“Your BwB column each week always hits the mark as a great source of fun and interest, evoking as it does, wonderful memories” was the opening line of a letter.
I thank John Shaw for his nice words but the real reason he wrote to BwB was in reply to Tom Black’s article concerning the 1966 World Cup (July 28).
“I agree with you that England were scheduled to play all of their group games at Wembley, which, indeed, they did,” said John, of Elders Court, Lochee, Dundee.
“As regards the quarter-final against Argentina, I concur with Tom that that particular game was originally scheduled for a venue other than Wembley.
“However, it was changed to Wembley to accommodate a bigger crowd.
“I can’t remember what the original venue was but, like you, I think the idea of it being Anfield seems unlikely.
“Moving further into Tom’s article, I also agree with you that, on the field at least, games between Scotland and England were not ‘hate-filled’.
“However, when it came to Scotland fans, the hatred towards England was unbridled. At least that was my experience of it and it was something that affected men who, for the other 364 days of the year, were otherwise sane and rational.”
John continued: “My late father was a case in point.
“He was a decent, generous, hard-working man but, when it came to the Saturday of the game — and with several pints of ‘electric soup’ inside him — his eyes would glaze over with hate.
“England midfielder Alan Ball was a particular hate figure.
“I seem to recall a Scotland fan running on to the pitch in one game in an attempt to get at him.
“Bobby Moore also wasn’t flavour of the month with Scotland fans, who, if my dodgy memory serves me well, used to call him ‘Shirley’.”
Original contributor Tom Black came back on, taking me to task.
“I can hardly allow a journalist to plead in favour of 1966 journalists that it was the ‘England manager who said the Argentina players were animals’,” he said.
“The English press just loved to reprint it.”
Tom continued with the view: “A year on, Scotland beat England 3-2 at Wembley and Alf Ramsey claimed his team were still tired from 1966.
“England qualified for the 1970 World Cup Finals as holders but didn’t qualify in 1974 and 1978.
“They were in Spain in 1982 but just scraped through the group stages after the last game.”
Tom returned to the Scotland v England theme and continued: “The annual match between the countries ended when the heathens from the north invaded the pitch, broke the crossbar and stole the turf.
“It didn’t matter that the whole pitch was about to be dug up and relaid anyway!”
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