Euro 96 - Page 2 - Football related - Discussion of non TA football - Tartan Army Message Board Jump to content

Recommended Posts

We had a great time there.  We were based in Blackpool and travelled to all 3 games.  With the Ally McLeod TA.  John Grigors band.  Had a great time and Scotland were on top in the lead up to the penalty.  But who knows what would have happened if we had scored.  I am sure we would have found a way to muck it up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Rolling hIlls said:

We had a great time there.  We were based in Blackpool and travelled to all 3 games.  With the Ally McLeod TA.  John Grigors band.  Had a great time and Scotland were on top in the lead up to the penalty.  But who knows what would have happened if we had scored.  I am sure we would have found a way to muck it up.

Venables was preparing to take Gascoigne off had McAllister scored the penalty to try and shore things up, McAllister missed, Gascoigne stayed on and went on to score.   Very fine margins at times in football.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just watched full 90 minutes v the Dutch.

Thought it was going to be another 6-0 from the opening 10 minutes, probably would've been if the Collins penalty had been given.

Can't believe how bad the defending from corners was in that game. Constantly missing the first ball to clear and really lucky all the scrambles in six yard box didn't go in, Goram made some good blocks.

Gary Mac, John Collins and McCall was a very solid and decent midfield trio. Had Collins as MOTM, so calm on the ball and no surprised he did well at Monaco a year or so later.

Played o.k in the first half after the dodgy opening 10 minutes.

Second half probably summed up Craig Brown once play went over the halfway line. Started on the front foot and then he takes off Gallagher and puts on Billy McKinlay! (looked like he'd just come out of jail). Hardly an attack for the rest of the half although Holland really didn't threaten at all until last 10 minutes.

One final thought, where on earth were all the wingers hiding at that point? Looking at the squad and seems Eoin Jess lurking on the bench was only one in the squad. Playing 4-3-3 and it was just strikers putting in a shift out wide. Was Pat Nevin nae good at that point, he'd played in the run up to the tournament.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Was Jess a winger?  I always had him down more as an attacking midfielder/forward.  Nevin only got one cap in 1996 so wasn't playing that much in the build up. Only played 3 out of 9 games the year before so looks like he was just a back up.  Was surprised to see he only got 28 caps in total.  Surprising for someone who played in the top league in England for nearly a decade.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I must be one of the few people that thought Euro 96 was fairly shit 😂  

A fairly dull country travel wise, Baddiel and  Skinner, English media at their Uber hyped worst. Beaten by England.

Dont get me wrong, Id give anything to qualify for  other tournament in England or anywhere else but out of all the major tournaments we have played  in during my lifetime this was the least enjoyable. 🤷‍♂️  Good atmposhphere at the Holland game but that was about it, Wembley was horrid. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, Jim Beem said:

Wembley was horrid. 

Even at half time where we started a footballing trend that the English could only stand back and admire ?

Or Trafalgar Square pre match ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Ally Bongo said:

Even at half time where we started a footballing trend that the English could only stand back and admire ?

Or Trafalgar Square pre match ?

Trafalgar was awful when I was there.  Half time, Ill give you that. 😀 As I say, compared to every other tournament its at the bottom for me 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Euro 96 was an absolutely great time. First away games with Scotland and have to say going to Wembley was brilliant ..... twin towers with Scotland. As has been said, opened my eyes to what a shit-hole England is...... but I had a great time nonetheless. Post match in pubs with Dutch,  meeting Jackie Charlton at station for train from Birmingham to London...... can’t believe it was 24 years ago!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here goes, this was my 2 week Euro 96

First night was a stopover in Whitley Bay, watched the English draw with the Swiss and had an absolute cracking day and night in this former glorious resort.

We then travelled to Aston University to take up residence in a deserted halls of residence.  There was us and another bunch of TA which one of them was a mental fisherman.

Holland day was brilliant, game was outstanding in the Holte End.  Ended up in O'Neills bar in Birmingham centre and took about 30 folk back to the Univ campus for a party.

Got hauled up following morning by the student residence manager for our shenanigans the night before.  Spent one more night out in Birmingham before heading north to Nottingham for a night out.  On way there at a service station we met Kathy Lloyd and Jo Guest.  (google em if you are too young to know who they were) 

Following day, (Thursday ) was a night out in Birmingham again.

