Bert Mccann
Footballer who played in disastrous 9-3 defeat at Wembley
Robert Johnston Mccann, former Scotland football internationalist and college lecturer. Born: 15 October, 1932 in Dundee. Died: 12 September, 2017 in Edinburgh, aged 84
BERT Mccann, who has died suddenly in his 85th year, will forever be remembered as one of the 11 Scots, who participated in the worst defeat in the long history of Scottish international football. Indeed, he and goalkeeper Frank Haffey carried the can for the terrible 9-3 beating Scotland sustained at the hands of England on 15 April, 1961.
Five players: Haffey, Mccann, Dave Mackay, Ian St John and Denis Law were dropped, all bar Haffey and Mccann were subsequently recalled. Bert Mccann, at least, had a valid excuse for not being at his best that day – he spent the night before the game in hospital in London, being treated for a persistent nose-bleed. This meant, because of possible crosscontamination, he had to wear gloves to shake hands with HM the Queen at the game, but manager Ian Mccoll never thought of dropping him; he believed: “A 70 per cent fit Bert Mccann was a better bet than the alternative”. In any case, there was no shame in losing his place to Jim Baxter; after five caps, Mccann was a former internationalist, with Bobby Robson’s England shirt as a permanent reminder of the day. But, between winning his first cap, in a 3-2 Hampden win over West Germany, until that final disastrous 90 minutes at Wembley, Mccann was never in a losing Scotland side. He had the same good record in his five games for the Scottish League XI, his five games for them included scoring the opener in 3-2 win over the English League in March, 1961. His excellent man-marking of Jimmy Greaves in that game, as much as his goal, got him into that Wembley team.
A former pupil of rugbyplaying Harris Academy in his native Dundee, Mccann played junior for Dundee North End, before signing as an amateur with Dundee United, then a lowly Second Division club, for whom he played 27 games. He was with United when he won his first Scotland Amateur cap, while studying Geography and Spanish at Edinburgh University.