Seeing the picture of Menzieshill High U/15 football team from 1976 in BwB on September 23 brought back a lot of great memories to Ian McIlravey.
I didn’t have any names to go with the photo but Ian said: “I was part of that team and can list the full line-up.
“Back row (from left) is Graeme Rodger, Gilbert McFadyen, Eddie Garty, Steve McIntosh, Ian McIlravey, Gordon Dunn, Greg Thomson, Ian Cuthbert.
“In the front row is John Stewart, Neil Swayne, Mark Bennett, Colin Craig, Davie Anderson, Neil Stewart.
“I think we went unbeaten the whole season in that 1975-76 league campaign.
“We beat Harris 2-1 in the Dundee United Cup Final at Tannadice and had a great run in the Scottish Cup.
“What was remarkable was that five of that team were eligible to play at U/15 level again the following season 1976-77 myself, Steve McIntosh, Gordon Dunn, Ian Cuthbert and John Stewart.
“I was lucky enough to captain that team and we repeated the achievement of the previous year by winning the league and Dundee United Cup again, this time beating Kirkton High 4-1 in the final. We also had another great Scottish Cup run. “I have attached a photograph of the 1976-77 team with these trophies.
“Back row (from left) Graeme Rodger, Iain Chalmers, Ged Makarowicz, Ian Cuthbert, Gordon Dunn, Kevin Sands, Lindsay Mitchell, Scott Baillie, Unknown. Front row Unknown, Davie Gray, Steve McIntosh, Ian Don, Ian McIlravey, John Stewart, Allan McIntosh.
“For some reason, our centre-half Kenny Smith, is not in the photograph.
“It would be good if readers could name the two Unknowns.”
Ian continued: “That same season, four or five of the Menzieshill team were selected to represent Dundee U/15 Schoolboys.
“We reached the Scottish Cup Final and played North Lanarkshire in a two-legged final.
“We played the first leg at Albion Rovers’ ground Cliftonhill and it was as bad then as it is now!
“We lost by a couple of goals.
“Our cause wasn’t helped by losing our goalkeeper Gordon Dunn to illness while travelling through to the game.
“I think it was Norrie Riddell who volunteered to go in goal instead.
“The second leg took place at North End Park the following midweek.
“If I remember correctly, that game ended in a draw or a narrow win for us.
“However, although we had lots of pressure, we couldn’t overturn the deficit and ended up as runners-up.”
Scott Warwick recognised a work colleague, Gordon Dunn, in the photo.
Gordon was also able to put names to most of the faces in the line-up and also reinforced Ian’s statement that several players played again the following season with great success.
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