Friday saw us drive down to stay at pals in London.  That night was tame.  Following morning, I can remember walking along Dalston with cars tooting and folk with English accents but shouting at us as to how much they hoped we beat the English.

It was a baking hot day at Wembley.  First half was a blur with both teams cancelling each other out.  Half time was amazing, TA having an absolute party.  There then followed what I thought was the biggest kick in the stones (until they equalised at Hampden).  The Spencer on instead of McCoist decision by Brown is up there as one of the weirdest.

That night, London was pretty scary but we still managed a cracking night out in a nightclub called Borderline.

Following morning, we got up at 9am and headed to the Church, an Aussie/NZ booze up in Kings Cross.  It was truly mental.

On the Monday, we headed back to Birmingham.  A quieter night but still good back at O'Neils.

The Swiss game had all the classic Scottish moments.   McCoist missing absolute sitters then scoring a Worldy.  Moment of thinking we were heading into the quarter final at Annfield against who we all thought at the time was a shite French side (they won the WC 2 years later).   Huge party again on Broad Street that night.

We then headed back up the road to Nottingham for another night out on the Wednesday.

We finished off with three more nights in Whitley Bay and arrived back home on the Sunday.

Yup, Euro 96 was pretty good.

 

Edited by giblet
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kathy Lloyd & Jo Guest ...... bagged a Loaded brace!

I’m not going to do it, but I know that if I googled how they look now they’d be about as rough as two ol’ scrubbers could be...... I’m quite happy just to keep them in my mind as they were in the mid 90’s.

Like you, we also had the majority of English wishing us good luck to beat them when padding about in London.... weird. Mind going to market really early one morning in Wood Green to get a quite fine retro (60’s) Scotland top. Weather was amazing....... also remember a massive 50 a side game in the streets of muswell hill at around 2 in the morning. Quality.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was off work today so I decided to watch the game against Holland. My memory of the game was always of us getting absolutely shredded by the Dutch for the first 15 minutes, before settling down a bit, and the Dutch fans just edging the TA in the singing department - turns out I was right on both counts!

I'd forgotten how poor our finishing was though - almost like the current team - but unlike the current team the defence and goalie were excellent. That said, the Dutch missed some great chances - I think we used a tournament's worth of luck in that game!

I'd also forgotten about the media's high-handed, sneering attitude towards the team. We weren't exactly title contenders, rightly, but when you consider a large proportion of our squad either played or had played regularly in the English top flight to be so dismissive was just bizarre.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Went to the three games with my mate. Drove down to the 2 in Birmingham and back due to work and got the train for Wembley.

We were staying in Watford and the day of the England game got dropped off at the Tube terminus. Might have been Stanmore. Got a carriage to ourselves as the BTP segregated us for our safety from the other 9 which were rammed full of English nutjobs. Half time at Wembley will live long in the memory.

Great time. Rode our luck against the Dutch and were pretty soundly gubbed by the English. We should have beat the Swiss more comprehensively and in typical Scottish style we miss out by the usual bawhair.

Some usual dodgy team selections didn't help us. 24 years ago though. Dearie me.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just been watching the first half of the Wembley game, England have hardly had an attack. Goram's touched the ball about 5 times and four of them were goal kicks. Big Ron and Brian Moore laying into England on the comms. Spencer had some nice touches upfront but no real conviction when he gets near the box. John Collins been good again.

Might skip the second half though!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Funny how the mind plays tricks. I always thought the penalty was around the hour mark but it was pretty late on in the game, 78th minute so similar to Swiss game when they scored and comfortably held out for the 1-1. Ally McCoist was also on the pitch when it was given. I presume Gary Mac had been the regular penalty taker in the lead up as John Collins was also very good penalty taker.

Yeah start of second half England upped the tempo just by getting likes of McManaman to run directly though the centre and after about five minutes of this the first goal happened. Then Goram saved brilliant from a Sheringham header. After this England again sat back on the 1-0 up to the penalty.

Swiss game and seeing how many chances were actually missed is going to be another interesting one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

(Just copied Some my post from TA Specific, looks like this was the main thread)...

We created next to nothing, barring Collins to Durie for a header who should have went for the other corner.

Doesn’t look like it was a pen.
 

