IT’S a scene repeated through the generations for football fans – supporters young and old meeting up ahead of the journey to follow their teams.
This cheerful bunch was off to Belfast, full of expectation for the British Championship encounter with Northern Ireland at Windsor Park, where Scotland lined up behind captain Jock Shaw.
And these fans look hopeful for a good result on October 4.
However, it endeed in tears, as a crowd of 52,000 saw a double from Samuel Smyth, who played for Liverpool and Stoke City during his career, break the visitors’ hearts.
The match came as
international football was still being re- established following the war years.
A few months before, in May, a Scotland side had travelled to Belgium, where they lost 2-1, but they then went on to beat Luxembourg 6-0 a few days later.
Fans’ lives were still hard as the country recovered from conflict, so any sporting event was important to lift the spirits.
These fans were disappointed in Belfast, but such a hopeful looking crowd would surely not have long to wait before their optimism was rewarded.
Glasgow councillor Frank McAveety brought the flowers as Esther Cairney moved into her new house in Blackhill in 1999.
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here