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1993 - The Last Scottish Based Starting XI


ErsatzThistle

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A pointless, trivial, timewasting thread for Christmas.

Ever wondered when was the last time we put out a starting XI where all the players were signed to Scottish clubs ? Something we are, in all honesty, unlikely to see again.

Anyway, it would appear that this was it:

0-1 friendly defeat vs. Germany (managed by Vogts) at Ibrox on March 24th 1993.

Nicky Walker (Heart of Midlothian) 
Stephen Wright (Aberdeen)
Tom Boyd (Celtic) 
Craig Levein [c] (Heart of Midlothian)
Brian Irvine (Aberdeen) 
Alan McLaren (Heart of Midlothian) 
John Robertson (Heart of Midlothian) 
Dave Bowman (Dundee United)
Duncan Ferguson (Dundee United)
John Collins (Celtic)
Jim McInally (Dundee United)

Sub: 
Scott Booth (Aberdeen) for Wright (64)

With rose tinted glasses removed - was that a fairly decent team or otherwise ?

A fair reflection of Scottish football at the time or was the decline in quality already there to see ?

Which players from that side would you take for today's team ? 

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11 minutes ago, ErsatzThistle said:

A pointless, trivial, timewasting thread for Christmas.

Ever wondered when was the last time we put out a starting XI where all the players were signed to Scottish clubs ? Something we are, in all honesty, unlikely to see again.

Anyway, it would appear that this was it:

0-1 friendly defeat vs. Germany (managed by Vogts) at Ibrox on March 24th 1993.

Nicky Walker (Heart of Midlothian) 
Stephen Wright (Aberdeen)
Tom Boyd (Celtic) 
Craig Levein [c] (Heart of Midlothian)
Brian Irvine (Aberdeen) 
Alan McLaren (Heart of Midlothian) 
John Robertson (Heart of Midlothian) 
Dave Bowman (Dundee United)
Duncan Ferguson (Dundee United)
John Collins (Celtic)
Jim McInally (Dundee United)

Sub: 
Scott Booth (Aberdeen) for Wright (64)

With rose tinted glasses removed - was that a fairly decent team or otherwise ?

A fair reflection of Scottish football at the time or was the decline in quality already there to see ?

Which players from that side would you take for today's team ? 

They'd fecking hump any team we've put out in the past 2 years. Unless they were managed by Strachan. In which case it'd be a 0-0 draw with multiple golden chances created through haphazard defending missed. 

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From what I recall, this game was sandwiched between two games in Rangers 93/93 Champions League campaign, so a lot of their players (which made up a large part of the squad at the time) were excused (though seem to recall John Brown was in the squad until the last minute), also this game was just a few weeks before the 5-0 hammering in Portugal, so probably Roxburgh was saving players for that.

Germany never got out of 1st gear and we just played our "watching paint dry" tactics that saw us get draws with Italy and Portugal the previous year.

Game probably only recalled for Ferguson's overhead kick (could be wrong, but there was a short lived story in the press for a while after of a move to Bayern Munich because of his performance in that match).

Edited by wanderer
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6 minutes ago, wanderer said:

From what I recall, this game was sandwiched between two games in Rangers 93/93 Champions League campaign, so a lot of their players (which made up a large part of the squad at the time) were excused (though seem to recall John Brown was in the squad until the last minute), also this game was just a few weeks before the 5-0 hammering in Portugal, so probably Roxburgh was saving players for that.

Germany never got out of 1st gear and we just played our "watching paint dry" tactics that saw us get draws with Italy and Portugal the previous year.

Game probably only recalled for Ferguson's overhead kick (could be wrong, but there was a short lived story in the press for a while after of a move to Bayern Munich because of his performance in that match).

Bit harsh .We should have won the game,and big Dunc was brilliant.Another wasted talent.

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10 minutes ago, Bannannan said:

Bit harsh .We should have won the game,and big Dunc was brilliant.Another wasted talent.

Was only 12 at the time, and after the Italy and Portugal games the previous Autumn in a half full Ibrox, probably all morphing into one :lol: certainly recall that it was Fergusons best game in a Scotland shirt.

Pitch was absolute disgrace and Levein and Walker had a few scary moments with their misjudged passes.

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53 minutes ago, ErsatzThistle said:

A pointless, trivial, timewasting thread for Christmas.

Ever wondered when was the last time we put out a starting XI where all the players were signed to Scottish clubs ? Something we are, in all honesty, unlikely to see again.

Anyway, it would appear that this was it:

0-1 friendly defeat vs. Germany (managed by Vogts) at Ibrox on March 24th 1993.

Nicky Walker (Heart of Midlothian) 
Stephen Wright (Aberdeen)
Tom Boyd (Celtic) 
Craig Levein [c] (Heart of Midlothian)
Brian Irvine (Aberdeen) 
Alan McLaren (Heart of Midlothian) 
John Robertson (Heart of Midlothian) 
Dave Bowman (Dundee United)
Duncan Ferguson (Dundee United)
John Collins (Celtic)
Jim McInally (Dundee United)

Sub: 
Scott Booth (Aberdeen) for Wright (64)

With rose tinted glasses removed - was that a fairly decent team or otherwise ?

