Les Brattesani

Despite the passage of so many years, I vividly remember the excitement felt by my schoolmates and I at the prospect of the football International to be held at Hampden Park in December 1954 between Scotland and Hungary, a team that had brought new dimensions to the game as we knew it.

We schoolboys were most concerned about who was to wear the Scottish No.9 jersey as, at age 10, we all wanted to be goalscorers ourselves. Would it be Lawrie Reilly of Hibs or Willie Bauld of Hearts? Hard to imagine now the luxury of being forced to choose between two such great players.

Come the day, our headmaster took an unprecedented step; realising that few of the pupils (all boys) would have any interest in lessons, he decided to allow the match to be broadcast live via the school tannoy system normally used selectively for school broadcasts on Nature Study, Exploring Scotland or Religion. Despite the outcome, I will always remember that game.