Ayr United's relegation (their 10th overall) to the third level of Scottish football comes as the celebrate their centenary year and relegates them to that level for the fourth period and will spend only their tenth season there next year.

The early history of football in Ayr is one filled with many teams, many mergers and a finished with a team who can justifiably call themselves United, given the route to United went something like:

• Ayr Thistle formed in 1872
• Ayr Academy formed in 1872
• Ayr Eglinton formed in 1875
• Ayr Academicals formed in 1876 as a merger of Ayr Academy and Ayr Eglinton
• Ayr formed in 1879 as a merger of Ayr Thistle and Ayr Academicals
• Ayr Parkhouse formed in 1886
• Ayr United formed in 1910 as a merger of Ayr and Ayr Parkhouse

Ayr United have spent 35 seasons in the top flight although haven't been there for 33 years (since the 1977-78 season) - they've won the second level championship twice (old Division Two) and the third level championship twice (new Division Two), made one domestic final (2001-02 League Cup final) and have made the semi-finals of both domestic cups three times each.

In good times, United finished fourth in the top flight in 1915-16, having finished fifth the year before and had a great period in the early 70s when they finished 6th twice and 7th twice in the space of four seasons from 1972-76, until relegation happened a few years later - from which they've never returned to the Premier League.

The point of this point is one of self interest, in looking around the web for research for this post, there is little to be found about 6 (of the 7) of Ayr's Senior football clubs, and part of the role that we wanted the Scottish Football Archive to fulfill was that area for research - but help is required as there are huge gaps in the archive and even if data cannot be provided, suggestions as to how best to organise the data we have would also be more than welcome. 

At the end of last season, we did a quick blog post about Scottish Fourth level champions which stated no team had ever won the Third Division twice in it's 15 year history.

Livingston's 0-0 draw with Berwick Rangers and their crowning as champions has obviously changed this fact, since Livingston also won the league in the 1995-96 season.

Meanwhile, in the Second Division, of the three teams who can win it:

• Cowdenbeath have never won the third level division (were runners up in 1991-92)
• Alloa Athletic have never won the third level division (have been runners up SIX times, last in 2001-02)
• Stirling Albion have won the third level division four times (and were runners up only 3 seasons ago in 2006-07)

A fifth league title win for Stirling Albion would give them the most titles overall, an accolade they share with Brechin City and Clyde currently.

A few years ago I visited Cathkin Park and took some photos but then thought I'd lost them; although recently when changing computers I found these so thought I'd post.

As it's Wikipedia article states "The park contains the site of the first Hampden Park (now the Hampden Bowling Club), whilst the second Hampden Park (New Cathkin Park) is just across the Cathcart Road"

Queen's Park played here for 19 seasons (when it was called Hampden Park) before they moved (to what we now know as Hampden Park) and Third Lanark moved in in 1903.

Third Lanark had previously played at a ground called Cathkin Park (location unknown) and renamed their new ground New Cathkin Park - although this name seems to have been dropped at some point later.

The British League Cup final was hosted here and a record 45,455 turned up for a Scottish Cup game against Rangers in February 1954 (to watch a 0-0 draw).

There are some excellent photographs on the Urban Glasgow forum showing some Past/Present including shots of the old stand and terracing.

Walking round the ground was very eerie and very sad to reflect on what was there and the demise of a club that once won the league and twice won the Scottish Cup.

Are there any other grounds in Scotland like this?

                   

Click here to download:

Grounds_Cathkin_Park_tags_Grou.zip (3807 KB)

After today's earlier post on reconstruction the follow up post is about attendances and how reconstruction over the years has affected team's attendances.

Some of the data I have gathered on attendances used below has come from David Ross' excellent book The Roar of the Crowd, so to protect the information in the book, I will only be referring to rough figures rather than the exact figures in the book.

I've taken statistics for only the post-war seasons, so from 1946-47 season until the present day, for the top flight only, so 64 seasons worth of data.

