BOBBY SHEARER had a long and very successful career at Ibrox, captaining Rangers to a domestic Treble in the 1963-64 season and winning five league championships, three Scottish Cups and four Scottish League Cups ...

CAPTAIN CUTLASS (Glasgow) - Is it true that Bobby Shearer once injured a sub who was warming up on the touchline with a mis-timed tackle in a European game in the 1960s?

Bobby's Rangers career stretched from 1955 to 1965, but substitutes were not introduced until later.

What we can confirm is that in the first minute of Rangers' European Cup tie against Nice at Ibrox on Wednesday, October 24, 1956, Bobby blatantly barged into Nice's left-winger Victor Nurenberg.

Whether the ball was nearby is unclear. This could be the incident you recall.

Incidentally, Victor Nurenberg was from Luxembourg and, four years later, he scored all three goals for Nice when they beat Real Madrid 3-2 in the first leg of a European Cup tie.

ANDREW McGUIRE (Shawlands) - Around 1972, Celtic lost to one of the Milan teams on penalties in the semi-final of the European Cup. I say that it was Inter who beat the Celts, but my friend says that it was AC Milan. Who is correct?

You are. Both the first leg in the San Siro and the return game at Celtic Park ended goal-less.

So the game was decided by penalty-kicks. Inter came out on top.

Celtic striker Dixie Deans was the unfortunate player to miss, shooting over the bar.

C WHITE (Lanark) - Hibernian and Heart of Midlothian are well-established Edinburgh clubs, but I have been told that a third prominent team existed. Can you tell me anything about this?

The third Edinburgh club was St Bernard's Football Club, who were formed in 1878 in the Stockbridge area of Edinburgh, moving from their ground at Comely Bank in 1880 to the Royal Patent Gymnasium Grounds and later to the Powderhall Stadium.

St Bernard's won the Scottish Cup in 1895, defeating Renton 2-1 in the final at Ibrox Park in front of a 12,000 crowd.

They reached the semi-final of the Scottish Cup in 1938, drawing 1-1 against East Fife in front of a crowd of 34,000 at Tynecastle. The replay the following week attracted a crowd of 35,264. East Fife won 2-1.

The Second World War intervened and, together without income, the club floundered, with their membership being deleted by the SFA Council meeting on April 2, 1947.

J McLEAN (Hamilton) - I have a rather strange request for information. My great-grandfather came from South Queensferry and worked on the construction of the Forth Bridge. A story, which passed down through the various generations of our family, is that he worked beside a Scottish international footballer, but none of my family can remember his name. With the recent publicity regarding the naming of the proposed new crossing, I was reminded of this. Can you help with this puzzler?

Almost certainly the player you have in mind was Robert Gardner. Apart from playing for Scotland, he was an extremely important figure in Scottish football history.

For the world's first international match, which was played in Glasgow on November 30, 1872, Robert (or Bob) helped to organise the match, selected the Scotland team, played in goal and captained the side in a 0-0 draw.

He was one of the original members of Queen's Park Football Club and also a founding member of the Scottish Football Association and was SFA president in 1877 and 1878.

He married Mary Arrol, a cousin of Sir William Arrol, whose company built the Forth Bridge between 1883 and 1890. Robert found employment in the offices of Sir William's Forth Bridge project at South Queensferry.

Sadly, he died there in 1887 at the young age of 39.