Bertie Auld won five League Cup winners medals. The geekish and pedantic might well challenge that statement and say that he missed the first one of the five in a row between 1965 and 1970, so the answer should be four.
Ah! But I did not say “Scottish”! Yes, he only won four SCOTTISH League Cup medals, but he also won an ENGLISH League Cup medal with Birmingham City in 1963 when they beat local rivals Aston Villa in a two legged final played on 23 May at St Andrews and 27 May at Villa Park.
The Brum had beaten Doncaster Rovers, Barrow, Notts County, Manchester City (6-0!) and Bury on the way to the final in this, the third year of the new trophy. It was the first national trophy ever win by Birmingham City, one of the great under-achievers of the English game.
Gil Merrick, a great goalkeeper for England in his time, was the Manager and the team he chose for the final was Schofield, Lynn and Green; Hennessey, Smith and Beard; Hellawell, Bloomfield, Harris, Leek and Auld.
Bertie was the only Scotsman in the Birmingham side, but there were several in the Villa side, notably Cammie Fraser (not to be confused with a later one who played for Dundee and Rangers) and George Graham (who became Manager of Arsenal, and not to be confused with another George Graham who was Secretary of the SFA and not well liked by Bob Kelly).
Birmingham won the first leg 3-1, with a couple of goals coming from Ken Leek, who, funnily enough with a name like that, was a Welshman! Auld is reported as having played a good game that night, and an even better on in the second leg where he had to do a great deal of defending in a grim goalless draw.
1963 was a grim year for Celtic, but as Pat Crerand won an FA Cup medal, and Bertie Auld a League Cup medal, some ex-Celts did well. Both of these fellows might have won medals for Celtic as well if they had not fallen foul of Mr Kelly.
The English League Cup was not as yet in 1963 well cherished, and even some of the wealthier teams looked down on it in lofty disdain and did not enter a team. This all changed in 1967 (a good year, that!) when the trophy was awarded a Wembley final, and began to approach the status of the FA Cup.
David Potter
