This week... in 1959

THIS week in 1959 Scottish football fans were smarting after a 1-0 defeat at Wembley to England.

It was a Bobby Charlton goal that clinched it for the winners but our sports reporter deserves a prize for his colourful description setting the scene.

“A brief blink of sunshine broke through the dark skies over Wembley 20 minutes before the greatest of all football tussles… England v Scotland… was due to flare into life,” he said.

“It lit up a dozen Scottish standards spread evenly around the ground and it also made the ‘bowling green’ an unforgettably vivid sight.”

He continued: “Both teams wore black armbands as a tribute to former international Jeff Hall ... England were also in jet black pants ... the ball on the centre spot was a brilliant lemon affair.”

Bobby Evans, below, of Celtic, was our reporter’s man of the match, putting in a brave performance, but in the end, it was not enough.

Bobby Collins had given an exclusive interview to the Evening Times about his footballing ambitions – apparently he and wife Beryl were homesick in Liverpool and keen to return to Scotland.

Elsewhere in the sporting news, St Mirren’s longest-serving player, full-back Davis Lapsley, missed his first ever game in a mid-week battle with Partick Thistle.

And Ibrox shop manager Mrs Jean McColl was over the moon, when she became only the third woman in the competition’s history to win the £500 outright prize in our Spot the Ball contest.