Lochee’s Charlie Walker puts forward that Dundonian John Cord was, at one time, “the most expensive junior player in Scotland”.
Charlie explained: “When Lochee Harp reached the final of the Scottish Cup in 1954, John was one of their top players during that great run.
“He was in the army at the time and was based in England.
“Harp used to fly him up to Scotland on match days.
“Yes, Cordie was that important.”
Harp were beaten 2-1 in the final that year by Aberdeen Sunnybank at Hampden Park in front of 22,600 spectators.
Charlie, however, has a theory why they were beaten in that national final.
He reasoned: “Harp took Clydebank apart in the semi-finals.
“It was then that Jimmy Bannon broke his leg, cruelly depriving the Beechwood Park side of another great player.
“Many Harp fans at the time didn’t agree when the committee brought in McCann as a replacement and played former Rangers player Lawrie Blyth up front.”
Charlie also has input for the recent debate in which Harp and Violet have both been touted as having the greatest Dundee junior side.
“When Harp had their cup runs, teams from the West of Scotland took part,” he said.
“However, when Violet won the trophy in 1929 at Dundee FC’s Dens Park (crowd 9,556), beating Denny Hibs 4-0, West of Scotland sides did not take part in the competition.”
Charlie didn’t elaborate why he thought there was no west teams participating in that particular season.
I don’t have any facts to back this up.
In the semis, Violet beat Coalburn at Dens Park, and Denny put out Burnbank Athletic at Firhill.
Coalburn and Burnbank both played in the Lanarkshire League, which, by my geography, is west of Scotland.
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