A fair reflection of Scottish football at the time or was the decline in quality already there to see ?

Which players from that side would you take for today's team ? 

wad this game not the only use of the fabled salmon top

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1 hour ago, ErsatzThistle said:

A pointless, trivial, timewasting thread for Christmas.

Ever wondered when was the last time we put out a starting XI where all the players were signed to Scottish clubs ? Something we are, in all honesty, unlikely to see again.

Anyway, it would appear that this was it:

0-1 friendly defeat vs. Germany (managed by Vogts) at Ibrox on March 24th 1993.

Nicky Walker (Heart of Midlothian) 
Stephen Wright (Aberdeen)
Tom Boyd (Celtic) 
Craig Levein [c] (Heart of Midlothian)
Brian Irvine (Aberdeen) 
Alan McLaren (Heart of Midlothian) 
John Robertson (Heart of Midlothian) 
Dave Bowman (Dundee United)
Duncan Ferguson (Dundee United)
John Collins (Celtic)
Jim McInally (Dundee United)

Sub: 
Scott Booth (Aberdeen) for Wright (64)

With rose tinted glasses removed - was that a fairly decent team or otherwise ?

A fair reflection of Scottish football at the time or was the decline in quality already there to see ?

Which players from that side would you take for today's team ? 

Very much an "experimental" team.  The only real regular starters in that team at the time would have been John Collins and Tom Boyd.  Levein and McLaren featured quite a bit but at least one of them would have been second choice behind Gough and McPherson in a back three - Boyd was playing as wing back in those days.  Alongside the Rangers players missing as wanderer explained, McStay is also missing from Celtic as is McAllister.

Interesting though that the line up for the next game, which was the shit or bust away game in Lisbon four weeks later and was our strongest available line up had 10 home based players with only Kevin Gallagher playing in England.

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23 minutes ago, aaid said:

Very much an "experimental" team.  The only real regular starters in that team at the time would have been John Collins and Tom Boyd.  Levein and McLaren featured quite a bit but at least one of them would have been second choice behind Gough and McPherson in a back three - Boyd was playing as wing back in those days.  Alongside the Rangers players missing as wanderer explained, McStay is also missing from Celtic as is McAllister.

Interesting though that the line up for the next game, which was the shit or bust away game in Lisbon four weeks later and was our strongest available line up had 10 home based players with only Kevin Gallagher playing in England.

Even at the Euros the previous summer, there was only 3 non-Home based players in that squad.

Suppose this was the days of the 3 foreigner rule in the Champions League, hence why Rangers provided a fair chunk on the squad at the time.

Suppose seems odd now to think why was Colin Hendry constantly over looked at the time (when he was a main stay in the team from 1994 onward), but people go on about Strachan picking his favorites, Roxburgh was just as bad, but at least he had players like Gough, MacPherson, McLaren and Levein to call upon, with Alex McLeish brought out of retirement from time to time..... also recall he tried really hard at the time to make space for John Robertson in the team as Mo Johnston's replacement, just injury would get in the way when he started getting some kind of run going.

Edited by wanderer
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1 hour ago, wanderer said:

Suppose seems odd now to think why was Colin Hendry constantly over looked at the time (when he was a main stay in the team from 1994 onward), but people go on about Strachan picking his favorites, Roxburgh was just as bad, but at least he had players like Gough, MacPherson, McLaren and Levein to call upon, with Alex McLeish brought out of retirement from time to time..... also recall he tried really hard at the time to make space for John Robertson in the team as Mo Johnston's replacement, just injury would get in the way when he started getting some kind of run going.

I don't think Hendry was particularly overlooked at that time, the players you mentioned were all better and playing at a higher level than Hendry at that point.  I think that 1992/93 was Blackburn's first season in the top division.  There wasn't the same gap between the Scottish and English top divisions at that time as there is now.  This was the season that Rangers effectively got to the Champions League semi finals. Celtic, Aberdeen, Hearts and Dundee United all had strong teams.

Additionally, had Alan McLaren and Craig Levein not had their careers cut short by injury it's likely that Hendry wouldnt have had anywhere near as many caps.

 

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4 minutes ago, aaid said:

I don't think Hendry was particularly overlooked at that time, the players you mentioned were all better and playing at a higher level than Hendry at that point.  I think that 1992/93 was Blackburn's first season in the top division.  There wasn't the same gap between the Scottish and English top divisions at that time as there is now.  This was the season that Rangers effectively got to the Champions League semi finals. Celtic, Aberdeen, Hearts and Dundee United all had strong teams.

Additionally, had Alan McLaren and Craig Levein not had their careers cut short by injury it's likely that Hendry wouldnt have had anywhere near as many caps.

 

True, though probably more likely at the expense of Colin Calderwood rather than Hendry, as i doubt not many players would have kept him out the team from 1994 on wards (Brown tried Levein, Hendry and McLaren in a number of games in the Euro 96 campaign, with Calderwood fitting in to Leveins spot and Burley taking over from McLaren).

