American crime fiction writer Mickey Spillane. A young singer also appeared on the hour-long show, a Welsh bloke by the name of Tom Jones.
Afterwards, Greig returned to his London hotel and hooked up with Denis Law. ‘After a late breakfast, Denis and I visited a nearby pub after Denis had expressed a desire for a pint of shandy. The barman obviously didn’t have a clue who we were. The pub was empty at that time on a Sunday and when the barman heard us speak he immediately recognised our accents and asked us if we were down for the game. “Yes,” I replied and added, “but that fellow Law is seriously over-rated.” The barman totally agreed with me, but you should have seen his face when I turned and pointed to Denis, who was by now spluttering with indignation, and I said, “I’d like to introduce you to Denis Law.”’
Law recalled, ‘That was a game that all Scots will fondly remember, especially the sight of Slim Jim Baxter doing his tricks and taking the mickey out of the World Cup winners on the very ground where they had beaten West Germany the year before. Everyone had expected us to be slaughtered, but we weren’t because we had no fear of England whatsoever. We knew we had a good team and we knew that if we played the way we knew we could play we would cause an upset. I have played in games when I have not been in the better team, but this time we were the better team and nobody could argue about it.’
Chapter Thirteen
LAW AND BAXTER
Denis Law wanted to annihilate them. Jim Baxter wanted to humiliate them. It would be fair to say the two Scots weren’t quite on the same wavelength on the afternoon of 15 April at Wembley in 1967 when Scotland faced England, the unbeaten world champions.
The story goes that Law was raging at his teammate when he attempted to make fools of Sir Alf Ramsey’s men. Here was a Scotland team clicking into place, firing on all cylinders, players brimming with confidence, the ball running straight and true and everybody performing to the maximum of his ability. England were groggy, on the ropes and looking for an escape route. Law wanted to go straight for the jugular; Baxter was quite content to play the juggler.
Tommy Gemmell recalled, ‘Yes, there seemed to be a wee bit of animosity between Denis and Jim that day. One of the worst experiences in Denis’s career was that 9-3 hammering. It rankled with him and he never wanted to talk about it. You brought up that particular topic at your peril. But you knew he wanted to exact revenge at some point and this was the ideal platform. It could not have been stage-managed better by a Manhattan director. England had played 19 games and had remained unbeaten since winning the World Cup the previous year. They were in Denis’s sights, though, and he realised this was the day he had waited for for such a long time.
‘I have to admit I indulged myself a little, too. Like Slim Jim, I just couldn’t help myself. I remember playing a bit of keep-ball with Billy Bremner and Willie Wallace with little Alan Ball in the middle of our triangle trying desperately to intercept a pass. Billy would stick it to me, I would pass it to Wispy and he knocked it back to Billy. Wee Ballie was going off his head. All I could hear in his squeakily little voice was, “You Scotch bastards . . . you Scotch bastards” as he ran from player to player. All the time, Denis is standing upfield screaming for us to get the ball to him. And who will ever forget those marvellous pictures of Jim indulging in a bit of keepy-uppy as he sauntered nonchalantly down the left-hand side of our midfield? That image will live with many forever. Meanwhile, Denis has got steam coming out of his ears as he hollers for a pass. Jim would just sling him a deaf ’un. He was enjoying himself too much. The scoreline didn’t matter to him, just so long as we scored at least one more than England.
‘Aye, I suppose we could have piled them on that day. We were in control and sparking in every department. It was a fabulous team performance and, naturally enough, we took a lot of confidence from Denis’s early opening goal. I still laugh when I see that goal. If you view film of it again, have a look at the player getting treatment down at the byline beside the England goal. I had taken a dull one from their left-back Ray Wilson as I sent over a cross from the right. It was painful and I went down like a sack of spuds. On came the trainer and he was working on the leg when Denis put us ahead. He went through his usual arm-in-the-air celebration as the stadium erupted. That goal worked better than any magic sponge that had ever been applied by any trainer. I was up on my feet in jig-time and to join in the celebrations.
‘Denis enjoyed the moment, no doubt about it. And you could see he
wanted more. He was absolutely desperate to stuff that ball behind Gordon Banks as often as possible. We won, but he didn’t quite get his wish of a rout and I suppose anyone now looking through the record books will see a 3-2 scoreline and believe it had been a tight encounter. Really, nothing could be further from the truth. Denis would just have to put up with a historic win at Wembley over the Auld Enemy. Hopefully, that helped get him over the frustration of us not piling on the agony and racking up a more emphatic scoreline.’