Some highlights:

• the only time the top flight average attendance has been over 20,000 was 1948-49 (16 team format)
• of the 11 top average seasons, 7 of them are from the 16 team format (which only lasted 9 seasons)
• the other 4, are from between 1996-97 and 1999-00 (10 team format), the season before they changed to 12
• this year's average (currently 14,149) is on course to be the lowest since 1993-94
• the lowest average was just over 8,000 for the 1973-74 season (the season Celtic won their 9th in a row)
• four of the seven seasons after a reconstruction, the attendances have dropped

So, as well as highlighted in the earlier post than the 9 year period of the 16 team format (30 games a year) were the best for non-Old Firm dominance, that 9 year period was also one of the most successful for attendances:

• lowest average attendance for team during 1949-50 (16 team format): Queen of the South (10,000+)
• lowest during 1950-51 (16 team format): Airdrieonians (10,000+)
• lowest during 1958-59 (18 team format): Queen of the South (5,000+)
• lowest during 1959-60 (18 team format): Arbroath (4,500+)

Now, obviously this research isn't conclusive (it's only 4 hours work) but it would suggest at first glance that a competitive league, potentially without Old Firm dominance, is what brings out the fans.

It would also point towards the fact that less games (only 30 in a 16 team format) actually causes higher attendances, in terms of simple supply and demand perhaps?

It's not always that statistics from the past would point towards how the future will pan out but a 16 team league would look good if it did!

Interested in comments and other areas of research that would help prove (or disprove) this, thoughts?

A blog post entitled 'The trouble with Scottish football...' by Inside Left called for people to blog about the issues raised in the post, so having already started a series of posts on attendances in Scottish Football, we thought we'd post on the subject of top division reconstruction.

First to get out the way some facts about the Old Firm dominance:

• the Old Firm have won 83% of league championships (94 of 113)
• if the Old Firm win this year's championship, it will be the 25th in a row
• the longest period of domination was 27 years, between 1904-05 and 1930-31

During the last period of domination, the league was reconstructed 6 times, although it wasn't reconstruction that ended the dominance, it was stability in the league format that possibly contributed - 1931-32 was the 10th year of a 20 team format, the longest stretch since the league started in 1890 - Motherwell's championship came after 5 successive years in the top 3, with two runners-up spots and three third place finishes.

This is the 10th year of the 12 team format in the SPL, but somehow there is doubt that this stable period will produce a winner this year!

The longest period of stability in the league format was the 20 year stint of the 18 team format from 1955-56 until 1974-75, before the Premier Division setup came into effect - this produced 4 non-Old Firm championships but also produced the Celtic 9 in a row sequence - the main reason reconstruction was called for at this time.

Statistically, in terms of non-Old Firm dominance, the 9 year period of the 16 team format between 1946-47 and 1954-55 was the best:

• 4 non-Old Firm winners in 9 seasons
• no season where the Old Firm finished 1st and 2nd together
• Celtic had 5th, 6th, 7th (twice), 8th, 9th and even a 12th finish during this period

The league has been through twenty reconstructions and this is only the 113th season and both stability and change have shown varying degrees of success in terms of breaking the Old Firm dominance over the league - but the Old Firm dominance appears to be something that Scottish football fans have to live with, while hoping for brief periods of change.

A more important question, we believe, is the impact on the format on league attendances and therefore profitability of the league and their teams - this will be the subject of the next blog post. 

The following book review was originally published in the excellent Scotzine fanzine The 12th Man Issue 11, available from their website.

Graham Roberts' autobiography is 244 pages long, has two different covers and two forewords - one for Tottenham Hotspur and one for Rangers - the team he played for that made him famous both sides of the border.

It is also packed full of well told stories from his life, with Colin Duncan putting Roberts' story into a very good read.

In terms of Roberts' time in Scotland and, perhaps, the reason his book is in a Scottish football fanzine, Chris Woods (who does the Rangers' foreword) sums it up nicely: “Robbo only spent eighteen months in Glasgow, yet twenty years later he is still fondly remembered by the fans.” I guess not just Rangers or Old Firm fans remember him too, given his time as manager with Clyde – which is also touched upon in the book.

