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Alistair Reid MacLeod (26 February 1931 – 1 February 2004) was a Scottish professional football player and manager. He is perhaps best known for his time as the Scotland national football team manager, including their appearance at the 1978 FIFA World Cup. MacLeod played as a left winger for Third Lanark (two spells), St Mirren, Blackburn Rovers, Hibernian and Ayr United. He then managed Ayr United (three spells), Aberdeen, Scotland, Motherwell, Airdrieonians and Queen of the South.
In 1953, MacLeod was in the Thirds side that trounced Alloa Athletic in the League Cup opener, 10–0. Sitting 8–0 up, MacLeod's teammates' main objective was to get him on the scoresheet. He had set up five goals but had missed several sitters himself. A left-foot rocket shot, and a simple tap in took Thirds' tally to 10. He joined the Royal Scots for National Service but was still able to turn out for the Thirds.
MacLeod was reluctant to move to St Mirren in 1956, but having secured a guarantee that the reported £8,000 fee would tremendously help Third Lanark's survival, he moved on. He spent only six weeks at St Mirren before moving to English team Blackburn Rovers.
Managed by fellow Scot Dally Duncan, MacLeod was man of the match in the 1960 FA Cup Final, but the game was lost 3–0 to Wolves. While at Blackburn he made strenuous efforts along with the PFA steward Jimmy Hill to help abolish the maximum wage, but when subsequently his promised wage increase was not forthcoming, while other players in the team were raised from £20 to £40 per week, he entered into discussions with Hibernian. When Blackburn realised that they were going to lose him to Hibs they improved their offer with an increase from £20 to £35. MacLeod, having already accepted Hibs' offer, felt he could not go back on his word, so left Blackburn to go back to Scotland.
He played with Hibs until 1963, when he returned to Third Lanark. In 1964 he signed for Ayr United, where he finished his playing career, with no major honours won.
Qualification was particularly sweet for Scotland since, for the second World Cup in succession, Scotland had achieved what their traditional rivals England had not. Defeat against England in the 1977–78 British Home Championship was taken to mean little. Spirits remained sky-high as 25,000 people came to Hampden Park to watch the squad circle the ground in an open-top bus prior to their departure for Argentina. Prestwick Airport was packed with supporters seeing the team off. When a journalist asked him "What do you plan to do after the World Cup?" MacLeod replied: "Retain it." This anecdote, though, is denied in some accounts of the Scottish saga at the 1978 World Cup and has been cited as one of the most popular in British football.
The game with Iran finished a 1–1 draw, after a poor display by the Scots. They then needed to beat the Netherlands, one of the tournament favourites, by three clear goals, to qualify. The next day's The Glasgow Herald ran the result of the Iran game as their main story under the headline "Ally's night of shame". Herald reporter James McKillop described the match as "Ally's Alamo" and said Scotland had "turned disgrace into humiliation". Adding that at full-time the Scotland players "were lucky not to be lynched", he said he had "never seen Scotland supporters more angry". McKillop's report also stated that in response to the result MacLeod offered "excuses, if not reasons", with MacLeod stated that "the team had been under tremendous pressure in Argentina".
For the Netherlands match MacLeod gave Graeme Souness his first game of the World Cup and was rewarded with a much-improved team performance. When Archie Gemmill scored what is widely thought to be one of the greatest World Cup goals ever (it was officially ranked seventh best by FIFA), to make the score 3–1 to Scotland, qualification to the next phase looked possible. Three minutes later, though, the Dutch pulled a goal back; the game ended 3–2 and Scotland were eliminated on goal difference. The Netherlands proceeded to the final, where they lost to Argentina.
Although MacLeod had survived this immediate inquest by the sport's authorities, he resigned after one more game in charge, only 17 matches and about 500 days after his appointment. His old club Ayr United had been given permission by the Scottish Football Association to talk to MacLeod about him returning as Ayr manager. MacLeod accepted the offer although Ayr were in the second tier and the job was thought to pay around £12,000 per year, £3,000 less than he received as Scotland manager. MacLeod admitted that the World Cup failure, and the fallout which followed it, "had taken a lot out of him", but said he was now relaxed and wanted "to prove myself again." His decision to resign and return to club management echoed that of his predecessor in the Scotland job, Willie Ormond. MacLeod's departure left Scotland needing to quickly appoint a manager ahead of their next UEFA Euro 1980 qualifying match against Norway. The Glasgow Herald sports reporter Jim Reynolds dismissed the idea that MacLeod might be asked to stay on in a part-time basis until after this match, saying that "Too many people inside Park Gardens", which was the SFA's headquarters, would "breath a sigh of relief" at MacLeod's departure.
The Scottish Football Association's annual report, issued in May 1979, stated that, "regardless of the depressing aspects of Mr MacLeod's latter days in the Association's employ, it would be quite unfair not to comment that he was largely responsible for kindling an enthusiasm for the Scottish team that far exceeded anything which had gone before. The Association benefited considerably from that enthusiasm and should not forget it".
In his autobiography, The Ally MacLeod Story (1979), he wondered whether he had "generated just too much excitement. Had I raised the level of national optimism just too high?" But he was able to console himself: "Would the Scottish fans have tolerated anything less from me than whole-hearted conviction?" MacLeod also reassured the reader that he, for one, never thought that Scotland were invincible, and claimed to be perfectly at peace with himself. "I am a very good manager who just happened to have a few disastrous days, once upon a time, in Argentina."
He died in 2004, aged 72, after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. MacLeod was posthumously inducted to the Scottish Football Hall of Fame in 2015.
Hibernian
Blackburn Rovers
Aberdeen
Scotland
Motherwell
Airdrieonians
| Scotland | 1977 | 1978 |
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