On the Record
QI was reminiscing about the “good old days” when you went to a big game at Hampden and were so crammed in you could hardly get a bag of sweets out of your pocket. Can you say when Hampden last housed a crowd over 100,000? Brains Trust, Hamilton.
AThat was at the Scottish Cup Final of May 5, 1973, when a crowd of 122,714 turned up to see the Old Firm do battle. It finished Rangers 3 (Parlane, Conn, Forsyth), Celtic 2 (Dalglish, Connelly pen).
QAm I right in saying that Third Lanark finished third in the league and qualified for Europe just a few years before the club went bust? Alex Stanton, East Kilbride.
AThey finished third in season 1960/61 – six years before the club folded. Rangers and Kilmarnock were the teams who finished above them but Thirds did outscore everyone with 100 goals to their credit. They were on 94 with one game to go and beat Hibs 6-1 at Cathkin with the help of an Alex Harley hat-trick. Harley finished Scotland’s top scorer for the season with 42 league goals, the kind of form that won him a £19,500 transfer to Manchester city a year later. Third place did not qualify the club for major European football but they were entered into a minor competition, the Anglo-French Friendship Cup, where they lost to Rouen.
QWould you have any details of a Dundee v Arsenal friendly in the 1970s in which a young Gordon Strachan wiped the floor with the England internationalist Alan Ball? Big D.
AAt Dens Park on August 2, 1975, 18-year-old midfielder Strachan starred for Dundee in a 2-1 win against an Arsenal side for whom Ball struggled to make an impact. Bobby Ford and Alan Gordon netted for Dundee and Alex Cropley got the Arsenal goal. Dundee – Allan, Martin, Johnston, Ford, Stewart, Phillip, Strachan, Robinson, Wallace, Gordon, Scott. Subs: Gemmell, Wilson, Hoggan, Caldwell, Sinclair. Arsenal – Rimmer, Rice, Nelson, Kelly, Mancini, Storey, Ball, Cropley, Hornsby,
Kidd, Brady. Subs: Armstrong, Rostron, Radford, O’Leary.
QWhen did the junior club Bridgeton Waverley move out of Barrowfield Park and make their new home ground Carntyne Stadium? Old timer.
AWaverley moved in August 1956, swapping the Barrowfield “dirt” pitch for a grass surface at Carntyne.
QWhich full-back played most for Rangers – Eric Caldow or Bobby Shearer? James Mearns.
AThese two greats of the 1950s and 1960s cannot be split as they both played a total of 407 games.