The book starts off with stories from Roberts’ youth, how his Mum was his first manager, how he moved schools to further his chances of a football career and, most importantly, how after a trial with Southampton, Lawrie McMenemy told him “We don’t think you’ll ever make it as a professional footballer”!

This was an early blow at 16 for Roberts, but potentially one that made him stronger over time.

After the trial, Roberts was unemployed, on the dole and looking for a club; Bournemouth came calling but after a successful season in the youth team, the club ran into financial troubles and decided to scrap their entire youth team – so again Roberts found himself on the dole and without a club.

Luckily for Roberts, his coach at Bournemouth helped him continue his apprenticeship, this time at Fratton Park for Portsmouth – at this stage in his career Roberts was playing as a striker and scored 49 (!) goals in his first season with Portsmouth youth team.

The next season he was given a chance in a pre-season friendly to prove his worth but only 45 seconds after coming on as a substitute, Roberts suffered a horrendous challenge that broke his left ankle – the club then reneged on the contract, over fears that he would never recover from the injury.

So again, Roberts was left without a club and turned instead to a manual labour job, which, as Roberts accounts in the book, allows him to play on a part-time basis with Dorchester Town.

After a good spell coming back from injury, Roberts talks about how his old boss at Bournemouth (Stuart Morgan) came back in for him and took him to Weymouth – where, despite holding down two jobs, Roberts impressed enough for league clubs to start calling.

Roberts then discusses how he came about to be a Spurs player, having first almost agreed to sign for West Bromwich Albion and Ron Atkinson – to the extent that he was at the Hawthorns when he received a call telling him Tottenham Hotspur wanted him too; Roberts obviously chose Spurs but he recounts how he made the decision and how he told Ron Atkinson he’d changed his mind – against his wife’s wishes!

Ironically, one of Roberts’ first trips with the first team was to Ibrox, for a pre-season friendly, but he didn’t feature in the game at all.

A long opening chapter finishes with Roberts retelling of his first substitute appearance, his first start and his first clash with an opposition player – it’s a great opening chapter and holds promise for the rest of the book.

The second chapter deals with the run to Roberts’ first cup final, the 1981 FA Cup final, where Spurs beat Man City in a replay – the chapter has details of the games, the Chas and Dave single, losing three teeth in the first final and the operation after the celebrations – all told with a fond recollection.

The next chapter deals with the disappointments of the 1981/82 season, which Roberts relates to the Rangers campaign of 2007/08, where both teams were going for a quadruple, but both almost finished up empty handed.

Next up was some European tails, as Roberts takes the reader through some disappointments, losing the European Cup Winners’ Cup semi final to Barcelona, and the triumphs, winning the 1984 UEFA Cup on penalties, in a game where Roberts was captain and lifted the trophy.

Roberts moves on to his last two seasons at Spurs which he runs over quickly, but informatively, giving account of the change of managers and his dislike of David Pleat, before his transfer to Rangers.

There is a chapter devoted to Roberts’ six England caps, which he feels he should have had more of, but each of the games he did play is covered in detail all the same.

Roberts’ hatred of David Pleat comes through quite strongly, through various mentions through the Spurs chapters, and he doesn’t hold back.

The next section of the book is devoted to his time at Rangers, which, despite only being an 18-month spell as previously mentioned, was a successful spell resulting in Rangers’ first league championship in a long time.

Some details of his time in Glasgow brings home the sectarianism issues that blight our society – tales of violent threats, opposition players using it to wind others up, burglaries, vigilante supporters, and more – not all sectarian related but show a side to his time in Glasgow that didn’t crop up during his time in London.

Along the same theme, a whole chapter is devoted to the events of the Old Firm game that ended with Roberts (along with Chris Woods, Terry Buther and Frank McAvennie) arrested and up in court – Roberts’ talks of his not proven verdict, feeling bad for Woods and Butcher (who got a criminal record for their charges) and the fact he thinks that it was because the three players were English that they were made an example of.

