Revered in the town, ‘Crunchie’ was admired by many fans across Scottish football for his wing trickery – but famously never capped. The south stand at The Falkirk Stadium will be re-branded and dedicated to his Bairns career in a friendly match with Kilmarnock on June 24.
He was not the only surprise omission from squad-after-squad as many prominent players’ careers ended without international appearances.
Inexplicable, surprising or just plain unlucky, some, like the famous case of Tosh McKinlay at Hearts, had to move clubs to be noticed. Others were not so fortunate.
Here we look back on 10 of the best uncapped Scottish players – two who DID gain honours as ‘over-age players’ but many more from bygone eras are missing from our short list, as well as the SFA roll call.
Inexplicable, surprising or just plain unlucky, some, like the famous case of Tosh McKinlay at Hearts, had to move clubs to be noticed. Others were not so fortunate.
5. Peter Grant
Through 15 years at Celtic, the midfielder was overlooked each time before moving south to Norwich. It’s hard to imagine a similar scenario nowadays for a midfielder with such a prominent role in the Parkhead ranks. Photo: SNS Group
6. John McGovern
A rarity in Scottish football - a man with more European Cup winners’ medals, than caps. McGovern was even the captain lifting the famous Champions League trophy twice with Nottingham Forest and a winner of the top flight in England with Forest and Derby County yet couldn’t pick up Scotland cap - once suggesting he thought Ally McLeod was unaware of his nationality! Photo: Getty Images
7. Billy Stark
Midfielder Stark was an important player in the halcyon 1980s of Aberdeen in Europebut was never capped, not even after moving to Celtic later in the decade. Tosh McKinlay would later famously pick up international honours immediately after an Old Firm move but it didn’t ever transpire for Stark - though he has represented Scotland at under-21 level as player and manager and most recently in charge of the under-19s. Photo: SNS Group Craig Williamson
8. Craig Brewster
Perhaps spent his peak years out of sight in Greece, contributing to his omission in the days pre-internet but Brewster’s scoring record pre and post his Ionikos spell has claims for a cap though difficult to see who he’d dislodge from Kevin Gallagher, Gordon Durie, Ally McCoist and for a while, his Dundee United predecessor Duncan Ferguson. By the time he’d struck up a blossoming partnership with Stevie Crawford at Dunfermline and then further at Hibs, Aberdeen and Inverness in the twilight of his career. Photo: SNS Group