GEORGE Burley's international career will turn full circle on Saturday when he leads his Scotland squad back to where it all began for him – Cardiff.
It was 30 years ago that Burley, benefiting from an injury to Aberdeen's Stewart Kennedy, made his Scotland debut, against Wales in a Home Championship match at Ninian Park, the ground that has been replaced by the new Cardiff City Stadium where S
cotland will play on Saturday.
"I know from bitter experience how difficult it can be to play Wales at home," Burley said after he named his 23-man squad on Thursday. "We lost 3-0 in my first game and I thought my Scotland career might have been over then."
Fortunately for Burley, one of four debutants thrown in by Jock Stein that day – the others were Paul Hegarty and Alan Hansen in central defence and John Wark in midfield – he was absolved from blame for what was a bad defeat for a side still recovering from the Argentine misadventure of the previous year. The Cardiff match was the first in a run of five straight games at right back for him.
Hegarty, the other member of the current Scotland management team to make his debut that day, was less fortunate. He and Hansen were heavily criticised after being given the run-around by current Welsh manager John Toshack, then starting out in management as player-boss of Swansea City. Toshack scored all three Welsh goals. For the first, after Hegarty had given the ball away in midfield, Hansen recovered, but tried to dribble past Toshack, who robbed him and shot past Alan Rough.
For the second goal, Toshack reacted quickest to score at the second attempt after Rough had parried his initial shot and again Hegarty and Hansen were castigated. His hat-trick counter was a trademark header from an Alan Curtis cross. Hansen was dropped for the next match, Gordon McQueen coming back to partner Hegarty in defence.
Cardiff has never been an easy place for the Scots to visit. Their last visit there ended in a 4-0 reverse at the Millennium Stadium during Berti Vogts' reign. In all, Scotland have won a mere ten times in 25 visits. They first won in 1903 when Rangers' Finlay Speedie scored the only goal of a game played at the Cardiff Arms Park rugby ground.
The first game at Ninian Park, in 1911, ended 2-2; Rangers' RC (Bob) Hamilton scoring two equalisers. A pattern of Scottish struggle in Cardiff was emerging and it wasn't until a run of five straight wins at Ninian Park in the immediate post-war era that Scotland's Cardiff record improved.
Mind you those wins have included some memorable moments. The 3-0 win in 1958 saw 18-year-old Denis Law score on his debut. Dave Mackay captained Scotland for the first time that afternoon in a match that produced Matt Busby's solitary victory as Scotland boss. In 1948 Hibs' Hugh Howie scored one minute into his only international, Scotland winning 3-1 in a game which also saw Lawrie Reilly's debut.
Ninian Park also, in 1924, featured the rare sight of club-mates, Cardiff City's Jimmy Blair of Scotland and Fred Keenor of Wales, tossing up as rival captains, and wearing, as was the fashion then, identical club stockings.
Twenty-four years ago, in the last match between the countries played at Ninian Park – named after a Scot, Lord Ninian Crichton-Stuart, second son of the third Marquis of Bute – Davie Cooper scored the dramatic penalty which sent Scotland into the World Cup play-off against Australia, although the death of Stein that night overshadowed events on the park.