The next chapter is a tad self-indulgent, in that it takes the reader through the boxing matches against Frank McAvennie in Glasgow and then Bolton – seems like a long way to explain that him and Macca are still friends, despite the court appearance.

Following on front that is the story of how he came to leave Rangers, after an innocuous showdown with Graeme Souness, who wouldn’t back down, and was transfer listed, forced to train alone, not allowed to play with any teams, including the youths and how he was finally sold to Chelsea just before the start of the season.

Roberts explains he later made it up with Souness, when the latter was manager of Southampton, although you can sense his disappointment at his teammates for not sticking up for him, especially Terry Butcher.

His transfer to Chelsea went well as the team were winning, although a falling out with chairman Ken Bates – after a disagreement over a signing on fee – led to him leaving Chelsea and signing for West Brom, despite scoring 13 goals for a Second Division championship winning team.

What follows on from this is a chapter about when his Mum died of cancer and how he fell out with almost his entire family, a sad chapter but one slightly out of place in this, so far, excellent book.

Again, a short career stint at West Brom, in which, he was effectively sacked by an ex-teammate, Ossie Ardiles.

A drop down a good few league, to Enfield, first as a player and then later as a player/manager, before being sacked – this led to a short spell at Stevenage when a dispute over a transfer to Yeovil left him retiring to get out of his contract!

His first real management job then came at Yeovil, where despite being relegated shortly after taking over, he won promotion back to the Conference.

After three and a half years at Yeovil, Roberts would appear to have become a footballing nomad as his tail goes from Chesham, to Slough Town, to Hertford Town, to Boreham Wood, which Roberts does refer to later when he talks about “being in charge of virtually every non-league team in the south of England”!

Next up is his second spell in Scotland, this time managing Clyde – he doesn’t rate his board again (“some of the jokers who ran the ship at Broadwood”) and it’s very obvious that Graham Roberts had a lot of arguments with a lot of people over his football career, but he seemed to come off the worse for every one of them…

The league cup game against Rangers is given good coverage, a kind of homecoming for Roberts and a prelude to the Celtic game that forms the most of the Clyde chapter, for obvious reasons - he revels in beating his old foes, but things suddenly turn sour at Clyde, like they have at so many clubs for Roberts, and again after an argument – this time with Joe Miller.

The following tribunal drags out in the book as well as it did in reality, while Roberts explains how his named was cleared after false allegations from Miller and others caused the board to sack Roberts and Roberts feels has caused him not to be offered any further jobs in management since.

I feel the book was good, it was definitely well written, but think it lost itself about half way through and could have been a lot shorter, in order to keep the pace it started with.

Rating: 7/10

The following book review was originally published in the excellent Scotzine fanzine The 12th Man Issue 8, available from their website.

Willie Miller is the most successful club captain outside of the Old Firm, has played more times for Aberdeen than anyone else and retired from Scotland as the third most capped player of all time (as of current writing he is seventh equal).

He played under Alex Ferguson for his club and Jock Stein for his country, so got some great grounding in the game but was loved by both managers, his teammates, his own fans - if not the opposition fans.

The book opens with a foreword from Ferguson, who talks about Miller's loyalty and also his worth to the team, while still having a small dig at Miller's lack of pace for good measure.

Miller grew up in Bridgeton, stating the obvious about it being a notorious Rangers stronghold while being within close vicinity of Parkhead but has never had an affinity to either Old Firm team - he mentions the fights and violence in his local streets after Old Firm games was a deciding factor in not supporting either side - perhaps this also drove him on to his later performances against the same Old Firm teams he decided not to like!

In his early days, Miller was not a real football fanatic and actually admits it was the World Cup in England in 1966 that peaked his passion for the game - indeed it was the World Cup Willie mascot that caught his attention, but mainly the play of players like Eusebio who made him want to play the game more.

As his primary school team, Miller was actually a goalkeeper and the opening chapter of the book also talks about his first meeting with Jimmy Calderwood - which was when he was selected as in a squad of Glasgow primary school players (as a goalkeeper) which travelled to America on tour - mentioning how unbelievable that so many years later, Calderwood would be his choice for manager at Aberdeen.

