1966

FROZEN IN TIME

Portugal are at Hampden this evening for a friendly, just as they were 52 years ago. Unlike Scotland, they’d qualified for the World Cup Finals in England and were looking to give Eusebio and Co. some match practice before heading south. Given that the game was played on June 18, nearly nine weeks after the end of the domestic season, Scotland manager, John Prentice, did well to get a fully-fit team on the park. It was – Ferguson (Kilmarnock); Bell (Leeds Utd), McCreadie (Chelsea), Greig (Rangers), McGrory (Kilmarnock), Bremner (Leeds Utd), Scott (Everton), Cooke (Chelsea), Young (Everton), Baxter (Sunderland), Sinclair (Leicester C.). The Dark Blues held their own until 18 minutes from time when Jose Torres scored the only goal. He’d also score the winner against the Soviet Union that earned the Portuguese third-place at the Finals. A week later, Brazil were in town. Pele added 50,000 to the crowd and they saw Scotland earn a 1-1 draw.