For those Scots of a certain generation there is a list of names which is indelibly marked on the memory and which can be rattled off automatically. These names belong to 11 men who, on a wet spring afternoon in London, pulled off one of the country's greatest ever sporting results, the Wembley Wizards of 1928.
As the Home Championships of the 1927-28 season got under way, the omens for such a momentous result were not good, as Scotland slumped to a 1-0 reverse to Northern Ireland in Glasgow and could only manage a 2-2 draw with Wales in Wrexham. With only one point on the board, and an away trip to an England team which had won at Hampden the year before left, it looked likely that the Scots would finish bottom of the table.
The announcement of the team to face England gave rise to great consternation among the large crowd which had gathered at the SFA headquarters to hear the 11 names read out.
Not only were many of the mainstays of the national team of that time – Davie Meiklejohn, Jimmy McGrory, Bob McPhail and Willie McStay – left out of the line-up, but eight of the players were Anglos! Of the eight, one, Tom “Tiny” Bradshaw, would be making his debut and marking lethal English striker, Dixie Dean.
The controversy deepened when it was discovered that McGrory had been passed over in favour of Hughie Gallacher – not an uncommon occurrence with two such gifted players – but in the knowledge that Gallacher had not played for two months it seemed a criminal decision.
The Press were no less unimpressed with the line-up. The Daily Record was seen to announce: "It's not a great side." Hardly a ringing endorsement for the team!
The general opinion on both sides of the border was that England would run out comfortable winners against a Scottish team who were considered not only less talented, but also physically no match for the English, with the tallest of the Scottish forward five being Alex Jackson at 5 feet 7 inches!
However, despite all the doom and gloom, the nation rallied behind the team, with 11 special trains leaving from Glasgow on the Friday night, and 10 of the 1900 team attending – paid for by their captain RS McColl, owner of the shop chain.
The excitement of the fixture gripped the entire nation, and the Weekly News contained this florid description of the Scots' takeover of London: "Now it is rather startling to find such douce buddies as Kirk elders and bank tellers flaunting garish tartan tammies and flying Scottish favours in the Strand on a Saturday morning and possibly going gyte in the afternoon if Gallacher scores a goal at Wembley. In the minds of the public there seems to be some association between putting a tammy over one's head and straw in it."
The team were billeted in the Regent Palace hotel, popular with the Scotland fans, and they stayed in the lounge chatting with supporters till 10pm, when the President of the SFA, Robert Campbell, suggested that team captain, Jimmy McMullan take the players upstairs for a pep talk. The talk was short and to the point: "The President wants us to discuss football but you all know what's expected of you tomorrow. All I've got to say is, go to your bed, put your head on your pillow and pray for rain."
It was a prayer that was to be answered, as through the night the Scottish chances improved. Not only did Bishop, the English captain, fall ill, but London awoke to driving rain. The rain meant a heavy pitch, one where the little Scottish frontmen could twist and turn much quicker than the lumbering England defenders.
A crowd of some 80,000 made their way to Wembley, including the King and Queen of Afghanistan, the large Scottish contingent singing "Scotland, Bonnie Scotland – Forever" as the teams emerged from the tunnel. All the apprehension seemed to have been justified straight from kick-off, as Smith of Huddersfield raced past Nelson and was through one on one with Scotland keeper Harkness. Fortunately, the gods were still smiling on Scotland then, as the shot cannoned back off the post and fell at the feet of McMullan.
It could not have fallen more kindly for the Scots, McMullan took his time with the ball, allowing frantic nerves to settle, before passing it to Alex James, who began a series of attacking passes across the pitch. The ball switched to Morton on the left, and he raced to the bye line, stopping only to let Alex Jackson make a far post run. The ball landed perfectly on Jackson's head and Scotland had taken the lead within three minutes!
The floodgates had opened, and the Scots took control of the game, their lively and skilful forward play tormenting the English players, who had no answer to the tricky forwards. Jackson on the right and Morton on the left forced the England defenders wide to combat them, which allowed space in the centre for Dunn, Gallacher and James to create havoc. It was James who doubled the Scottish advantage just before half-time with a rasping left foot strike to send the away fans into rapture.
Dogged England defending kept the Scots at bay in the opening period of the second half, despite James rattling the post with an audacious volley, but the little Scottish forwards were irrepressible, and 20 minutes after the restart, Jackson grabbed his second, from another precise Morton cross.
Gallacher then provided the set up for Alex James to grab a deserved second of the game to make it 4-0, and the Morton-Jackson combination worked again as another cross was forced in the net by the Huddersfield winger to claim his hat-trick and round off the Scottish scoring.
England grabbed a consolation goal in the final minutes from a Kelly free kick, but there was no disguising the fact that the Scots had carried all before them. The legend of the Wembley Wizards was born, although, sadly, that 11 would never play together again. In fact, that rain-swept day in 1928 was to be Tiny Bradshaw's only cap, despite a sterling performance marking the great Dixie Dean out of the game.
Although this was more than likely the greatest performance by a team wearing the dark blue, an unwitting consequence of the Wizards' performance was an unrealistic raising of expectations amongst the Scottish fans. After all, the win at Wembley only ensured third place in the Home Championship table, and the Scots would take a long time to produce another side to dazzle London.
The Cult of Wembley was unstoppable amongst the fans, however, and Wembley Clubs were formed to allow working men to pay for the biennial journey south. 45,000 made the trip in 1932 to watch the Scots lose 3-0. Two years earlier a similar crowd had watched Scotland destroyed 5-2.
Although the defeats may have brought the 1928 victory into sharper focus, we should never forget what a wonderful performance those eleven men gave that day, and perhaps a new generation of Scots children will learn to reel off their names:
Harkness, Nelson, Law, Gibson, Bradshaw, McMullan, Jackson, Dunn, Gallacher, James, Morton.