The chapter is the interrupted by, what feels to me, an advert - it starts by Willie talking about growing up playing on red blaes and how painful it was, which I remember myself, but then it mentions how great it is that the SFA and Scottish Executive has invested £31 million in all-weather pitches and better support for grass roots football. While this is very valid, it just feels a little out of place in an autobiography, to me.

Back from the ad break and onto the story, with a young Willie shifts from being a goalkeeper to being a striker - perhaps a little known fact and a long way from his final destiny as one of the Nation's greatest defenders!

Unable to find a way into the first team at an early age, Miller was loaned out to Peterhead - still a Highland League team at the time - which was a common thing for Aberdeen to do in those days. Miller had a great season there, scoring 23 goals and winning the Aberdeenshire Cup.

Upon to returning to Pittodrie, Miller found himself in the Reserves but found scoring harder to come by - he puts this down to his lack of pace, which wasn't as such an issue in the Highland League - and therefore found himself playing less for the Reserves, until his big break came, via a 'flu bug!

With lack of defensive resources available to the team, Willie found himself called upon to stand in in central defence - the rest we know is pretty much history...

That side, with Miller playing the second half of the season in defence rather than up front, won the 1972-73 Reserve League title, the Reserve League Cup and only lost in the Scottish Second XI Cup in a semi-final replay - this led to Miller being called up for the last few games of the first team's League campaign and finally got his first team debut in the last game of the season - as a winger!

The book itself has been very well written so far, except for the previously mentioned advert obviously, with a few interludes that make for good reading - for example, in chapter 3, where he rips into Zoltan Varga - disagreeing with the fans for giving him cult status over the 13 months he was at the club.

The next few chapters cover Miller's early seasons at Aberdeen, being an almost ever-present since getting his first chance, due to injury, early in the 1973-74 season - these read well and are detailed enough to give you a flavour of a young Miller's exploits with the Aberdeen team on various trips, including their 'World Tour' in the summer of 74.

Willie then paints Ally MacLeod as a bit of a fruitcake in his short spell in charge in the North East but also enjoys the League Cup success of the 1976-77 season beating Celtic in the final, as well as MacLeod making him Aberdeen captain as a wedding present - which obviously helps with the fruitcake depiction!

Miller's next manager at Aberdeen was also only there for little over a season as he talks about his relationship with Billy McNeil, a new defensive partnership with Alex McLeish, in a team that ran Rangers close in the League and also lost out to the same team in the Scottish Cup Final of the 1977-78 season - two managers, two finals in two seasons - and next up Alex Ferguson...

Through the next few chapters, the book takes you through the first few seasons with Ferguson in charge (another final defeat to Rangers in 1978-79, this time in the League Cup before the 1979-80 League Championship season - the first in 25 years for Aberdeen) and how, while it brought success, it was actually a tough time for Miller both personally and professionally - due to Ferguson's strict/stubborn approach with the players, almost stripping Miller of the captaincy because he didn't think he was up to it.

These chapters also give an insight into the mentality of the Aberdeen dressing room during this period, explaining how Ferguson used the Old Firm dominance and an anti-Glasgow feeling amongst the team (and fans) to spur them on to success - even nowadays Ferguson is known for his mind tricks and it's nice to see this from a player's perspective - where Miller explains how these were used to instill a team mentality, that drove them to beating the Old Firm in Glasgow, the hurdle that Ferguson told them was preventing them from winning trophies.

At this point we are still less than half way through the book, therefore it's time for the chapter dedicated to Aberdeen's 1983 European Cup Winners' Cup Final victory in Gothenburg is there in full glory (with some good quality pictures to accompany it), detailing each game in each round, and when Miller is saying he's doing it straight from memory - you can almost believe him, this chapter is written with an obvious pride added to the passion - which he also showed on the pitch throughout his career.