We had a good defence (only conceded 3 goals in qualifying), no question but this team were seriously lacking in the final 3rd it’s no wonder we didn’t get through. England def had the best attackers on the pitch. If we had a a couple of wingers and a fit Duncan Ferguson we would have battered them that day imo.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Whilst Durie and Spencer were forwards neither were out and out strikers and/or poachers

Brown carried on from Roxburgh in that once we got to the finals of tournaments we thought outside the box when it came to team selections

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Ally Bongo said:

Whilst Durie and Spencer were forwards neither were out and out strikers and/or poachers

Brown carried on from Roxburgh in that once we got to the finals of tournaments we thought outside the box when it came to team selections

 

 

 

Aye guess your alluding to John Spencer there, I‘ll take a guess he got a handful of caps yet managed to get picked for this game. However the fact we had next to no creative players/wingers around this period was our Achilles heel and cost again 2 years later. Sure McManaman came in for a lot of praise in the second half for them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

John Spencer was actually coming off a really good season for an emerging Chelsea team, 13 premier league goals for them in 95/96. What we'd give for that now eh? He was o.k in that game but was more playing as a deep second striker and dropping into midfield when out of the ball. Of course Chelsea then sold him on when they signed Vialli and Zola but he still scored at a decent rate for QPR.

Kevin Gallagher had actually only scored twice that season although I presume at that time he was behind Shearer and Sutton so wouldn't have started much, him and Scott Booth playing as wide players v the Dutch was more a square pegs selection.

Edited by Tartan Chris
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Tartan Chris said:

John Spencer was actually coming off a really good season for an emerging Chelsea team, 13 premier league goals for them in 95/96. What we'd give for that now eh? He was o.k in that game but was more playing as a deep second striker and dropping into midfield when out of the ball. Of course Chelsea then sold him on when they signed Vialli and Zola but he still scored at a decent rate for QPR.

Kevin Gallagher had actually only scored twice that season although I presume at that time he was behind Shearer and Sutton so wouldn't have started much, him and Scott Booth playing as wide players v the Dutch was more a square pegs selection.

Aye Spencer asked to do a specific shift.  Just watched the first half of the Dutch game. Brown has been telling us for years that he had better players than now cause they managed to qualify. Maybe in defence but our attack was really poor. (Centre mid was affective enough at least, how many tackles did Stuart McCall make in that tournament btw?!)The amount of loose passes and bad touches you see from guys like Gallacher and Durie was an eye opener. 2 positions you’d expect to have calm and composure. And the qualifying group was a massive stroke of luck surely, Faroe Islands and San Marino in the same group?! Finland and Greece? Russia were no that great in the 90s either iirc. Had to be the easiest group we’ve ever had by a distance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah I was wondering how the rankings worked back then as were coming off finishing 4th in the 94 world cup qualifiers which was pretty brutal given Italy and Portugal were in it.

The group for 96 was certainly not something a pot 4 team would get although I assume given Greece did make the US world cup there were one of those pot 2 teams that just got ranked that high because of a good few months.

98 qualifiers was a pretty good group aswell.

Edited by Tartan Chris
Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, JECK said:

Aye Spencer asked to do a specific shift.  Just watched the first half of the Dutch game. Brown has been telling us for years that he had better players than now cause they managed to qualify. Maybe in defence but our attack was really poor. (Centre mid was affective enough at least, how many tackles did Stuart McCall make in that tournament btw?!)The amount of loose passes and bad touches you see from guys like Gallacher and Durie was an eye opener. 2 positions you’d expect to have calm and composure. And the qualifying group was a massive stroke of luck surely, Faroe Islands and San Marino in the same group?! Finland and Greece? Russia were no that great in the 90s either iirc. Had to be the easiest group we’ve ever had by a distance.

I liked Durie as a player for club and country but his second touch was a tackle pretty much his entire career.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fantastic performance against the Swiss. High tempo, good passing and movement and all those chances in the first half.

Goram made a fantastic save in last 5 minutes, clawing a header out of the top corner but again that was the only save he made all game.

Durie did o.k when he was moved wide later on in the game, I think a problem was just having him as the fixed targetman which restricted moves.

Gary Mac wasted a few counter attacks with extra touch although Swiss should've had a player sent off for tugging him back.

Overall a good level of performance in that tournament, much better than 1998.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...


×
×
  • Create New...