It can be ’67 all over again for Scots, says McCalliog

WHEN Gordon Strachan gathers his Scotland squad together next week, he can only dream that the players assembled will be convinced after just one training session that they will beat England at Wembley.

That was the dynamic at play when Jim McCalliog took a first, awestruck look at his new team-mates as he prepared for making what should have been the most daunting of Scotland debuts against the Auld Enemy in London in 1967.

A 20-year-old who had impressed manager Bobby Brown in the Under-23 side, the Sheffield Wednesday midfielder was drafted in to take on the reigning World Cup winners in his first senior international.

Any sense of trepidation quickly washed away all of five days before the European Championship qualifier, which was Brown’s first game in charge of the national side.

‘The guys were so cocky and confident in training that I felt great after that,’ recalled the player who scored Scotland’s third goal in their historic 3-2 win.

‘When I was a kid at Chelsea, Tommy Docherty told us the Rest of the World team would be training with us at Stamford Bridge and we were in awe.

‘It was exactly that feeling when I saw all my Scotland team-mates — I felt I was in a Rest of the World team. The feeling in the dressing room before was that we could beat anyone.

‘Although England were world champions and had won 19 on the bounce, there was no lack of confidence in our team. I looked around to see (Denis) Law, (Jim) Baxter, (Billy) Bremner, (Bobby) Lennox, (Ronnie) McKinnon and (John) Greig — all fabulous players. So why shouldn’t we be confident?’

McCalliog joined those mighty names forever as a Wembley Wizard, perhaps the finest collection of Scotland players ever. He is planning a 50th anniversary reunion with the surviving members next year.

For now, McCalliog, who runs a bed and breakfast in Ayrshire with wife Debbie, great footballing memories are stirred by organising the Legends of Football series (right) — the first of which features Graeme Souness and Joe Jordan in conversation at Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall on Thursday.

The onset of another Auld Enemy clash also helps, even if this Scotland vintage are not approaching their London date with the same swagger witnessed and welcomed by McCalliog when he hooked up with Baxter, Law, Bremner and Co.

Scott Brown doing a U-turn on his international retirement plans to return will provide a boost, but the recent double header of failings against Lithuania and Slovakia served as a bruising setback for Strachan’s squad.

‘There’s no doubt we’ve lost that gallus player and that confident streak,’ said McCalliog. ‘We’re searching, as most countries are, for a hero. England have the same problem. Their biggest hero at the moment, Wayne Rooney, isn’t firing on all cylinders.

‘Robert Snodgrass looked like he might be a bit of a talisman for Scotland but there’s a chance he will be out injured. The only way we are going to come out of it is if we beat England in the next game. That would be a big confidence boost.

‘I think we can — because England aren’t a great side. We had the attitude 50 years ago that we could beat them, even on their own turf. They were world champions. So what? I was pretty confident anyway when I went on the pitch. Off the field is a wee bit different.

‘Hopefully for Gordon, the lads will go out in that game and do something about it. I think they need to believe that, because football is a game of confidence. Gordon has a lot of thinking to do.

‘What he does after that is up to him but this is the most important match for Gordon. It is one game and it would mean so much to our nation to get a result at Wembley. Hopefully, like Bobby Brown did, he comes up with the right team for this game.’ Brown’s big calls included the initially unpopular pick of 36-year-old goalkeeper Ronnie Simpson for his first cap instead of Bobby Ferguson, Ronnie McKinnon keeping his place ahead of Billy McNeill and McCalliog’s breakthrough. Not that the Sheffield Wednesday forward was entirely wet behind the ears after joining Leeds at 16, playing for Chelsea and scoring in an FA Cup semi-final and Final (a 3-2 defeat by Everton) for Wednesday before featuring at Wembley.

Baxter felt the need to take good care of the new boy as he had played against him for Nottingham Forest. Then McCalliog played a seldom heralded part in one of the iconic moments of the day — Baxter’s keepie-uppie routine.

He explained: ‘When I first arrived, Slim Jim put his arm around me and said: “You’ll be OK, son, we’ll look after you”. He was so confident. In all my time in football I don’t think I ever met anyone quite as gallus.

‘And Jim did look after me as he promised. He passed to me now and again — when he got tired.

‘I don’t think Bobby Brown was a great tactical person but he knew exactly how we would play. He thought: “Jim will maybe tire a bit, but there’s Billy Bremner, Willie Wallace and McCalliog, so we still have speed and stamina in there”.

‘Willie and I gelled and let the other boys get on with their game. To have Denis Law and Bobby Lennox up front, that’s a dream if you’re a midfield player trying to find that pair with your passes.’

‘I actually back-heeled the ball to Jim before he started the keepie uppies. I wasn’t being disrespectful. There was just no pass forward and I knew Jim was behind me.

‘Then he flipped it up and started juggling with the ball. He was amazing to watch. But when we slowed it down a bit, Denis wanted it up front because he and Bobby were goalscorers — and greedy.’