Archie Gemmill

Early career

Gemmill was born in Paisley, Renfrewshire. His early career at St Mirren was ruined by a succession of injuries, not least a broken ankle in early 1966. He was sent on to replace Jim Clunie on 13 August 1966 in a Scottish League Cup tie at Shawfield to become the first tactical substitute in Scottish football history. Gemmill was sold for £13,000 to Preston North End.

Derby County

He came to the attention of Peter Taylor, Derby County's assistant manager. Taylor then told Derby manager, Brian Clough, about Gemmill who had been considering signing for the reigning champions Everton. Clough saw him as a player who could pass well and had the type of energy that would drive an attack forward. Clough drove to Gemmill's house. When the player refused to sign for Derby (who had never won the league title), Clough told him that he was going to sleep outside in the car. "But my wife invited him in and he stayed the night," Gemmill said. Clough, eventually, got his man for £60,000 over fried eggs the following morning. Gemmill scored only three goals for the Rams that season, but they became Football League champions the following year. He was suspended for the second leg of the 1973 European Cup semi-final due to an accumulation of yellow cards, but he became club captain in place of the injured Roy McFarland when the Rams won their second title in 1975. He made 324 appearances in total for the club and scored 25 goals. He left Derby after playing five…

Gemmill played 43 times and scored eight goals for Scotland, and captained the team on 22 occasions.

The most famous moment of Gemmill's career, when he scored a goal against the Netherlands in a Group D fixture at the 1978 World Cup, has been rated as amongst the greatest goals ever scored in a World Cup match. Scotland needed to win the game by three goals to qualify for the next stage of the tournament, having had very poor results in their first two games. With his team leading 2–1 in the 68th minute, Gemmill scored a goal which was described by The Scotsman as follows: In 68 minutes, however, Scotland went 3–1 up when Archie Gemmill scored one of the great goals of this World Cup so far. The little midfield player homed in on goal, played a magnificent one-two with Dalglish, then sprinted into the box and thumped a glorious goal past Jongbloed to revive all the hopes which had died the death this past fortnight. It was an extraordinary goal and an extraordinary moment. Suddenly Scotland were dreaming of glory again". Three minutes later, Johnny Rep scored a second goal for the Netherlands, which was deflected off Gemmill's outstretched leg and flew past Alan Rough's dive. The game ended 3–2, denying Scotland a spot in the second round. The goal is referenced in the film Trainspotting, in which characters Tommy and Lizzie decide to have sex while watching a homemade porno film, only to see it has been replaced with a football tape called "100 Great Goals" which features…

International appearances

International goals

Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first

Player

Derby County First Division: 1971–72, 1974–75 FA Charity Shield: 1975 Nottingham Forest First Division: 1977–78 Football League Cup: 1978–79 FA Charity Shield 1978 European Cup: 1978–79 Manager

Rotherham United Football League Trophy: 1995–96