MY DAD’S TARTAN ARMY
McKinnon’s delight as his old man cheers on Scots as they stun world’s best
RONNIE McKINNON helped swell the heart of a nation but a beaming smile of pride spotted from the team bus remains his most cherished memory of Scotland’s greatest victory.
It was 50 years today that manager Bobby Brown, in his first game in charge, gathered a Scottish team under the sorcery of Jim Baxter and set about writing football history.
The Scots were crowned unofficial champions of the world, handing Sir Alf Ramsay’s side their first defeat on their own turf just 10 months after Bobby Moore lifted Jules Rimet’s golden wings at Wembley.
Unexpected? Tony Queen, the bookie and confidant of Jock Stein, advertised his prices in Record Sport in the days running up to the Home International – Scotland were long odds to win at 4-1, with half-time and full-time pushed out to eights.
Any Scots tempted to plough in would have set themselves up for life after a goal from Denis Law gave them a half-time lead before Bobby Lennox doubled the lead 12 minutes from time.
England threatened a comeback when defender Jack Charlton, injured early in the match and pushed forward as a makeshift striker, scored their opener but debutant Jim McCalliog made the game secure, despite Geoff Hurst’s strike two minutes from time.
Former Rangers defender McKinnon, still sprightly at 76, said: “We had England on the back foot for most of the game - and in our back pockets too.
“The Scotland fans loved it and none moreso than my father, Murdo. He and my mother, Annie, came to watch me play almost every game for Rangers at Ibrox, but they never travelled away from home.
“The game at Wembley was the only time my father watched me play an away game in his life and it meant a lot to me not to have let him down.
“He was a solitary man, friendly and social, but most happy in his own company. He travelled to London on his own and as I left Wembley to travel to the after match function with the team, I spotted him waving to me from the crowd.
“It was a wonderful feeling to see my father so chuffed for me, his son. It meant a helluva lot.
“We were no hopers that day yet showed the World Cup winners how to play football. Has there ever been a better performance from a Scotland team? I think not.”
McKinnon, who made his debut in the famous 1-0 win over Italy at Hampden in 1965, won a total of 28 caps for Scotland and Wembley was his finest hour and a half.
How quaint it seems now to suggest the Scots were heading into the game on the back of an inferiority complex given all Ramsay’s wingless wonders had achieved the previous year.
Admittedly, England were on a run of games without defeat that stretched to 19 before the Scots came calling. However, four of the Scotland team that lined up at Wembley, including debut keeper Ronnie Simpson, would win the European Cup with Celtic a month later.
That same week, McKinnon and defensive partner John Greig were part of a Rangers side that lost narrowly to Bayern Munich in the final of the Cup Winners Cup.
The Scots also boasted Sheffield Wednesday’s McCalliog, just 20 and arguably the game’s most industrious performer, alongside Law, Billy Bremner – and the ever gallus Baxter.
McKinnon said: “Greigy and I were so used to Jim doing what he did. He liked nothing better than taking the mickey – and the more high profile the game, the more likely he was to do it. He was the master. It was the Jim Baxter Show.
“Denis was particularly upset. He genuinely believed we could have scored three more but because of Jim’s carry on we didn’t get the scoreline we deserved.
Denis told him: ‘Look Jim, chuck the showboating now let’s score goals.’ It went in one ear and out the other. With Baxter in that mood, nothing could stop him.
“Jim was so in command he over ruled the whole lot of us. We took them to the cleaners. It was laughable – and they were world champions.
“Ramsay was so anti-Baxter he referred to him as ‘that man’. He knew his danger. We trounced England.
“They were made to bow down and accept we were the superior side.”
The win at Wembley proved a high water mark in the managerial career of Brown and, sadly for the Scots, another example of glorious failure.
The team never played together again and the Scots soon went on to stumble in qualification for the European Championships in 1968.
McKinnon kept Celtic rival Billy McNeill out of the starting 11 after the Hoops skipper missed earlier games through injuries and struggled to regain his place.
Scotland had such an embarrassment of riches at the time manager Brown didn’t even miss Jimmy Johnstone, who failed a late fitness test and lost out to club mate Willie Wallace. McKinnon added: “I don’t know how many world class players Scotland had at the time, but you could certainly count 11 at Wembley that afternoon. Ronnie’s debut at 36? Fabulous. Same with Jim.
“We had the oldest and youngest player on the pitch performing at such an outstanding level.
“It was a great result for Scotland and yet never properly acknowledged by the SFA.
“They appear to have completely turned their back on us and there must be a reason. The big question is: ‘Why?’” Why indeed. The SFA’s tribute to the class of 1967 has amounted to little more than a couple of social media brickbats. McCalliog recently called on Hampden bosses to pay tribute to his team-mates and McKinnon agrees.
A pre-match bow before the game against England on June 10 would seem a fitting time and place.
McKinnon said: “Maybe it would boost the current team. The Scotland squad needs as much help as it can get.
“They can point to us before the match and say ‘if they did it, so can we.’
It might have been 50 years ago but we proved that afternoon the impossible can be done.”
It was the only time my father watched me away from Ibrox and it meant a lot not to let him down