The book continues with further successes, including the 1982-83 Scottish Cup Final, the 1983-84 European Super Cup, followed with further Scottish Cup success and then back to back league titles - in a previous chapter, Miller discussed turning down an offer to join Rangers and said he would have done similar with Celtic - due to the fact he didn't believe the Old Firm to be dominant in that period and that he fully believed in Alex Ferguson's ability to deliver upon his promises - I believe these chapters and the trophies won, are more than proof he made the right choice.

Subsequent chapters then deal with the final years of Ferguson's reign - inevitably more trophies - and then how the club tried to deal with replacing Ferguson, first with Ian Porterfield and the eventually Miller himself - who rightfully describes his time in charge as relatively successful - in his first full season Aberdeen finished second to Rangers in the League and lost both Cup Finals to Rangers too!

Miller is obviously saddened at leaving Aberdeen after 20 years of service but one he takes well according to the book - I wonder if this would have been different if the book was written before he was taken back as Director of Football in 2004.

A long, good, chapter is devoted to his time with Scotland - Miller was capped 65 times and played in two World Cup finals - so this was a big part of his life and is reflected well in this chapter, continues with a chapter on his Director of Football role and the appointment of his old friend Jimmy Calderwood as manager - then the book finishes with an epilogue where Miller picks his dream teams of players he's played with and against.

Overall, a very well written book, one that actually flows with time and remembers his relationships with many players and managers over the years he graced Scottish football both on and off the pitch.

I'd assume it was a must for any Aberdeen fan, but it's also a compelling read for anybody who can remember the era of Scottish football when the Old Firm didn't win everything!

Rating: 8/10

The following book review was originally published in the excellent Scotzine fanzine The 12th Man& Issue 6, available from their website.

Archie Gemmill will always be remembered for ‘that goal’ - there is no getting away from it. 

However, with a senior career of over 650 league games, 43 International caps for Scotland - over half as captain - and three English league titles, it could be said he should be remembered for more than just ‘that goal’ - however what a goal it was, but there is (a lot) more on that later.

The book opens with a foreword from Brian Clough; Gemmill played for over 5 seasons under Clough, at Derby County and later Nottingham Forest.

The foreword is heartfelt from Clough, who stated he was friends with Gemmill long after his retirement from the game, and although he calls him ‘a miserable little so-and-so’ and ‘cantankerous’, you can tell it’s with feeling and he explains how he signed Gemmill and how good a player he actually was - despite admitting that when he signed him first time around, he had never seen him play before! A claim that Gemmill himself debunks later in the book.

The book itself is quite fast paced, with lots of short sentences, as Gemmill sets up his life from the beginning, starting off in his early years and reliving tales such as scoring the winner for his school in the Paisley and District Cup, to shooting somebody (who had taken his football off him) in the shoulder with an air rifle!

He recollects how, despite talk of approaches from both half of the Old Firm, he signs with St Mirren, his local team, on schoolboy terms during the 1963-64 season, aged just sixteen.

Gemmill had a mixed time at St Mirren: winning the Player of the Year award in his first season (1964-65), aged only 17, but then spending the bulk of the next season out with injuries.

In the 1966-67 season, on 13th August 1966, Gemmill became the first official substitute to be used in Scottish football - when he replaced Jim Lunie - in a League Cup tie away at Clyde. This is mentioned in the book, almost in passing, as Gemmill prefers to spend time reflecting on a hat-trick he scored some four months later, on Christmas Eve 1966, in a 3-1 home victory over Ayr United - the first of only two hat-tricks he scored in his whole career.

At the end of that same season, in which Gemmill finish St Mirren’s top goalscorer with five goals and in which they were relegated, he was transferred to Preston for the princely sum of £13,000.

His three seasons, and over 100 competitive games, at Preston only get one chapter - you get the impression he has more important things to tell you later - but this chapter is wide ranging from his first vegetables, his engagement, marriage and first pregnancy of his wife, his struggles finding digs (due to him being a spoilt, only child at home), his one and only Scotland Under-23 cap, and a trip to a fortune-teller!

