On This Day in Scottish Football

Scotland concluded their 1988 European Championship qualifying campaign with a goalless draw against Luxembourg, and on this day in 1911, a young Patsy Gallagher made his debut for Celtic.

Andy Roxburgh, in his first competition as Scotland manager since taking over from Alex Ferguson (who had taken temporary charge of the national side following the death of Jock Stein the previous year) had overseen two good victories against the much-fancied Belgians and the ever-tricky Bulgarians, but it was costly defeats at home to Ireland (the eventual group winners) and in the away fixture in Belgium in April '87 that ended any hopes the new manager might have had.

On December 2, 1987, in front of just under 2,000 spectators inside the Stade de la Frontièr in Esch-sur-Alzette, Scotland took to the field for the last time in the qualifiers. The line-up for this meaningless game - which featured a healthy Scotland-based contingent - was as follows:

Leighton, Malpas, Whyte, Aitken, McLeish, Miller, Nevin, McStay, Johnston, Sharp, Wilson

Despite much pressure, Scotland could not find the net; there would be no improvement on the 3-0 victory earlier on in the campaign. The point that Luxembourg picked up from this game would be their only one; they finished bottom of the table, eight points behind the Scots and a full ten points behind the Republic of Ireland.

Also on this day in 1911, Patsy Gallagher made his competitive debut for Celtic in front of 60000 spectators at Parkhead against St Mirren.

Though only 5'6" tall and weighing 10 stone he became one of the greatest ball playing inside-forwards of his era, a considerable achievement considering he played at Celtic at the same time as the club's record goal scorer, Jimmy McGrory. Gallagher, grandfather of Scottish footballer Kevin Gallacher, played for Falkirk following his departure from Celtic.

In his career he scored roughly 150 goals in over 450 Scottish League matches and played 11 times for Ireland (he was born in Donegal) between 1920 and 1927.

Known throughout his playing career as "The Mighty Atom", Gallagher died in 1953. He was 62.