For this London Calling however we won’t spend too much time in the present but instead pay tribute to some of our heroes & exploits of the past. Some of you may have noticed correspondence in recent months highlighting Lawrie Reilly’s international exploits. Our campaign to get proper recognition for Lawrie really started when the Daily Ranger was picking it’s all time best post war Scottish team. Of course all the Usual Suspects were there, including Ally McCoist. Lawrie was mentioned peripherally & incredibly Gordon Smith was not even quoted at all. Jimmy Greaves once memorably said that Kevin Keegan wasn’t fit to lace Georgie Best’s drinks! A similar analogy applies to McCoist & Lawrie. Here are a few facts;

Lawrie played 38 times & scored 22 times for Scotland, the best goals per game ratio of any Scot.

Lawrie was a one club man & retired through injury at the age of 29. ( Nowadays we only sign players over 30!! ) Lawrie was never sent off.

Lawrie scored 7 ( I love that number ) times against England, including 5 goals at Wembley!

It is that final statistic that we chose to highlight. We know Lawrie scored more goals than any other 

Scotsman at Wembley vs England, we strongly suspect he scored more goals against England at Wembley than any other player in the World! That is an incredible statistic & one which we, particularly as a London based club, feel should be recognised. It’s even more relevant this year when Wembley as we know it is being demolished. Any help you can give us to gain this overdue recognition for Lawrie would be appreciated. We do intend to write to the FA but we also feel Hibs as a club have a responsibility to promote our players, past & present. Incidentally, whatever happened to the club historian & the museum? Hopefully we can find room for the latter in the new stand.

This year also sees the 40^th anniversary of our famous victory over Barcelona. If anything Barcelona were then an even greater force than at present. They were Spanish Champions & had just become the first ever club to beat Real Madrid in the European Cup after Real’s unparalleled 5 consecutive victories from inception. Hibs beat Barcelona in a fiercely competitive match within one month of Barcelona’s famous victory over Real. To put it into perspective, look at the following sequence of aggregate results.

Eintracht Frankfurt 12–4 Rangers, European Cup Semi-final 1960

Real Madrid 7-3 Eintracht Frankfurt, European Cup Final 1960

Barcelona 4-3 Real Madrid, European Cup Quarter-final 1961

Hibernian 7-6 Barcelona, Fairs Cup Quarter-final 1961.

Let’s hope Hibs are looking at ways of commemorating this event, a game against Barcelona to open the new stand would be appropriate!

Finally Joe Baker of course played & scored 3 superb goals against Barcelona in those cup games. As detailed elsewhere Joe gained his first 5 England caps, the first as a 19 year old, while playing for Hibs. We very much doubt if ever again will a Scottish League player be capped for England for the first time.

So let’s look forward to a bright future both on & off the pitch but let’s make sure we properly honour our past heroes. The Scottish media with their Old Firm obsession will never give us proper recognition so let’s open our own Hibernian Hall of Fame. Even the name has a magnificent resonance. I’m sure we all have our own particular favourites from the obvious choices to the unsung heroes & this fanzine & our website will be more than happy to hear your thoughts. Hopefully we can work together & make this happen.