There were reports of Denis and Jim exchanging pleasantries in the dressing room afterwards. In 1992 I had ample opportunity to ask Jim Baxter about that memorable afternoon a quarter-of-a-century earlier. A video had been put together of Jim’s spectacular playing days and someone requested a bit of publicity to help with the launch. I was sports editor of the Sunday Mail at the time and I received a call from a producer asking if I could assist in any way. The cost of advertising the tape would have been exorbitant and would have immediately cut into any cash raised for Jim. A normal practice is to give over a reasonable amount of space in the newspaper and run a competition. ‘Win 20 signed Jim Baxter videos’, that sort of thing. It works both ways. Jim’s video is brought to the attention of the public – and the Sunday Mail might even pick up an extra reader or two. Back then, the Sunday Mail enjoyed by far the biggest circulation of any newspaper in Scotland, achieving figures of over 900,000 and sometimes close to one million. It was just about saturation coverage of a nation with a population of some five-and-a-half million. For advertising purposes, it is reasoned that one newspaper is read by three people. Rounding up figures, that would mean that three million people would have read that Sunday Mail. So, if you were a sports fan, you couldn’t have missed the fact that a Jim Baxter video had been launched.
Anyway, I arranged to meet Jim and have a quick chat about how we would go about getting the best for both him and the newspaper. We agreed to meet in a pub next to his flat in Shawlands on the south side of Glasgow. Possibly, we might go for a bite to eat at some point, or get some ‘lumpy stuff’, as Jim called it. No chance. Jim was in fine form, telling all sorts of stories and recanting memories from the past. Some I might even have been able to publish. We got round to Wembley 1967 and the alleged fall-out with Denis Law.
‘What argument?’ queried Jim, shrugging his shoulders. ‘Me and Denis? We’re the best of pals. Och, I’ve heard all the tales and I accept he wanted to rub their noses in it. But, believe me, Denis and I celebrated big style at the end. I just got carried away in the moment. It was allowed, as far as I was concerned. Our wonderful supporters enjoyed every minute of it. Not a day goes by that someone won’t stop me to talk about me playing around with the ball. It was just a bit of fun. They remembered that, but would they have stopped me to talk about the goals if we had scored five or six? Probably not. It was just a wee bit of off-the-cuff stuff that brought the house down. Hell, we were all enjoying ourselves, weren’t we? It was a good day to be Scottish. Okay, maybe I wouldn’t have done it if I had been in a Scotland team thumped 9-3 by England. Maybe I would have thought about getting more goals.’
Jim, dressed casually in a black T-shirt, navy blue trousers, black slip-on shoes and a dark brown suede jacket, then took a sip of his Bacardi and Coke, let the liquor roll past his tonsils, looked me straight in the eye, smiled and said, ‘I doubt it, though.’
Denis Law and Jim Baxter always brought something special and indefinable to the Scotland set-up. They were genuine world-class stars – and they knew it. Law was an admitted fan of the elegant Baxter and has always included him in his all-time list of greats. He would never have hesitated in selecting him for any team. Law is on record as saying the Scottish players who have impressed him most are, in no particular order, Dave Mackay, Billy Bremner, Billy McNeill, Pat Crerand, Ian St John, Davie Wilson, John White, Jimmy Johnstone, Alan Gilzean, Danny McGrain, Bill Brown, Eric Caldow and, of course, Jim Baxter. Law would say, ‘You would want John White in your team along with Bremner, Mackay, Baxter and wee Jimmy Johnstone – five foot nothing with the touch of a butterfly. They would be the first names in and you’d quite happily build your team around them.’
Sadly, Jim Baxter, at only 61 years of age, passed away on 14 April 2001 and Denis Law was among the mourners at the funeral at Glasgow Cathedral six days later. Law said, ‘He turned on the class when we beat England in 1967. He was the best player on the park that day. To beat the world champions on their own ground was mainly down to Jim Baxter.’