There is no mention of scoring in his debut for Preston, nor how his last full season at Preston mirrored his last at St Mirren - Gemmill finished top goalscorer, with only six goals, and his team were relegated, this time from the Second Division.

The book then moves to his first meeting with Brian Clough, the infamous transfer to Derby, all in detail, down to Gemmill’s wife finding Clough standing in nothing but boxers in their kitchen - to his first few month’s with his new team, including scoring his first goal for the side, against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground - endearing himself fully to his new fans by scoring against their bitterest rivals.

The chapters on his career at Derby then take shape, including being in Majorca with the team when they won the league due to Leeds and Liverpool not getting the points they required to pip them to the title - with Gemmill tasting his first ever alcoholic drink in champagne during the celebrations, having being a tea-totaller until that point in his life.

The way Gemmill describes his time at Derby is definitely of one of great affection, he refers to most of his teammates as friends still, and also of the squad unity - especially around the time when the Chairman and board of County were trying to get rid of Clough.

Clough’s leaving and an old teammate, in Dave Mackay, taking over as manager was a shock to the system, and one that Gemmill and his teammates’ rebelled against - but not even two years later, Derby County won the Championship again, and this time Gemmill, as captain, lifted the trophy - as he points out in the book, they won it again not by playing a game, but by watching others not win, and again in a social club.

Things turned sour at Derby, and Mackay left, a new manager came and left not long after - that opened the way for Tommy Doherty to become the new boss at the Baseball Ground.

Tommy Doherty is mentioned throughout the book, and never in a positive light - he blamed Gemmill for default against England while Scotland manager, Gemmill then didn’t play for Scotland for another three years - and then when Doherty took the reigns at Derby his first task was not only to sell Gemmill, to Nottingham Forest, but also to make it look like Gemmill had demanded the transfer.

A chapter then follows on, taking on the subject of the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, and ‘that goal’ - the chapter talks about the conditions in South America, Willie Johnston’s drug test and the disappointment at not going through, with such a good squad and such potential - the goal itself isn’t discussed and Gemmill almost seems too embarrassed to draw upon the subject. Not too embarrassed to use it to sell the book (judging by the cover) but definitely too embarrassed to dwell upon it in this chapter.

The end of Gemmill’s spell at Nottingham Forest is another of his regrets, he wasn’t chosen for the European Cup final in 1979 due to a recent injury, took the situation badly and had bust ups with both Clough and his assistant Peter Taylor - while it ended in a winner’s medal for Gemmill, it ultimately ended with a transfer to Birmingham City and a bad taste in the mouth.

Unprofessionalism seems to be Gemmill’s main gripe with his time at City, with a drink culture in the team, and no real ambition within the club - a promotion to and then a good finish in the First Division that came out of the best part of three seasons at St Andrew’s.

A short-lived, summer season, in the North American Soccer League with the Jacksonville Tea Men came next for Gemmill, and then a short spell at Wigan Athletic - these are covered in the book in passing, rather than in any detail.

A couple of seasons back at Derby are wrapped up with relegation to the Third Division and the end of Gemmill’s playing career.

The next few chapters are a tougher read, as Gemmill goes through his foray into management, and then an exhaustive list of all the players he ‘found’ as a scout - I’m pretty sure he was good at his job, given his talents and the players and managers he spent time with - but these chapters feel very laboured, in direct comparison to the flowing chapters of his playing career.

In his summing up chapter of his career, Gemmill names himself in his all-time team!

The last chapter of the book, is about Brian Clough, having just passed away while Gemmill was finishing the book - it’s a sad read about a great bond the two developed over time, and how the wounds healed since that European Cup final.

Overall, this book was good, although the last five or six chapters seem to labour upon Gemmill’s career in football after he stopped playing - I think the book would have been better served without these to be fair, and more about his playing days, as when he wrote about these, he wrote with passion.

You can tell throughout the book that he is a family man, and is very proud of his wife and two children - another striking thing about the book is the cover itself, it’s very simple, effective and to the point, with excellent imagery - all about ‘that goal’!

