Secondly we see a Scorcher and Score from 1971. Scorcher ran from 1970 until 1974 before it was incorporated by Tiger. The Scorcher covers always had excellent art work such as this and there are other covers featuring Stein, McNeill and Johnstone to see in the weeks ahead. Scorcher was comic strip based and it’s two top stories were Nipper and Bobby of the Blues. The Bobby in question played for Everpool (Everpool - gettit ?).

Third up is Goal from 1972. Goal was a serious football mag with a lot of great reading content and decent coverage of the Scottish game. This cover shows Bobby Murdoch and Colin Todd who were representing Celtic and Derby respectively in the European Cup that season. Derby beat Benfica but sadly Celts lost out to Ujpest Dosza. Look closely at the photo of Bobby and you’ll see he is wearing the number 9 shorts, a very rare occurrence indeed. Goal was swallowed up by Shoot in 1974.

How many of you will recall Celtic’s effort at producing a monthly magazine in 1975 ? Not many I would think. This production only lasted for four issues and was a fold out type of mag. When totally spread out it had pictures of Celtic players measuring 3 feet by 2 feet and I’d love to show them but I can’t even begin to scan them. Buy a couple of those and you wouldn’t have to wallpaper the walls. This one shows Dixie Deans scoring against Hearts.

Next we see the old favourite, Shoot, from 1977. This is the cup final issue from 1977 where Celtic happily beat Rangers 1-0. The cover shows big Shuggie Edvaldsson battering Rangers goalie Stewart Kennedy. This picture was taken at Ibrox and the Centenary stand can be seen in the background which in those days was better known as the ‘Cemetery stand’ given the lack of atmosphere in it. The Batman and Robin for anyone curious is Toshack and Keegan of Liverpool.

The Scoop comic from 1979 shows Danny McGrain on the front cover. Scoop was a mainly football publication whose top story was ‘Jon Stark, match winner for hire’. Stark charged £1000 per game as he travelled the world playing on a one off basis for a series of clubs. No transfer windows in those days, wonder how Scoop would have got round that. Scoop also had an original concept in the late 1970’s where a computer was fed data on regions of the UK. This resulted in areas of the country being split for geographical purposes into teams such as Glasgow Wanderers, Pool City, North London and Manchester Town. My recollection is that Glasgow Wanderers usually won this imaginary league.

George McCluskey can be seen on the front of Football Weekly News. If you can remember that one you’re a better man than me.

Last up is Match Weekly from 1986 which is still in publication today. This issue focuses on the League cup final from 1986 between Celtic and Rangers. Brian McClair can be seen alongside the late Davie Cooper. Both men scored in the final but unfortunately the Bhoys lost out by 2-1 hindered by the refereeing of the infamous David Syme. Not that I’m biased in any way.

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