The 1944–45 season was the 72nd season of competitive
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
in Scotland and the sixth season of special wartime football during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
.
Overview
Between 1939 and 1946 normal competitive football was suspended in Scotland. Many footballers signed up to fight in the war and as a result many teams were depleted, and fielded guest players instead. The
Scottish Football League
The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4&nbs ...
and
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Southern League and the North-Eastern League. No country-wide cup competition took place, the
Glasgow Cup
The Glasgow Cup is a football tournament open to teams from Glasgow, Scotland. Operated by the Glasgow Football Association, it was competed for annually by senior Glasgow clubs from 1887 until 1989. It is now (since the 2019–20 amended rule ...
,
East of Scotland Shield
The East of Scotland Shield is a Scottish football trophy awarded by the East of Scotland Football Association. The only older cup competition in Scottish football is the Scottish Cup. The tournament is the third-oldest in world football st ...
and
Renfrewshire Cup
The Renfrewshire Cup was an annual association football competition between teams in the historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The final was generally a Renfrewshire derby contested between the two largest team ...
continued, the
Forfarshire Cup
The Forfarshire Cup is a football competition in Scotland competed for by teams in the Forfarshire Football Association from Angus, Dundee and Perth. The name of the competition is often baffling to some, as "Forfarshire" is an archaic and angli ...
North-Eastern
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—eac ...
League Cups were competed for, the Southern League Cup would later form the basis of the League Cup. The Summer Cup was played for by Southern League teams during May and June once league competition had been completed.
International
Due to the war official international football was suspended and so officially the Scotland team was inactive. However unofficial internationals featuring scratch teams representing Scotland continued. Appearances in these matches are not, however, included in a players total international caps.
Scotland faced
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
in a wartime international on 14 October 1944 at
Wembley
Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...
Villa Park
Villa Park is a association football, football stadium in Aston, Birmingham, with a seating capacity of 42,918. It has been the home of Premier League club Aston Villa F.C., Aston Villa since 1897. The ground is less than a mile from both Witt ...
,
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
in front of a crowd of 65,780. England won again, this time 3–2, with Jimmy Delaney and Jock Dodds accounting for Scotland's goals. The Scotland team featured:
Bobby Brown
Robert Barisford Brown Sr. (born February 5, 1969) is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, and dancer. Alongside frequent collaborator Teddy Riley, he is recognized as a pioneer of new jack swing: a fusion of hip-hop and Contemporary R&B, R ...
Matt Busby
Sir Alexander Matthew Busby (26 May 1909 – 20 January 1994) was a Scottish football player and manager, who managed Manchester United between 1945 and 1969 and again for the second half of the 1970–71 season. He was the first manager of an E ...
, Bob Thyne, Archie Macaulay, Jimmy Delaney, Willie Fagan, Jock Dodds, Andy Black,
Billy Liddell
William Beveridge Liddell (10 January 1922 – 3 July 2001) was a Scottish footballer who played his entire professional career with Liverpool. He signed with the club as a teenager in 1938 and retired in 1961, having scored 228 goals in 534 app ...
.
They met for a third time at
Hampden Park
Hampden Park ( ; Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden'') is a association football, football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland, which is the national stadium of football in Scotland and home of the Scotland national football ...
on 14 April where a crowd of 133,000 saw England win 6–1. Leslie Johnston scored for Scotland after, unusually at the time, coming on a substitute. The line up was: Bobby Brown, Jim Harley, Jimmy Stephen,
Matt Busby
Sir Alexander Matthew Busby (26 May 1909 – 20 January 1994) was a Scottish football player and manager, who managed Manchester United between 1945 and 1969 and again for the second half of the 1970–71 season. He was the first manager of an E ...
Association football during World War II
When World War II was declared in 1939, it had a negative effect on association football; competitions were suspended and players signed up to fight, resulting in the deaths of many players.
League football Austria
The Republic of Austria had ...