On Saturday (16 November), I’ll be at New Bayview in Harbour View, Methil, to see East Fife take on Stranraer.
I’ve been invited by the current board of the club to attend a reunion of the 1970-71 East Fife team which won promotion from the old Second Division to the top tier of Scottish football.
I was just a 17-year-old when I signed straight from boys football with Lochee Boys Club and spent two years as part of the club.
It was a great time to be part of the team as it was riddled with very good players so much so that it was very hard to get a game.
At the time, as a wee sodie-heided laddie, I naturally thought I should be in the team every week.
However, on (42 years of) reflection, I now reckon I was very, very lucky to be involved in the games I did, given the talent at the disposal of manager Pat Quinn, the former Motherwell midfielder and Scotland international.
We came second in the league that year just a few points behind eventual champions Partick Thistle.
That in itself was no mean feat as that particular Jags outfit would go on to beat Celtic the following year in the League Cup Final at Hampden containing players who would go on to be very well known such as Alan Rough, skipper Alex Rae, Ronnie Glavin, Frank Coulston and Jimmy Bone.
Unfortunately, for me, the manager decided a better class of player was required for the top tier and I was summoned to his office to be told . . . “I’m so sorry, big man. We’re gonna need other players in and I have to let you go.”
It’s 42 years since I left the club and have seen only very few of the players since.
I’m certainly looking forward to it and most of my then team-mates are in the photos above.
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