Chapter Fourteen
SCREEN GEMS
We should file this chapter under ‘You Can Never Have Too Much Of A Good Thing’. I have revisited the DVD of the 3-2 triumph over England in 1967 several times in the course of putting this book together; all in the name of research, you understand. It’s amazing what you miss first time around. Or second. Or third. I believe that was the finest all-round performance I have ever witnessed from Denis Law and, of course, there is a landslide of great memories from which to choose.
I decided to go through it on almost a minute-by-minute basis and I’ve noticed a few things that had previously escaped my attention. For a start, the commentary for ITV was provided by Englishman Hugh Johns and the summary came from former England captain Billy Wright, who won 105 caps for his country. What? No Archie Macpherson? No Arthur Montford? The Scottish viewers were getting served the English viewpoint on the big game and some of the observations during the 90 minutes appeared to be transmitted through gritted teeth. Are you sitting comfortably? Here we go as referee Gerhard Schulenburg puts his whistle to his lips.
Kick-off: Jim McCalliog passes to Denis Law who moves to the left and slips a pass to Billy Bremner. Billy Wright, ‘I think England will win, but you should never underestimate the Scots.’
40 secs: Law is already looking in the mood as he skips past challenges from Bobby Moore and Nobby Stiles before being blocked.
55 secs: Ronnie Simpson throws the ball to Jim Baxter for his first touch.
2: Billy Bremner intercepts Alan Ball’s pass to Bobby Charlton and releases Law on the left wing. George Cohen boots the ball off Law’s shin for a throw-in. Hugh Johns, ‘Cohen is one of those players out there who play their football really hard.’
3: Tommy Gemmell takes the ball off the toes of Jimmy Greaves with a solid, well-timed tackle.
3.30: Law and Baxter combine for the first time, but the move comes to nothing.
4: First foul of the afternoon, with John Greig clattering into Geoff Hurst. Johns reminds us, ‘There’s Geoff Hurst, the man who practically won the World Cup here nine months ago.’ It’s the first of many references to the fact that England are world champions.
4.30: Baxter floats in a cross from midway inside the English left flank. Law springs to meet it, but is just beaten by the alert Moore.
5: Scotland win the first corner on the right after Gemmell and Lennox combine. Willie Wallace sends the kick straight to Bobby Charlton on the edge of the English box.
8: Gemmell is creating danger with his raiding on the right flank and his flashing cross is inviting. Law launches himself at the ball, but it’s just a shade too high.
10: Jack Charlton is injured after a lunging tackle on Lennox.
10.30: Lennox’s right-wing corner-kick drops to Law who wildly lashes the ball yards over the bar from inside the box. Johns, ‘Law looks downcast. He didn’t get his accuracy right from a possible scoring position.’
12: Jack Charlton goes in hard again on Lennox. Both players collapse. Lennox recovers after treatment, but the English centre-half limps off with the help of trainers Harold Shephardson and Les Cocker. Johns, ‘That’s a tragic sight for English supporters.’
15: Law boots the ball away angrily after the ref awards a foul for a challenge on Cohen.
16: Great tackle from Law on Cohen and he stabs a pass in front of Eddie McCreadie, but his left-wing cross is cleared. Johns, ‘That’s the fervour of the Scots. They’ve raised their game, they
’re playing quicker and that’s why there is pressure on England.’
17: Simpson is brought into action as he deals with a vicious effort from Hurst on the edge of the box. Johns, ‘The Scottish goalkeeper handled that very well.’
18: Law and Cohen are getting stuck into it, as are Bremner and Ball in midfield. Law brushes off the England right-back to pass to Bremner who slips the ball to Jim McCalliog. He finds Law who sets up Baxter. He slides a pass to Wallace who is foiled with a last-ditch tackle from Ray Wilson.
19: Charlton is still off the field. Johns, ‘This is a blow to England.’
19.30: Stiles fouls Law who responds with a pat on the head for his Manchester United teammate. Bremner slips the free-kick to Greig who thunders one well wide of Banks’s left-hand post.
20: An amazing miss from Law. Banks takes a short goal-kick to left-back Wilson who is caught in possession by Wallace (or wee Willie Wallace, as Johns calls him throughout the commentary). He tees up Law, racing in at speed, but he thumps the ball into the side netting. He lies on his back, a disconsolate figure. Johns, ‘Denis must be wondering how to high heaven he managed to miss that one. It was great play from Wallace and Law has missed an open goal with no-one near him. That’s the biggest let-off England are likely to get this afternoon.’