As the Home Championships of the 1927-28 season got under way, the omens for such a momentous result were not good, as Scotland slumped to a 1-0 reverse to Northern Ireland in Glasgow and could only manage a 2-2 draw with Wales in Wrexham. With only one point on the board, and an away trip to an England team which had won at Hampden the year before left, it looked likely that the Scots would finish bottom of the table.
The announcement of the team to face England gave rise to great consternation among the large crowd which had gathered at the SFA headquarters to hear the 11 names read out.
Not only were many of the mainstays of the national team of that time – Davie Meiklejohn, Jimmy McGrory, Bob McPhail and Willie McStay – left out of the line-up, but eight of the players were Anglos! Of the eight, one, Tom “Tiny” Bradshaw, would be making his debut and marking lethal English striker, Dixie Dean.
The controversy deepened when it was discovered that McGrory had been passed over in favour of Hughie Gallacher – not an uncommon occurrence with two such gifted players – but in the knowledge that Gallacher had not played for two months it seemed a criminal decision.
The Press were no less unimpressed with the line-up. The Daily Record was seen to announce: "It's not a great side." Hardly a ringing endorsement for the team!
The general opinion on both sides of the border was that England would run out comfortable winners against a Scottish team who were considered not only less talented, but also physically no match for the English, with the tallest of the Scottish forward five being Alex Jackson at 5 feet 7 inches!
However, despite all the doom and gloom, the nation rallied behind the team, with 11 special trains leaving from Glasgow on the Friday night, and 10 of the 1900 team attending – paid for by their captain RS McColl, owner of the shop chain.
The excitement of the fixture gripped the entire nation, and the Weekly News contained this florid description of the Scots' takeover of London: "Now it is rather startling to find such douce buddies as Kirk elders and bank tellers flaunting garish tartan tammies and flying Scottish favours in the Strand on a Saturday morning and possibly going gyte in the afternoon if Gallacher scores a goal at Wembley. In the minds of the public there seems to be some association between putting a tammy over one's head and straw in it."
The team were billeted in the Regent Palace hotel, popular with the Scotland fans, and they stayed in the lounge chatting with supporters till 10pm, when the President of the SFA, Robert Campbell, suggested that team captain, Jimmy McMullan take the players upstairs for a pep talk. The talk was short and to the point: "The President wants us to discuss football but you all know what's expected of you tomorrow. All I've got to say is, go to your bed, put your head on your pillow and pray for rain."
It was a prayer that was to be answered, as through the night the Scottish chances improved. Not only did Bishop, the English captain, fall ill, but London awoke to driving rain. The rain meant a heavy pitch, one where the little Scottish frontmen could twist and turn much quicker than the lumbering England defenders.
A crowd of some 80,000 made their way to Wembley, including the King and Queen of Afghanistan, the large Scottish contingent singing "Scotland, Bonnie Scotland – Forever" as the teams emerged from the tunnel. All the apprehension seemed to have been justified straight from kick-off, as Smith of Huddersfield raced past Nelson and was through one on one with Scotland keeper Harkness. Fortunately, the gods were still smiling on Scotland then, as the shot cannoned back off the post and fell at the feet of McMullan.
It could not have fallen more kindly for the Scots, McMullan took his time with the ball, allowing frantic nerves to settle, before passing it to Alex James, who began a series of attacking passes across the pitch. The ball switched to Morton on the left, and he raced to the bye line, stopping only to let Alex Jackson make a far post run. The ball landed perfectly on Jackson's head and Scotland had taken the lead within three minutes!
The floodgates had opened, and the Scots took control of the game, their lively and skilful forward play tormenting the English players, who had no answer to the tricky forwards. Jackson on the right and Morton on the left forced the England defenders wide to combat them, which allowed space in the centre for Dunn, Gallacher and James to create havoc. It was James who doubled the Scottish advantage just before half-time with a rasping left foot strike to send the away fans into rapture.
Dogged England defending kept the Scots at bay in the opening period of the second half, despite James rattling the post with an audacious volley, but the little Scottish forwards were irrepressible, and 20 minutes after the restart, Jackson grabbed his second, from another precise Morton cross.
Gallacher then provided the set up for Alex James to grab a deserved second of the game to make it 4-0, and the Morton-Jackson combination worked again as another cross was forced in the net by the Huddersfield winger to claim his hat-trick and round off the Scottish scoring.
England grabbed a consolation goal in the final minutes from a Kelly free kick, but there was no disguising the fact that the Scots had carried all before them. The legend of the Wembley Wizards was born, although, sadly, that 11 would never play together again. In fact, that rain-swept day in 1928 was to be Tiny Bradshaw's only cap, despite a sterling performance marking the great Dixie Dean out of the game.
Although this was more than likely the greatest performance by a team wearing the dark blue, an unwitting consequence of the Wizards' performance was an unrealistic raising of expectations amongst the Scottish fans. After all, the win at Wembley only ensured third place in the Home Championship table, and the Scots would take a long time to produce another side to dazzle London.
The Cult of Wembley was unstoppable amongst the fans, however, and Wembley Clubs were formed to allow working men to pay for the biennial journey south. 45,000 made the trip in 1932 to watch the Scots lose 3-0. Two years earlier a similar crowd had watched Scotland destroyed 5-2.
Although the defeats may have brought the 1928 victory into sharper focus, we should never forget what a wonderful performance those eleven men gave that day, and perhaps a new generation of Scots children will learn to reel off their names:
Harkness, Nelson, Law, Gibson, Bradshaw, McMullan, Jackson, Dunn, Gallacher, James, Morton.
, or at least ma old da did. He said Morton ran them ragged. I have the book about the game.