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6 hours ago, Parklife said:

They'd fecking hump any team we've put out in the past 2 years. Unless they were managed by Strachan. In which case it'd be a 0-0 draw with multiple golden chances created through haphazard defending missed. 

:lol:

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7 hours ago, wanderer said:

From what I recall, this game was sandwiched between two games in Rangers 93/93 Champions League campaign, so a lot of their players (which made up a large part of the squad at the time) were excused (though seem to recall John Brown was in the squad until the last minute), also this game was just a few weeks before the 5-0 hammering in Portugal, so probably Roxburgh was saving players for that.

Germany never got out of 1st gear and we just played our "watching paint dry" tactics that saw us get draws with Italy and Portugal the previous year.

Game probably only recalled for Ferguson's overhead kick (could be wrong, but there was a short lived story in the press for a while after of a move to Bayern Munich because of his performance in that match).

Was on a train heading down south that night, listening to the game on the radio. First time I had bet against Scotland (was in the huff for missing the game due to work commitments) and had a tenner on 0-1 Germany. Remember the relief when big Dunc could only hit the bar with his overhead kick.

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10 hours ago, Rude Gullit said:

I'd take Levein, McLaren, Boyd and Collins from that team. No brainier.

Aye, Levein especially, was a very classy defender. He was like an Alan Hansen who wasn't scared to header a ball. 

Things could have been so much different if it hadn't been for his serious injuries. It might have taken him longer to get into a management career and we would still have him to look forward to as the next Scotland manager?:o

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Except for the goalie I'd take every one of that team for our side now.  I was no great fan of Brian Irvine but he's light years ahead of the 'kin haddies we've got now.

Interesting wee pub quiz question: looking at the line-up, what's quite unusual?

When was the last time we fielded a team of 11 "Anglos"?  I think the first time was against East Germany sometime in the 70's.  No idea if it's happened since.

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11 minutes ago, LewisEDI said:

mcinally and bowman ?

Both players were not bad in their day..... McInally was just unlucky that Roxburgh preferred Aitken, McStay and McLeod/Bett in midfield, then had the emergence of McCall and McAllister, so was always going to be limited with his chances.

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21 minutes ago, LewisEDI said:

mcinally and bowman ?

Absolutely. One of the best performances I've ever seen by a Scotsman was McInally for Dundee Utd v Barcelona in the UEFA Cup.  Bowman did very well in the Scotland matches I saw him play in.  Nothing spectacular, just solid, reliable midfield play - win the ball, give it to a teammate, be available.

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16 hours ago, daviebee said:

Except for the goalie I'd take every one of that team for our side now.  I was no great fan of Brian Irvine but he's light years ahead of the 'kin haddies we've got now.

Interesting wee pub quiz question: looking at the line-up, what's quite unusual?

When was the last time we fielded a team of 11 "Anglos"?  I think the first time was against East Germany sometime in the 70's.  No idea if it's happened since.

I'm not sure if a starting XI consisting purely of Scottish players based at English clubs has been put out since then. Will take a look.

There have however been quite a few XI's in the last few years where no Scottish club was represented at all in the line up. 

Our starting XI for the game vs. France earlier this year was made up of players from English, Welsh and French clubs. Two of the subs were from Scottish clubs however.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 12/21/2016 at 0:05 PM, ErsatzThistle said:

A pointless, trivial, timewasting thread for Christmas.

Ever wondered when was the last time we put out a starting XI where all the players were signed to Scottish clubs ? Something we are, in all honesty, unlikely to see again.

Anyway, it would appear that this was it:

0-1 friendly defeat vs. Germany (managed by Vogts) at Ibrox on March 24th 1993.

Nicky Walker (Heart of Midlothian) 
Stephen Wright (Aberdeen)
Tom Boyd (Celtic) 
Craig Levein [c] (Heart of Midlothian)
Brian Irvine (Aberdeen) 
Alan McLaren (Heart of Midlothian) 
John Robertson (Heart of Midlothian) 
Dave Bowman (Dundee United)
Duncan Ferguson (Dundee United)
John Collins (Celtic)
Jim McInally (Dundee United)

Sub: 
Scott Booth (Aberdeen) for Wright (64)

With rose tinted glasses removed - was that a fairly decent team or otherwise ?

A fair reflection of Scottish football at the time or was the decline in quality already there to see ?

Which players from that side would you take for today's team ? 

I was at the game and it was not so much an experimental line-up as cobbling together a working side from the people Roxburgh had available on the night. 

I already thought at the time that our decline as a nation producing great players was becoming evident, though: the guys in this line-up were all good club players, but few of them would make you think they could sustain a successful international career against top class opposition.

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John Collins was the best player in that side. The Levein of the mid 80s was on course to be one of our greatest defenders ever, but really bad injuries (in 86 and 87?) meant he was never the same again. Ferguson was not as good as legend would have it. Robertson was worthy of a good run in the Scotland team and with good service could have scored loads, but never got a sustained run. Boyd, of course, did have a long and pretty decent Scotland career, without being an all-time great.

The rest - good club men.

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