On imagery, the photo section(s) of biographies tend to disappoint, with familiar photographs or press shots, however this book has over 60 photographs of all types and a lot of family shots to prove the fact above about being a proud family man.

The book has a slight tendency to jump in some places, as you can almost tell that something has popped into his head and must be explained at that point - although this doesn’t detract from a good book, a good story and one that generally is well written.

Rating: 7/10

Some statistics are easy to know about the Scottish League Cup:

• today is the 64th final
• Rangers have won the most finals (25)
• Celtic have lost the most finals (13)
• Celtic played in 14 finals in a row (between 1964-1978)
• St Mirren have only made the final once before and lost (1956)

Other statistics are harder to find out:

• today is Craig Thomson's first final as referee
• J A Mowat has refereed 7 finals (1 replay) and R H Davidson refereed 6 (1 replay)
• the 67 finals until now have attracted 3,926,414 fans through the gates
• Hampden Park hosts is 61st final today (including 3 replays)
• Celtic Park hosted 3, Dens Park (1 replay) and Ibrox Stadium have hosted 2 apiece

The top three attendances for the League Cup Final will likely never be beaten (all at Hampden Park):

• 107, 609 - Celtic 2-1 Rangers (1965-66)
• 106, 263 - Rangers 1-0 Celtic (1970-71)
• 105, 907 - Rangers 5-0 Greenock Morton (1963-64)

I guess the surprise, given the number of Old Firm finals in the competition (13 times!), is that the Greenock Morton have squeezes in at number three - these were the only three finals to have an attendance over 100,000.

The main hope is that the lowest attendances are never beaten:

• 24, 466 - Dundee United 3-0 Dundee (1980-81 - Dens Park) 
• 27, 299 - Dundee United 0-0 Aberden (1979-80 first game - Hampden Park) 
• 27, 974 - Dundee 1-0 Celtic (1973-74 - Hampden Park) 
• 28, 894 - Dundee United 3-0 Aberdeen (1979-80 replay - Dens Park) 

A Dundee team has been involved in all of the bottom four attendances (the only four games under 30,000), the surprise in this list being the Celtic appearance in 1974 - this was the game that Celtic lost their fourth League Cup final in a row, but the fans were hardly to know that before the game...

This year's final will sit in the bottom half of the top attendances (last year's 51, 193 is at #40) but finishing on a positive note, next year's final will surely push the total attendance for the country's third top competition through the 4 million mark - perhaps the SFL should award a prize for the 4,000,000 person through the gates...

Yesterday's attendance of just over 24,000 for the Scottish Cup Quarter Final between Rangers and Dundee United (currently 1st and 3rd in the SPL) got me thinking about attendances in this stage of the cup.

I researched the last 30 seasons, including this one, back to 1980/81, the figures brought up a few things that surprised me:

• only twice in the last 30 seasons have BOTH Old Firm teams been drawn at home 
• only six times in the last 20 seasons has one Old Firm team NOT been drawn at home 
• this season's attendances for the four games was better than last season's 
• last season's attendance (one Old Firm team drawn at home) was the worst equivalent since 1981/82 

It's no surprise that the mid-80s has the best attendance figures, this was back in the days when the Old Firm weren't guaranteed to win everything and teams thought they had a realistic shot at both the Scottish Cup and League.

Some notable facts:

• the highest aggregate attendance was in 1988/89 (last time both Old Firm teams drawn at home) with 105,325 watching the four games
• this pales into insignificance when you think more people than that used to watch the final alone
• Hearts were drawn at home for four seasons in a row (1983/84 - 1987/88) and attracted over 20,000 each time (Aberdeen, St Mirren, Motherwell and Dunfermline were the visitors - no Old Firm)

My next few posts will be on attendances, this was my warm up exercise, and focussed on the cup while it was fresh in my mind - I believe the graphic highlights a steady incline, with a few notable exceptions (2003/04 for example, Celtic played Rangers in the Quarter Final at Parkhead, hence the high attendance).

Note: the statistics only take into account the first game in any season, therefore excluding replays.