COME ON SCOTLAND
IWILL never forget making my debut for Scotland against England at Wembley Stadium on April 15, 1967. It was a moment I had dreamed of throughout my career. I’d just turned 20 and arrived for training for my club, Sheffield Wednesday, when the manager, Alan Brown, called me into his office.
He said: ‘You’ve been picked for Scotland to play against England on Saturday. Congratulations. You deserve it.
‘Just go out and play your normal game and you’ll be fine.’
He then took me into the dressing room and he said to everybody: ‘I’d like you all to congratulate Jim.’ I was the only Scotsman. All the players came and shook hands with me. It was a wonderful time.
Running onto the Wembley pitch in a Scotland jersey was the greatest day of my life and there must have been 50,000 Scots supporters there. I took in all the different coloured tartans and the amazing atmosphere because I’d played in the FA Cup final at Wembley the year before and it had passed quickly. This time I was determined to see and take everything in.
Of course, England were the world champions and were full of it. They had won the World Cup the year before and they hadn’t lost in 19 games.
The press thought we were going to a slaughterhouse but that wasn’t in our thoughts at all. It was a great camp. We were all in it together and everybody was confident. We weren’t afraid of England.
The key moments included Denis Law getting the first goal. England’s goalkeeper Gordon Banks parried a shot and, before he could recover, Denis had it in the back of the net. Jim Baxter was full of himself too and wanted to show off his skills. Bobby Lennox scored our second.
Scoring the third for Scotland was amazing for me because it was getting late in the game. I played a one-two with Willie Wallace and I was determined to get my shot in before Bobby Moore could block me and to put it past Banks. I smashed it as hard as I could in the near post and all I could see was the net rippling.
I ran to where my dad was in the crowd and waved up there and the first guy to come and embrace me was Denis Law. What an occasion.
The supporters were amazing. When the whistle blew for fulltime, I ran away from the tunnel towards our goalkeeper Ronnie Simpson and we embraced.
THE next thing all of the Scotland supporters were on the pitch. I had a real time trying to get to the tunnel. They were trying to pull off our shirts, shorts and our boots. Bobby and I made it into the dressing room 20 minutes after all the other lads.
Because England were world champions and we beat them we were called the unofficial world champions. It was surreal because I remember after the game, on the Sunday morning, I said goodbye to the boys at breakfast then got the train back to Sheffield. I sat on the train as it pulled out of Euston Station slapping my face asking myself: ‘Did that really happen?’
I’ll never forget playing for Scotland and beating England at Wembley. I’d love to see the current Scotland team do the same as we did in 1967.
It would be great for Scottish football and amazing for players, especially the ones playing in England who could go back to their clubs at the beginning of the season and hold their heads high.
The thing for Scotland to do is to believe in themselves and to believe in the manager because we believed in ourselves and the manager.
We got the result that we wanted and there’s nothing to stop them getting the results they want in the Euros. Scotland have good players. It’s a very good squad and hopefully they’ll do the business. I’ll be supporting them, that’s for sure.
I’ll be very emotional watching Scotland play England on Friday. My mind will probably switch back to everything that went on the day of our game, being in the dressing rooms and the telegrams from people wishing us all the best. To come up trumps is the icing on the cake.
I wish I was doing it all over again. I really do. I’m writing my book at the moment, which is out in September, and that has brought back so many memories.
Hopefully the Scotland team will do well. They’ve got as good a chance as they’ve had for quite a few years and I’m absolutely delighted that they’ve got through to the Euros.